Music Theory, Phenomenology, and Modes of Perception

Recent years have seen an increasing influence on music theory of perceptual investigations that can be called phenomenological in the sense of Husserl, either explicitly or implicitly. The trend is problematic, particularly in what one might call its sociology, but it is also very promising. Potential or at least metaphorical links with Artificial Intelligence are especially suggestive. A formal model for "musical perceptions," incorporating some of the promising features, reveals interesting things in connection with Schubert's song Morgengruβ. The model helps to circumvent some traditional difficulties in the methodology of music analysis. But the model must be used with caution since, like other perceptual theories, it appears to make " listening" a paradigmatic musical activity. Composer/ performer/playwright/actor/director/poet can be contrasted here to listener/reader. The two genera can be compared in the usual ways, but also in some not-so-usual ways. The former genus may be held to be perceiving in the creative act, and some influential contemporary literary theories actually prefer members of this genus to those of the other as perceivers. The theories can be modified, I believe, to allow a more universal stance that also regards acts of analytic reading/listening as poetry.