everyday awareness of the sounds of things. The sounds of things capture our attention, and we can
discriminate and identify different sound sources with great accuracy. By knocking or striking objects,
we can distinguish metal, glass, wood, ceramics, plastic, hollow barrels, massive logs, thin or thick
walls. Striking an object reveals its material and size, solidity or hollowness. And listening can reveal
shapes, surfaces and interiors. A pair of dice rattled in a box sound different from a pair of marbles.
High heels on hard tiles or the creaking of of a door reveal the meeting of two surfaces. Clapping,
shouting and talking evoke impressions of the size, walls and interior of a room. (pp. 7, 60-61, 67-73).
First and second phenomenology
Ihde distingushes between a first phenomenology based on Husserl and a second phenomenology
related to Heidegger. ”The phenomenology of essence, structure, and presence in Husserl leads to
the phenomenology of existence, history, and the hermeneutical in Heidegger” (p. 20).
First phenomenology is a philosophy of presence. It aims at grasping ”the things themselves”, un-
covering and describing the structures and essential possibilities which appear in the experience of
perception (pp. 19, 25-26). For this aim, we have to get rid of our presuppositions by suspending our
everyday beliefs of the nature of the object in question, according to Husserl’s claim for ”epoché” (p.
28). When the object is music, this calls for directed attention on unnoticed shapes and structures
of musical sound by repeated listening, alongside with observation and description of the act of ex-
perience, the way the listener perceives the music. Feelings and mood are not excluded from the
description. The crucial interest of first phenomenology is the relationship between the object which
is experienced and the consciousness that apprehends the object. This relationship is a process, not
a fixed connection (pp. 35-40).
Ihde points out that second phenomenology continues where first phenomenology leaves off. Sec-
ond phenomenology is a hermeneutical phenomenology, which adds the perspective that experience
cannot be considered in isolation. Experience must be understood and interpreted in relation to its
historical and cultural context. In Being and Time, Heidegger states that “the meaning of phenome-
nological description as a method lies in interpretation” (1962:61, italics in the original).
Horizon
Another important prerequisite for Ihde’s inquiry into the existential possibilities of auditory experi-
ence is Heidegger’s consideration of the horizon, the border between the presence and absence of
perception (Heidegger 1966:72-73). Awareness of the horizon is crucial for Ihde’s investigation of the
perceptual fields.
The visual field and the auditory field are ”openings” to the world. Both fields display the structure of
core, periphery and horizon. If you focus on a thing with your eyes, you are aware of a more indis-
tinct field of other things around the focus, and if you direct your attention towards the fringe of your
visual field, you discover its horizon, the blurred, roundish limit of visual perception. If you move your
head, the horizon moves as well. You cannot perceive anything beyond the horizon, but you can re-
member or imagine what is there (p. 37-39).
The auditory field does not display the limits of the visual field, it is omnidirectional. The auditory field
surrounds your body, you can hear sound sources which you cannot see, in front or behind, above or
below your body. But, like vision, hearing focuses on a core sound which is embedded in a more pe-
ripheral field of other sounds. And the horizon of the auditory field is the limit where you hear nothing
more. Silence appears at the horizon of sound (pp. 107-111, 165).
In everyday life, the experience of absolute silence is impossible or very rare, but we can ex-
perience silence at the horizon of sound, when a sound gradually fades out or suddenly disappears.
And, as Ihde pointed out in his article on ”Listening”, in the concert hall we become aware that the