and ending, interruption, rest and tension (pp. 20-21, 32-35). Clifton adheres to the view that such
phenomenal meanings of music have their basis in primordial corporeal knowledge which precedes
possible metaphorical descriptions (pp. 45-48, 70).
According to Clifton, the adequate attitude towards music implies total attention. The true
music listener is ”one whose very being is absorbed in the significance of the sounds being expe-
rienced” (p. 2). Clifton designates this attitude ”musical behavior”, and emphasizes that musical
behavior comprises perceiving, interpreting, judging, and feeling. Musical experience is inextricably
attached to value and meaning (p. 9). As basic constituents of music, Clifton points out space, time,
motion, and feeling (pp. 14, 22).
Space in motion
It is Clifton’s basic assumption that musical space and musical movement are inseparable, and that
the musical space is different from the physical space of acoustical events (p. 69, 138, 153). When
the listener feels real concern for the music, the distinction between the listener and the music dis-
appears, ”such that the spaces formed by music are actually inhabited by my being there^17 , in the
space-time world of that piece” (p. 138).^18 This kind of experience may be shared by a large number
of music listeners, but not by all music listeners. Merleau-Ponty confirms that music evokes a partic-
ular kind of space:
”When in the concert hall, I open my eyes, visible space seems to me cramped com-
pared to that other space through which, a moment ago, the music was being unfolded”
(2002:257-258).Clifton makes an effort to describe how music appears in this ”other space”. He regards the body
as a system which integrates auditory, visual, and tactile functions, and states that space is presup-
posed in every perceptual act (p. 137). He dissociates himself from Victor Zuckerkandl, who con-
tends that “the space we hear is a space without places” (1956:276). On the contrary, according to
Clifton’s notion of the musical space, “we do experience the phenomenal positions of high and low,
far and near, behind and in front of, and enclosing-enclosed” (p. 142). In his descriptions, Clifton vi-
sualizes the musical space.
Clifton describes the musical space as a three-dimensional space which encompasses lines, sur-
faces, textures, sound masses, and depth. He selects examples from a wide range of music history:
Gregorian chant, parallel organum, Bach and Beethoven; Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner and
Mahler; Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Riley and Ligeti.
Gregorian chant affords Clifton rich material for describing the motion of musical lines as ascending
and descending, bending, undulating, turning and twisting. And, according to Clifton’s description,
these lines are not one-dimensional. Gregorian chant carries words as well as tones, and tones and
syllables display patterns of accents. According to changes in vowel sound, the width of the line
appears to vary in thickness. Another spatial aspect of the vocal sound is that bright vowels tend to
come forward, dark vowels tend to recede, producing a sensation of distance. Furthermore, vowels
and consonants integrate timbres with pitches. Clifton sums up that a line of Gregorian chant embod-
17 In The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue, Bruce Ellis Benson expresses a similar view, stating that ”the work of art
provides a space in which to dwell. And that space is not merely for the artist but for others. (...) Performers, listeners, and
even composers in effect dwell within the world it creates” (2003:31-32).
18 In Feeling and Form, the philosopher Susanne K. Langer provides a related description: ”The elements of music are
moving forms of sound; but in their motion nothing is removed. The realm in which tonal entities move is a realm of pure
duration. (...) The semblance of this vital, experiential time is the primary illusion of music. All music creates an order of
virtual time, in which its sonorous forms move in relation to each other – always and only to each other, for nothing else
exists there” (1953:109).