Psycho-Grathetic Experience In Music Listening

Correspondingly, this dissertation aims to contribute to the existing research and ongoing debate within (empirical) aesthetics on the mechanisms and role of trait and state aspects of absorption in relation to aesthetic experience in the context of intentional music listening. More specifically, it is structured around a) the paradox of losing oneself in the music (absorption) while at the same time being consciously aware of one’s experience (meta-awareness), b) how this dualistic state of mind looks like from a psycho-phenomenological perspective (i.e., the essential properties and structure of the musical experience as experienced by the music listener) and c) what their interactions and predictive roles are in terms of appreciating music

It reaches two to twelve percent of total music listening times (Sloboda, 2010; Herbert, 2011a). However, it remains to be a special, often highly gratifying moment sought for and returned to again and again by at least some music listeners. Indeed, absorbing musical experiences are, according to many, precisely what music is all about; what people are sometimes explicitly looking for when going to a concert, live event or listening when being alone, and to which time and again is returned to in order to re-experience it. These types of ‘heightened’ states are the ones which can offer insight into how the mind operates at its finest. It is therefore vital to understand such musical experiences, insofar as this would be possible, as it potentially explains why we are motivated to engage with music. Hence, this research is driven by the rationale that, if we come to know more about an absorptive state of mind (origin, function, and mechanisms) in response to music, and its relation to other experiential features such as emotions and meta-awareness, we also increase our knowledge of the nature of aesthetic experiences with music. The results therefore intend to contribute to the further refinement of contemporary theoretical models on (music and) aesthetic experience (Leder et al., 2004), particularly those that include – in some form – this dualistic aspect of engaging with art (Cupchick, 2013; see also Pelowski, Markey, Lauring & Leder, 2016), by focusing explicitly on the role of different levels of consciousness (see Leder,