SOUNDS, VISION, AND GESTURES: MUSIC LISTENERS AND THEIR IMAGINATION
How music composers and listeners always designed music listening routes together
Pieces of music named ‘Trans-Europe Express’, ‘Transylvania’, ‘Travelling without moving’, and many others, want to take listeners on a voyage through lyrics and music. Whether they mention visited places or fantastic locations that will never be reached, they evoke destinations that are not the present reality of the music listeners. However, these listeners have unlimited freedom to imagine it is. And, at the musical level, they follow their ears and intuition. In doing so, they create a listening relationship to the world depicted by the music.
Music listeners draw and follow routes that help them to enhance their listening experience as well as their life narratives, music helping them to integrate their life experiences into an internalized story of the self. How do they use music for that? First, the presence of sounds produced by musical instruments and, in live venues, the presence of performers whose gestures connect with the sound heard by listeners. Music listening experience is conditioned by what listeners hear: sounds’ sources, and by the place in which sounds occur: where the listener looks, and, possibly, moves or dances, everything may be taken into account. In fact, in the framework of music listening, sound is at one with vision and movement. Synthesized, sounds, images and gestures help the listener to enhance their experience.
Music composers always were aware of the fact that the place where music is played matters and they crafted their works for the venues for which they were originally written. For example, during the 16th Century, Cristóbal de Morales wrote a lot of music suited to the acoustics of cathedrals. On the other hand, Handel’s ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks’ is open-air music that was designed to be played outdoors. By way of an anecdote, during the premiere, Handel’s music, which is powerful, overshadowed the fireworks themselves. Let us also notice that for his part, Haydn notably wrote music for the Holywell Music room, a chamber music hall located in Oxford (UK).
Besides composers, performers also recognize that is is important to cope with the acoustics of the places in which they play. For instance, in large places, there is much resonance and the importance of playing exactly together is increased, because of the echo: musicians take such realities into account.
Navigating the shifts between music and life: the liberated music listener
We may notice that, today, the links between sound, vision, and movement continue to shape the music listening experience. It is highly visible in events like electronic music festivals held all around the world. However, as the music listener is, most of the time, listening to music at home or in a car, there is a decoupling of sound sources and the location where the listener is. One result is that music listeners are liberated from social constraints imposed by the different types of live venues: they notably can, in 2 or 3 hours, listen to numerous styles of music and a large number of artists.
Every music label can now record the performance of a full orchestra from a concert hall for absent listeners and publish it on music streaming platforms that may reach these listeners later, in a place of their choice. The recording presents both performers and sounds to listeners, enabling them to study sounds quietly in their personal space. That intimacy is now an important part of the contemporary music listening culture. According to the legend, that intimacy is not new, but it was restricted to privileged listeners: Pythagoras would draw a curtain in front of himself while he was playing for his students, removing them from the distractions of his body and his face.