Music and transcendence
Alf Gabrielsson
Oxford University Press eBooks September 29, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695225.003.0021 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 3 |
| Key points | The chapter argues that strong experiences with music can be transcendental, going beyond ordinary perception and experience, and that people describe them as magical, mysterious, or supernatural, sometimes involving trance, ecstasy, merging with something bigger, or out-of-body experiences. Such experiences are hard to put into words and are often conveyed only through brief expressions, images, or metaphors. |
Abstract
In accounts of strong experiences with music, the experience is sometimes described with words such as ‘magical’, ‘mysterious’, ‘supernatural’, or ‘extraterrestrial’. The narrator feels as if he/she is put in a trance or ecstasy, there may be a feeling of totally merging with something bigger and of glimpsing other worlds or existences. These are examples of transcendental experiences (from the Latin transcendere = to exceed, surpass), that is, experiences that go beyond what is considered as ordinary perception and experience. This chapter presents a selection of accounts that can illustrate such transcendental experiences in connection with music. It is, of course, self-evident that these are hard to put into words. Often, such descriptions are restricted to one or several expressions of the type above, perhaps with the addition of an image or a metaphor. One can also count so-called ‘out-of-body experiences’ as transcendental experiences.