Summary
The present thesis includes parts of a previous publication, The Musical Timespace (1996), in ac-
cordance with the ”senior’s model” for PhD theses in Music Therapy Research at Aalborg University.
The Musical Timespace presented an investigation of the listening dimensions in music.
Soon after publication of the book, Lars Ole Bonde suggested that the listening dimensions might be
useful for describing clinical improvisations in music therapy.
However, reviews of the book have pointed out certain limitations in its theoretical underpin-
ning, in particular a lack of discussion related to cognitive science and music phenomenology. In
order to remedy these limitations, the present thesis presents investigations of neuroscience and
music phenomenology in relation to music therapy and the listening dimensions in music.
Chapter 2, Music Phenomenology: A Tool for Describing the Listening Experience presents
the methods of the three main authors in music phenomenology, Don Ihde, Thomas Clifton and Law-
rence Ferrara, and the application of their methods in music therapy research. Their approaches are
different. Clifton is the enthusiastic investigator. He proposes pioneering ideas concerning the con-
stitution and definition of music, but does not adhere to a strict phenomenological method. Ferrara is
the pragmatic researcher. He proposes a seminal procedure for phenomenological description, but
he later downgrades phenomenology in favor of score-based analysis. Ihde is the reflecting philoso-
pher. He devises methodical procedures for the phenomenological investigation of sound, music and
voices, but does not describe any piece of music.
Furthermore, this chapter documents and discusses the background of music phenomenolo-
gy in the philosophy of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Prominent
themes are Husserl’s philosophy of time-consciousness, Heidegger’s investigations of interpretation
and the human life-world, and Merleau-Ponty’s view that the body’s relationship to the world is the
basis for consciousness. From the philosophies of Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, seven
criteria for phenomenological investigation are distilled, aiming at the investigation of phenomena as
they appear to consciousness, the way they appear to consciousness, and the conditions for appear-
ance in consciousness.
Ferrara’s systematic method for phenomenological description is applied by music therapy research-
ers. In their studies, they develop new versions of Ferrara’s method, investigating client background,
musical sound, musical structure, musical meaning, and pragmatic interpretation of music therapy
sessions.
Forinash and Gonzalez (1989) conduct a pioneering study that demonstrates the application of
a phenomenological approach in qualitative research. Kasayka (1991) investigates the relationships
between music and the client’s imagery in the Guided Imagery and Music Therapy method founded
by Helen Bonny (BMGIM). In her study of pivotal moments in BMGIM, Grocke (1999) documents
Helen Bonny’s phenomenological approach to music listening, and develops a system for identifying
and comparing Imagery Meaning Units and Music Meaning Units. Trondalen (2004) reconsiders pre-
vious procedures for phenomenological description of music therapy improvisations, and designs a
procedure which emphasizes the elimination of the researcher’s own biases. Bonde (2004) develops
a method for designing intensity profiles of music, which permit the identification of emotional peaks
and the estimation of the music’s therapeutic potential in receptive music therapy.
Clifton’s exploration of temporal and spatial structures in music has been the background for the pres-
ent author’s development of a procedure for intensive listening as a tool for opening, expanding and
deepening the musical experience. A further development of this procedure is the proposal of a novel
method of experimental listening, based on Ihde’s investigation of experimental phenomenology.