Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

3 – Space, Time, Flow and Memory

43

Retention of musical form is the effect of a variable and rather unpre-

dictable interaction between working memory, sensory input and process-

ing, and long-term memory. Music psychologist Stephen McAdams

explains that

The capacity of memory structures in music listening is of para-

mount importance since musical structures are extended in time. The

perception of movement, of transformation and of musical signifi-

cance depend on the perceived element being heard in relation to

remembered elements. We might say that perception really only becomes

musical when it is "in relation to" events, sequences, progressions and struc-

turing in memory. The form of a piece of music is what gets accumu-

lated in memory, and thus the richness of that form depends very

heavily on one's capacities and experience as a listener. (McAdams,

1987)

Memory depicts the temporal flow of sound

In working memory, the macrotemporal listening dimensions pulse and

movement are created by perceptual processing. During this process,

impressions are retained, which may subsequently be wiped out or stored

in long-term memory. Pulse leaves the impression of tempo, movement an

impression of shape.

The impression of tempo is created by the awareness of regular repe-

tition. If the sensations of regularly repeated impulses are continuously fed

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