Feeling and reflection
Clifton considers feeling to be a necessary constituent of the musical experience. It is his view that
feeling is located in the expressiveness of the music itself, it is not a projection or a psychological
by-product of the listener. Consequently, he argues for maintaining a critical attitude which focuses
exclusively on the expressiveness of the music, and opposes the relevance and value of ”unreflec-
tive feeling” evoked by spontaneus response to the music (p. 74-75). Clifton specifies very few ex-
amples of feeling in music, the energetic motion in a Gavotte by Bach, the grace in a Mozart minuet,
and the agony in Coltrane’s jazz (pp. 12-14, 19). Nevertheless, he presents advice for including feel-
ing in phenomenological variations. With reference to Dufrenne (1973:425), he suggests the alterna-
tion between feeling and reflection:
“The dialectic between feeling and understanding is seen, then, as a process of checks
and balances, feeling appealing to and illuminating the path of reflection, while reflection
enhances, sustains, and ratifies feeling” (p. 77).Clifton declares that it is not his primary purpose to describe particular feelings. Instead, he focuses
on illuminating ”the feeling of possession”, which he considers to be the feeling underlying more
recognizable feelings (p. 272). He regards a musical work as an entity which addresses the listener,
and can deposit its meaning in the person who listens attentively (p. 295). Meaning and value in
music appear in the act of conscious listening, which is a “movement of mutual possession” (p.
68, 273). The significance of a piece of music is not a definitive outcome, as the experience never
exhausts the musical object completely (p. 5).
Upon hearing particular sounds, the listener faces the choice between rejection and consent. He
may judge the sounds to be an intruding disturbance, and refuse to accept the repellant sounds as
music (pp. 278-285). Or he may find certain sounds interesting or attractive, and constitute them as
meaningful music by exhibiting care towards the sounds. With reference to Heidegger’s ideas of care
and concern (Heidegger 1962: 83, 227), Clifton states that adequate music listening requires care,
consent, and will (p. 277). The listener chooses to believe that the sounds are music and, by an act
of will, he assumes his commitment to the music.
Hermeneutical interpretations
Clifton’s musical analyses aim primarily at the phenomenological description of space, time and mo-
tion in music, and the reflections on the nature of musical experience. However, he includes herme-
neutical interpretations in some of his analyses.
Commenting on the descriptions of musical surfaces, Clifton notes that he has found his
examples in 20th Century music. He observes that in surface textures, the musical elements lose
their individuality. Intervals, melody, harmony, consonance and dissonance become absorbed in an
overall background, ”so that what one hears in a great deal of contemporary music is background
brought up close” (p. 168). Here, the general presentation of texture, color and movement is more
important than distinction of individual gestalts. It is Clifton’s view that this kind of musical structure
reveals a meaning similar to urban society, where persons are anonymous and can be replaced by
other individuals (p. 169, 209).
Clifton provides an intriguing interpretation of the ”Crucifixus” section of Beethoven’s Missa Solem-
nis.^20 He considers the experience of penetration essential in this music. In the listener’s temporal
experience, the retention of a tranquil mood is suddenly penetrated by the presence of violent death.
In spatial experience, the music projects forceful dissonant harmonies toward the listener. The vio-
lence of the crucifixion scene is revived in the stabbing, hard-edged sonorities which penetrate the
listeners’ bodies (pp. 190-194). This is a particularly strong instance of embodied meaning.
20 ”Crucifixus” is part of the Credo movement in Missa Solemnis. The text is the Niceene Creed.