TY - BOOK
T1 - A Phenomenology of Expert Musicianship
AU - Høffding, Simon
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - This dissertation develops a phenomenology of expert musicianship through an interdisciplinary approach
that integrates qualitative interviews with the Danish String Quartet with philosophical analyses drawing on
ideas and theses found in
phenomenology, philosophy of mind, cognitive science and psychology of music.
The dissertation is structured through the asking, analyzing and answering of three primary questions,
namely:
1)
What is it like to be an expert?
2)
What is the general phenomenology of expert musicianship?
3)
What happens to the self in deep musical absorption?
The first question targets a central debate in philosophy and psychology on whether reflection is conducive
for, or detrimental to, skillful performance. My analyses show that the concepts assumed in the literature
on this question are poorly defined and gloss over more important features of expertise.
The second question asks, as openly as possible, what happens in the consciousness of a performing
musician. This leads to the construction of a taxonomy of absorption. This then allows for a reframing of
the question of expertise that comes to involve phenomenological analyses of “passive synthesis”,
“embodiment”, “intercorporeity”, “sense of agency”, and the emotions.
Finally, the third question targets the most challenging dimension of musicianship, namely deep
absorption, which is seemingly experienced as a selfless or blackout
-
like state. The existence of such an
experience challenges core philosophical conceptions of the nature of the self. I account for the conditions
of the possibility of deep absorption and suggest that a detailed and comprehensive grasp of expert
musicianship is best achieved through an understanding of the phenomenon that revolves around a
changed
sense of agency.
AB - This dissertation develops a phenomenology of expert musicianship through an interdisciplinary approach
that integrates qualitative interviews with the Danish String Quartet with philosophical analyses drawing on
ideas and theses found in
phenomenology, philosophy of mind, cognitive science and psychology of music.
The dissertation is structured through the asking, analyzing and answering of three primary questions,
namely:
1)
What is it like to be an expert?
2)
What is the general phenomenology of expert musicianship?
3)
What happens to the self in deep musical absorption?
The first question targets a central debate in philosophy and psychology on whether reflection is conducive
for, or detrimental to, skillful performance. My analyses show that the concepts assumed in the literature
on this question are poorly defined and gloss over more important features of expertise.
The second question asks, as openly as possible, what happens in the consciousness of a performing
musician. This leads to the construction of a taxonomy of absorption. This then allows for a reframing of
the question of expertise that comes to involve phenomenological analyses of “passive synthesis”,
“embodiment”, “intercorporeity”, “sense of agency”, and the emotions.
Finally, the third question targets the most challenging dimension of musicianship, namely deep
absorption, which is seemingly experienced as a selfless or blackout
-
like state. The existence of such an
experience challenges core philosophical conceptions of the nature of the self. I account for the conditions
of the possibility of deep absorption and suggest that a detailed and comprehensive grasp of expert
musicianship is best achieved through an understanding of the phenomenon that revolves around a
changed
sense of agency.
M3 - Ph.D. thesis
BT - A Phenomenology of Expert Musicianship
PB - Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet
ER -