Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

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Thou lovely art, in many a dreary hour

When life in all its dreaded toils surrounds me,

Hast thou my heart enkindled to new love,

And set me forth into a fairer world!

Whether the virtual world of music is really a better or fairer world,

remains an open and personal question. Music that evokes intense joy in

one person appears to be worthless, annoying or rage-provoking to

another person. Both kinds of reactions confirm the strong mental impact

of music.

Music listening activates and engages the sensitive, fast-working and

complex auditory perceptual processes essential for spatial orientation as

a means of biological survival, so the sound of music hits a powerful

natural potential of sensory experience.

The Musical Timespace

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The musical space is a continuous flow

The virtual space evoked by music is not a static edifice, characterized by

unchanging relations between elements, gestalts, states, events and trans-

formations. The musical space is evoked as a continuous flow in the

listening mind. The Danish composer Jan Maegaard gives this description;

Music is only there while being played. No matter where you listen,

you must hold on to what is played right now, understand it in the

light of the preceding musical events and process it in preparation of

the following events. You are obliged to experience the music in its

own tempo, without the possibility of lingering or hurrying. It conti-

nues relentlessly to the end, insisting on your following it in its

course. (Maegaard, 1966)

The nature of music is continuous disappearance. Nevertheless, there is

always something to hold on to, as the listener's working memory is

constantly active, retaining auditory images of musical events for a short

while. The retention in memory permits the experience of coherent

musical entities, comparison with other events in the musical flow,

conscious or subconscious comparison with previous musical experience

stored in long-term memory, and the continuous formation of expectations

of coming musical events.

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