Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other”
Musical experience can confront us with emotions that are not currently ours. We might remain unaffected by them, or be affected: retreat from them in avoidance, or embrace them and experience them as ours. This suggests that they are another's. Whose are they? Do we arrive at them through empa...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Ohio State University Libraries
2015-09-01
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| Series: | Empirical Musicology Review |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v10i1-2.4611 |
| _version_ | 1818950230076293120 |
|---|---|
| author | Deniz Peters |
| author_facet | Deniz Peters |
| author_sort | Deniz Peters |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Musical experience can confront us with emotions that are not currently ours. We might remain unaffected by them, or be affected: retreat from them in avoidance, or embrace them and experience them as ours. This suggests that they are another's. Whose are they? Do we arrive at them through empathy, turning our interest to the music as we do to others in an interpersonal encounter? In addressing these questions, I differentiate between musical and social empathy, rejecting the idea that the emotions arise as a direct consequence of empathizing with composers or performers. I argue that musical perception is doubly active: bodily knowledge can extend auditory perception cross-modally, which, in turn, can orient a bodily hermeneutic. Musical passages thus acquire adverbial expressivity, an expressivity which, as I discuss, is co-constituted, and engenders a "musical other." This leads me to a reinterpretation of the musical persona and to consider a dialectic between social and musical empathy that I think plays a central role in the individuation of shared emotion in musical experience. Musical empathy, then, occurs via a combination of self-involvement and self-effacement—leading us first into, and then perhaps beyond, ourselves. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T09:15:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0df6e9ff606d44868b8812dbc80aaada |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1559-5749 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T09:15:17Z |
| publishDate | 2015-09-01 |
| publisher | The Ohio State University Libraries |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Empirical Musicology Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-0df6e9ff606d44868b8812dbc80aaada2022-12-21T19:45:26ZengThe Ohio State University LibrariesEmpirical Musicology Review1559-57492015-09-01101-221510.18061/emr.v10i1-2.4611Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other”Deniz Peters0University of Music and Performing Arts GrazMusical experience can confront us with emotions that are not currently ours. We might remain unaffected by them, or be affected: retreat from them in avoidance, or embrace them and experience them as ours. This suggests that they are another's. Whose are they? Do we arrive at them through empathy, turning our interest to the music as we do to others in an interpersonal encounter? In addressing these questions, I differentiate between musical and social empathy, rejecting the idea that the emotions arise as a direct consequence of empathizing with composers or performers. I argue that musical perception is doubly active: bodily knowledge can extend auditory perception cross-modally, which, in turn, can orient a bodily hermeneutic. Musical passages thus acquire adverbial expressivity, an expressivity which, as I discuss, is co-constituted, and engenders a "musical other." This leads me to a reinterpretation of the musical persona and to consider a dialectic between social and musical empathy that I think plays a central role in the individuation of shared emotion in musical experience. Musical empathy, then, occurs via a combination of self-involvement and self-effacement—leading us first into, and then perhaps beyond, ourselves.https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v10i1-2.4611active perceptionbodily hermeneuticemotionsothernessimaginationpersona |
| spellingShingle | Deniz Peters Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other” Empirical Musicology Review active perception bodily hermeneutic emotions otherness imagination persona |
| title | Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other” |
| title_full | Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other” |
| title_fullStr | Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other” |
| title_full_unstemmed | Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other” |
| title_short | Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other” |
| title_sort | musical empathy emotional co constitution and the musical other |
| topic | active perception bodily hermeneutic emotions otherness imagination persona |
| url | https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v10i1-2.4611 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT denizpeters musicalempathyemotionalcoconstitutionandthemusicalother |