The synaesthetic act
Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology is the stepping stone for Clifton’s considerations of the sensory in-
tegration of auditory, visual and tactile qualities. Merleau-Ponty states that,
”Synaesthetic perception is the rule, and we are unaware of it only because scientific
knowledge shifts the centre of gravity of experience, so that we have unlearned how to
see, hear, and generally speaking, feel” (2002:266).In Merleau-Ponty, Clifton finds support for his description of the auditory experience in terms of visu-
al images and tactile qualities. It is Clifton’s view that these kinds of description, such as the experi-
ence of the rising line which initiates Webern’s Bagatelle, are not merely verbal descriptions, but irre-
ducible body-based experiences (pp. 86-87). He understands the experience of musical movement
as a bodily behavior. ”In the presence of a composition, we move; if it ”changes tempo”, it is because
we do so”, says Clifton (p. 88). His idea of inner motion in the body may have seemed controversial
in 1976, but it is in accordance with current research on the bodily response to music, such as en-
trainment and emotional impact.
Clifton describes the movements in Webern’s Bagatelle as lines and surfaces, sometimes moving
in a two-dimensional space, sometimes standing out in a three-dimensional space (p. 85). His de-
scriptions are comprehensible, but cannot be considered definitive. Applying a method of perceptual
variation can yield different descriptions of spatial relations in Webern’s piece. To his descriptions of
time, space and feeling, motion and musical form, Clifton adds the experience of tactile qualities in
the music, such as soft, hard, rough or gritty sounds (p. 87).
The play act
According to Clifton, play is a constitutive element in music, alongside feeling, time, and synaesthe-
sia. Clifton discusses two aspects of play that he considers essential in music; ritualistic behavior
and heuristic behavior.
Common for rituals and music is the directed activity that constitutes meaning. Important for
both is “the experience of being absorbed in an activity whose continuation is desired.” (p. 89). Par-
ticipation is an act of will, which implies cognition, feeling, and continuity, and aims at an experience
of achievement or accomplishment. Clifton’s inclusion of ritual as a constitutive aspect of music un-
derscores his view of music listening as a deliberate and totally engaging activity.
Moreover, the involvement in ritualistic behavior is obvious in music performance and musical
improvisation. Clifton’s characterization of music constitution quoted above, “actions of the body di-
rected toward a concern, a project, a relation, a form, or a problem” is appropriate as a description of
improvised interplay.
It is Clifton’s reason for including heuristics as an essential aspect of music that the listener
can never be sure how the music will continue from moment to moment. This incites heuristic be-
havior, which consists in utilizing one’s personal experience to find or discover goals and solutions.^13
With reference to Husserl’s idea that a vague or “empty” anticipation precedes the goal of an action
(Husserl 1969:167), Clifton states that “it remains true that the next event is simply unknown – but
not unknowable.” (p. 91). This is equally true of the events in a musical improvisation.
Clifton sums up his considerations and investigations by concluding that the process of constitution
never ends, because the web of relationships formed by the perceiving ”I” is infinite. The search for
truth is an ongoing revelation of possibilities (pp. 96-97).
13 Kenneth E. Bruscia describes characteristic features of the heuristic research method proposed by Moustakas
(1990:15-27). Heuristic research includes ”searching for what one already knows tacitly, using one’s intuition, indwelling in
the experience with unwavering attention” (Bruscia 2005:382).