Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

Appendix

 2.03

 Experimental

 listening
 Bartok

3

10th listening: Open listening – lying down open

This was a different experience. I had a feeling of floating, being carried by the music
B2 is ”unfinished”, one tone is missing
New task: Describe the refined variation in orchestration

11th listening: Task: Describe the qualities of the clear tones foc

A1: Wonderful wind instrument. The tone appears out of nothingness and disappears in
nothingness. Also rich tones, touchable
B1: Saturated flute sound. Animated vibrato on long tones
A2: Luminous presence of an oboe. Every tone has a distinct dynamic shape

New tasks and questions: Describe the attack and the trailing-off of tones.
Silences in foreground and background?

B2: Lively piccolo flute, almost without vibrato. Shrill in heigh register.
A3: Unison expanded in several octaves. Sensuous flute vibrato in deep and middle register

12th listening: Question: How do tones and phrases end? foc

A1 solo: Phrase 1 and 2 end with a subdued breathing, Phrase 3 no breathing, Phrase 4 no
ending – the tone continues
New question: Does the tone continue in the same or in another instrument?

B1 The tone continues, like in A1
A2: It seems that he does not breathe between phrases.. Short pause after the last phrase
B2: Long pause after the last phrase
A3: The end of melody phrases cannot be discerned because of the continuous accompaniment
The very last phrase: The sound disappears imperceptibly

13th and 14 listening: Open listenings – lying down open
The music appears to be slower. The end: Large, calm waves
New task: Describe the total space of sound

15th listening: All five Hungarian sketches, Open listening open

The first piece is far better than the following four pieces. It is well-balanced, and the
instrumentation is exquisite.

Appendix 2.02 Experimental listening Bartok Appendix

 2.03

 Experimental

 listening
 Bartok

4

Experimental listening 17 Aug 2011. LCB and EC

Bartok: Orchestral piece ”An Evening in the Village” / ”Ein Abend auf dem Lande”

/ ”An Evening with the Szekely” , Hungarian Sketches Sz 97 no. 1.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra cond. Pierre Boulez. CD: DG 445 825-2

EC: Short introduction to Don Ihde’s Listening and Voice (1976) and Experimental Phenomenology

(1977), Ihde’s listening strategies, and his model of fields of investigation:

The musical object - The way of listening - The listener - The intersubjective interchange

”noema” ”noesis” ”I” ”You”

The survey of listenings reports observations and comments by LCB, if not otherwise indicated.

1st and 2nd listening: Open listening open

Information: ”This is an orchestral piece by Bartok”

The first tone enters me directly, a very fine tone, it is like a spearhead, a unicorn’s horn, it does

not snarl. The intro hit something in me. ”I miss playing”.

The following section is happy music, halfway Chinese. Begins in major, ends in minor.

The first melody returns, main characters oboe and flute. The impression is not as strong this time.

The funny Chinese music comes again.

At the end a final chord which is not a final chord. It is fun to listen, and peculiar that Bartok is so

tonal.

3rd-4th-5th listenings are hermeneutical strategies. A title evokes a context (Ihde 1977:88)

Three listenings according to three different titles indicated in the score.

3rd listening: Hermeneutic listening herm

Information: The title is ”An Evening in the Countryside”

Associations to Carl Nielsen, the Danish countryside of Funen. Fields, gravel road, dusk, ground

mist. Standstill. Then birds fly off, parting.

The melody returns in oboe. Memories of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, the duck, water, Hans

Christian Andersen, a village pond. Carl Nielsen’s My Childhood in Funen.

A happy section, associations to the Disney cartoon Mulan. Action, apple blossoms.

Final section, ”grand music”. I stick to the Orient, China, Japan. Nothing happens.