In this
exciting and refreshing book, edited by Eric and David Clarke,
music is used as an integrative tool to study that most ancient of
problems, that of conscious experience. Music is offered as a
unique instrument with which to study consciousness on the basis of
it being both from the collective human experience and, as
discussed through referencing the work of Edmund Husserl,
temporally based. It is suggested that insights into consciousness
have perhaps been limited by ‘binary’ thinking – whereby either
physicalist or idealist approaches have been adopted. What this
book argues is that there is a need for – perhaps in the spirit of
Gilbert Ryle – a fresher, more sophisticated way of looking at the
problem. A multi-dimensional approach to consciousness studies is
hardly new, yet using the medium of music as a core explanatory
framework to do this from feels decidedly original.
The book is divided into a
collection of essays by authors from mathematical, psychological
and musicology backgrounds who cover topics such as phenomenology
(from the perspective of both performers and listeners), meditation
and trance, ethnic variations in how music is perceived and what
might constitute musical consciousness.
In 1974 the scale of the problem of
the study of consciousness was neatly outlined in the classic essay
by Thomas Nagel (‘What is it like to be a bat?’) – how can a
subjective phenomena ever be adequately described by objective
methods? Is this something that is simply unachievable or is it a
temporary conundrum that will be solved once our language has
become suitably complex? However, perhaps avoiding language and
using entirely different methods may offer what has hitherto eluded
investigators. The explicit aim of this engrossing book was to spur
future thought and interest in the study of music and
consciousness. The authors have achieved this with great
ease.
Chris Smart