ABSTRACT

When listening to music, we often have the feeling that our consciousness is altered. Our sense of the passing of time becomes highly experiential, following the twists and turns of the tempi and rhythms. We shiftbetween local details of motives and themes to larger groupings of formal sections, or we just revel in the sensory impressions from the colors of orchestration. We can engage in all sorts of behaviors (clapping, dancing, shaking, head-banging, etc.) that would be considered strange in the absence of music. It can be a shock when the “real” world impinges on our altered state; the musical world is a compelling place to be, and it serves many purposes. Musical experience seems to be a global human trait; virtually all societies have some role for music (Nettl 1983).