Ways of Listening

An Ecological Approach to the Perception of Musical Meaning
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-977390-9
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 366 g

In recent years, many psychologists and cognitive scientists have published their views on the psychology of music. Unfortunately, this scientific literature has remained inaccessible to musicologists and musicians, and has neglected their insights on the subject. In Ways of Listening, musicologist Eric Clarke explores musical meaning, music's critical function in human lives, and the relationship between listening and musical material. Clarke outlines an
"ecological approach" to understanding the perception of music. The way we hear and understand music is not simply a function of our brain structure or of the musical "codes" given to us by culture, Clarke argues. Instead, cognitive, psychoacoustical, and semiotic issues must be considered within the physical
and social contexts of listening.
In essence, Clarke adapts John Gibson's influential ecological theory of perception to the complex process of perceiving music. In addition to making a theoretical argument, the author offers a number of case studies to illustrate his concept. For example, he analyzes the experience of listening to Jimi Hendrix's performance of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock in 1969. Clarke examines how Hendrix's choice of instrument and venue, use of distortion, and the political climate in which he
performed all had an impact on his audience's perception of the anthem. A complex convergence of broad cultural contexts and specific musical features - the entire "ecology" of the listening experience - is responsible for this performance's impact.
Including both the best psychological research and careful musicological scholarship, Clarke's book offers the most complex and insightful perspective on musical meaning to date. It will be of interest to musicologists, musicians, psychologists, and scholars of aesthetics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Clarke, Eric

Clarke, Eric F.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Musiktheorie, Musikästhetik, Kompositionslehre

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Ch.1 Perception, Ecology, and Music
Ch. 2 Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner"
Ch. 3 Music, Motion and Subjectivity
Ch. 4 Subject Position in Music
Ch.5 Autonomy/Heteronomy and Perceptual Style
Ch.6 The First Movement of Beethoven's Quartet in A Minor, Op 132
Conclusions
Notes
References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Eric Clarke is Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield. He received BA and MA degrees in music from the University of Sussex, and a PhD in psychology from the University of Exeter. He has published on topics including the psychology of performance, the perception and production of rhythm, the semiotics of music, the relationship between language and music, and music and ecological theory. For ten years he was a member of the improvising
string quartet The Lapis String Quartet.