Figure 2.2. Visual multi-stability: The hermeneutical strategy. (Ihde 1977:96)
Reproduced by permission from Experimental Phenomenology by Don Ihde,
the State University of New York Press ©1986, State University of New York. All rights reserved.
Ihde suggests a third possibility, to suppose that the figure is not a cube, but a two-dimensional
drawing of an insect with six legs. In the left part of Figure 2.2, the shaded part in the middle can be
seen as the insect’s body. Again, it takes an effort to modify one’s perception, but it helps to insist
that one sees an insect. This is the point. A title, an indication or a story will tend to alter the interpre-
tation of one’s perception. Stories and names are used to create a noetic context (p. 88). The follow-
ing section will illuminate both kinds of phenomenological variation, the modification of focus, and the
modification of context.
2.4.2. Listening strategies.
In order to explore the practicability of experimental phenomenology in music listening, the author
has conducted a series of experimental listening sessions according to Ihde’s strategies.
It is relevant to apply both the focusing strategy and the hermeneutical strategy to music listening.
Ihde conducts his experiments with multi-stable visual figures. In a similar, but more fundamental
way, music is multi-stable. It can display multiple appearances depending on the listener’s focus and
interpretation. It is not difficult to modify the perception of music by a change of focus, title or context.
In other words, the musical experience is multivariable.
Some researchers express the same view. Ian Cross states that music has a sort of “floating inten-
tionality”, which implies that music can gather meaning from different contexts (2005:30). Similarly,
Aksnes and Ruud “believe that music is so indeterminate (...) that it can be interpreted in myriad
manners” (2008:55, italics in original). Experimental listening can contribute to clarifying the variabili-
ty of musical experience and musical meaning.^38
38 Scherer & Zentner, in a seminal article, propose that an emotion experienced by a listener while listening to music is
determined by the interaction of four factors: the musical structure, the musical performance, the listener, and the listening
context (2001:365).