The Experience of Acusmatic Listening: a Proposal of an Integrative Analysis

Abstract

We propose a theoretical framework of a set of guidelines for a methodology of analysis of the listener experience in acousmatic music. A critical review of the relevant literature is presented in order to point out principles, guidelines or convergences, in relation to certain approaches from the musical analysis. These are justified in terms of their relevance to the discipline, particularly as relate to the conceptual framework developed by Stéphane Roy and François Delalande, which stems from the field of cognitive linguistics. Considering the cases examined by Roy and Delalande, it seems clear that the subjects reporting their listening experience resort to a set of cognitive metaphors, such as image schemes and fictitious movement. These have been studied and described as theoretical constructs both linguistically and neuroanatomically. The cognitive metaphors are likely to be used by auditors of acousmatic music to describe their listening experience, considering that acousmatic music makes an extensive use of sound spatialization techniques, and that every description is a linguistic report of a listening experience. On the basis of this, we propose the development of a mixed methodology, both qualitative and experimental, designed to ascertain on an empirical basis the subjective experience of the subjects and, at the same time, establish correlations between the experience and the acoustic trace.