Being Touched by Music: a Phenomenological-Hermeneutical Approach to Understanding Tranformational Musical Experience (Doctoral Dissertation, Duquesne University)

Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Summer 2006 Being Touched by Music: A Phenomenological- Hermeneutical Approach to Understanding Tranformational Musical Experience Kurt Kumler Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Kumler, K. (2006). Being Touched by Music: A Phenomenological-Hermeneutical Approach to Understanding Tranformational Musical Experience (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/790 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Being Touched by Music A Phenomenological-Hermeneutical Approach to Understanding Transformational Musical Experience A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Kurt Kumler Spring 2006 Daniel Burston, Ph.D., Director Leswin Laubscher, Ph.D., Reader Russell Walsh, Ph.D., Reader ii iii PREFACE "Without music, life would be a mistake." -Friedrich Nietzsche Since my first experiences with piano lessons as a young boy, music has been a significant part of my daily life. I remember exploring my parents’ extensive collection of records amassed during the early years of their marriage, long before my time. I would meander through their collection, listening with curiosity to the sounds of a wide range of musical styles. From 1950’s popular music to country to jazz, the range seemed immense to me then. Through listening to their recordings I was introduced to a world of music that seemed rich and full of possibilities of sound and feeling. I was curious about the sounds themselves, but also the meaning I imagined the songs and artists had for my parents. Later I began exploring my own musical tastes, seeking out music that touched me personally. Through my adolescence, like many, I sought out music that helped me feel good and make sense of my identity and personal struggles. I found my own music first through my older siblings’ music collections, which included the moody alternative pop of the late ‘70s and 80’s – the Smiths, REM, the Cure, New Order... During these years I spent many intimate hours with this music as my companion and commiserator, biking around my hometown hearing the music as an affirming soundtrack to my own life, or feeling intimately connected when listening with friends. Since then my musical taste has iv meandered wildly, just like my parents, with some music forgotten that was at one time very important for me. I can look back on my own music history and see something about who I was at various moments along the way and who I have come to be. In graduate school I started to wonder about my interest in music - What is it that I like about music? Is music as important for others? Sharpened by my studies in existential-phenomenological psychology, my curiosity led me to realize the obvious: that music had been a significant and meaningful part of my life. I came to realize that music had somehow supported me and changed me throughout my life as I began recalling many memories of moments of confusion and emotional pain when music seemed to understand me, offering solace, wisdom, and acceptance. Music is, for me, not just a hobby or pastime, but rather a means for me to connect with myself and the world around me, and to explore my emotional life. This dissertation is an expression of my interest in exploring how it is that music holds such importance in my life. I chose to consider the phenomenon of experiencing personal transformation through listening to music because this particular kind of listening experience has been the most poignant in my life. Music touches us in many different ways and in many different contexts, but the moments when music is more than sound or entertainment, when it is a world I inhabit or something I become, I am most aware of the power it holds. In this dissertation I offer an exploration of the literature that relates to the phenomenon of musical transformation, including natural-scientific research as v well as ideas from musicology, ethnomusicology, psychology, literature, and philosophy. The research herein is qualitative in nature, based on a phenomenological-hermeneutic methodology. Using written protocols and interviews, I analyze the personal experiences of four individuals during moments when they felt personally transformed by listening to music. This is done in order to generate a descriptive and interpretive understanding of their experiences, and sketch out an understanding of this kind of musical experience in general. Throughout the research process, I maintain a reflexive stance, attending to my assumptions and preconceptions as the researcher. This is done to ensure that the understandings generated will retain a kind of self-consciousness and be open to reconsideration and change. Through this dissertation I have been able to deepen my understanding of music’s power in my and others’ lives and celebrate this wonderful thing that is music. While many questions are yet to be asked, this research has accomplished the goal of offering an understanding of how individuals experience musical transformation and the meaning that these experiences hold for them. Completing this work marks the end of a long and wonderful journey through my doctoral education. For the last several years of the journey, this dissertation had been a constant companion and the process was both rewarding and trying at times. My love of the topic was tightly twisted with uncertainty and moments of despair as deadlines approached and myriad distractions paraded before me. At times I was not sure I would make it through, and I may not have, if not for the support of many people. vi I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Daniel Burston, and my readers, Drs. Russell Walsh and Leswin Laubscher for their assistance and support. They were willing to work with me on this uncommon topic, and without their guidance I would not have been able to find my way. I would like to thank the faculty of the Duquesne University Psychology Department and my fellow students for providing inspiration and support throughout my entire doctoral education. I would like to give thanks to some dear friends who have sustained me throughout: Richard and Heather Innis, Kathy O’Keefe, Andrew Mendell, Dr. Cheryl Forster, and Laurie Smith. Thanks also to Brad Westall, Rob Griffin, Mike Melczak, Matt Dunegan, Kirk Adkins, Greg Malley, and other dear friends who have unwittingly assisted me in this project by sharing and creating music with me. I would like to thank Kimberly Hodge for her unending inspiration. I would especially like to thank my mother and family for their patience and support, despite their perennial question, “Aren’t you done yet?” And finally I would like to thank the participants of this study, who were willing to share their intimate experiences with us and who affirmed my sense of the beauty of music. vii Abstract Being Touched by Music: A Phenomenological-Hermeneutical Approach to Understanding Transformational Musical Experience Kurt Kumler This dissertation investigated the lived experience of being personally transformed by listening to music. The investigation started with an exploration of the literature that relates to the phenomenon of musical transformation, including natural-scientific research as well as ideas from musicology, ethnomusicology, psychology, literature, and philosophy. This research was designed to access the nuanced and subjective aspects of the phenomenon by attending to the experience as lived by the experiencer. The method was qualitative in nature, based on a phenomenological-hermeneutical methodology. Throughout the research process, the researcher maintained a reflexive stance, attending to assumptions and preconceptions held about the phenomenon. This was done to ensure that the understandings generated would retain a kind of self-consciousness, remaining open to reconsideration. The data set included written protocols and conversations with four musicians about moments when they felt personally transformed by listening to music. From this data, descriptive and interpretive understandings of their viii experiences were generated and an understanding of this kind of musical experience in general was articulated. Qualities found in this research to be integral to transformational musical experience include the following themes: Attunement to the experience, Apprehending the beautiful, Inhabiting a musical world, Being sound, Embodying music’s will, Connectedness, and Emerging transformed. Transformational musical experience was disclosed as a phenomenon that involves the creation of personal meaning that is co-constituted by the music and the listener in the face of apprehending beautiful sound. The results were discussed in dialogue with ideas from the literature, with particular focus on the experience of embodiment of the transformational experience, the felt sense of connection to others and to the music, and notions of meaning and emotionality in music. ix CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………1 Disclosing our Musical World…………………………………………………..1 Focus of the Research………………………………………………………….5

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