Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

2.4.3.1. First investigation. Bartok: An Evening in the Village (2’47)

For full descriptions of all listenings, see appendix 2.02.

1. Preparation
   EC’s 15 listenings of Bartok’s piece engendered the following fields of investigation:

Music-focused
Spatial focus

Wide and broad focus: Foreground and background. Solo and accompaniment.

Transparence and density. Layers and surfaces of sound. Voices in polyphony.

The total space of sound.

Spatial-temporal focus

Wide and broad focus: Movement and sustained sound. Nature and categories of movement.

Character of melody. Differences and similarities. Division into sections. Musical form.

Narrow focus: Qualities of single sounds. Timbres. Instruments. Dynamic evolution of a tone.

Clarity, vibrato, pizzicato.

Qualities of composite sounds: Fusion and segregation of components. Harmony and other

kinds of simultaneity. Compound qualities of orchestration. Expansion of unison in several

octaves.

Temporal focus

Wide and broad focus: Continuity, interruptions, pauses.

Beginning and ending of a phrase, layer or section. Ensuing silence.

Pulse, meter and rhythm. Tempo contrasts.

Narrow focus: Attack – sustain – release. Small tempo variations, rubato.

Beginning and ending of a single sound, appearing from and disappearing in silence.

Hermeneutical

Emotional qualities: The listener’s feelings (felt emotions) and the emotions experienced to be

inherent in the music (expressed emotions). Moods inherent in the music.

Sensory integration and embodiment: Light, shadow and darkness. Color associations.

Tactile qualities.

Context-related descriptions: Statements and responses. Song and dance. Similarity with

birdsong.