MUSIC – THE MEDIUM OF TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCE

This review examines transcendental experience in relation to music, drawing on philosophy, musical aesthetics, phenomenology, and psychology. It describes how music can trigger complex aesthetic and musical emotions linked to transcendence, and presents several models of transcendence that address the subject's tendency to relate to music through performance, practice, or reception. The work also considers a pathological context of experiencing transcendence in everyday life. The authors suggest that understanding this phenomenon may inspire new empirical measurement methods in music psychology.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to reflect on, emphasise and review selected aspects of the knowledge hitherto focused on the issue of transcendental experience as it appears in human life and its relationship with music. Due to the significant breadth of the subject matter concerning transcendental experience, threads referring to the experience of transcendence in music, which can trigger complex emotions described as a particular aspect of emotions: aesthetic emotions / musical emotions, based on emotional reactions, were taken into consideration. Several models of transcendence are mentioned in the publication, which address aspects of transcendental experience linked to the subject’s tendency to relate to music (performed / perceived). . transcendent experience, taken up by representatives of many fields of science and art, can also be recognised in music - in the creative process, musical practice and music reception. By emphasising the relationship between the human being and music, transcendental experience becomes an opportunity to accentuate its different aspects in models of transcendence in music, to draw attention to the specificity of the subject’s sensations in contact with music, underlying which lies a broad system of aesthetic and affective sensations An attempt is also made to isolate the intensified, morbid context of experiencing transcendence that can be encountered in everyday life. Looking at the issue of transcendental experience from several perspectives – philosophy/musical aesthetics, phenomenology, as well as psychology - provides an opportunity to accentuate the uniqueness of this phenomenon as a state, occurring at different levels of reflection. It may become an inspiration for the development of new measurement methods that explore the topic of transcendence in an empirical way in the field of music psychology.