Music as an Encounter What is music?

One of the possible answers for this question is that music establishes a specific form of communication, which finally occurs to mean an encounter. How has this conclusion been created and how to justify it? It all comes from the interdisciplinary encounter of different perspectives of academic research. Setting in a relation, and so referring to each other, sociological and phenomenological methods result in discovering music (musical language and style, piece of music, musical thought and process) that is an effect and means of social communication. When providing this statement with deeper insight, one comes to the conclusion that every social communication has an encounter as its basis. Whereas so called 'philosophy of encounter', or 'of dialogue', which grows from the phenomenological radices makes it clear that it is an encounter of the two persons: a dialogue between 'I' and 'You'. The groundwork of this musical drama, like of a drama of any other kind of communication, is the reciprocity that establishes a specific relation. Alfred Schütz called it: 'relation of mutual tuning'. It is a tuning of thoughts and wills of participants of the encounter. This supplies the relation with an almost alchemical power of metamorphosis, making it possible to transform 'I' and 'You' into 'We'. And so it makes a harmony. Conclusions from new academic disciplines remain therefore close to the old knowledge – for Boethius already saw music as harmony. What is music? There are as many answers as perspectives. How to reach the truth then? There is a need for a meeting (sic!).

One of the possible answers for this question is that music establishes a specific form of communication, which finally occurs to mean an encounter. How has this conclusion been created and how to justify it? It all comes from the interdisciplinary encounter of different perspectives of academic research. Setting in a relation, and so referring to each other, sociological and phenomenological methods result in discovering music (musical language and style, piece of music, musical thought and process) that is an effect and means of social communication. When providing this statement with deeper insight, one comes to the conclusion that every social communication has an encounter as its basis. Whereas so called 'philosophy of encounter', or 'of dialogue', which grows from the phenomenological radices makes it clear that it is an encounter of the two persons: a dialogue between 'I' and 'You'. The groundwork of this musical drama, like of a drama of any other kind of communication, is the reciprocity that establishes a specific relation. Alfred Schütz called it: 'relation of mutual tuning'. It is a tuning of thoughts and wills of participants of the encounter. This supplies the relation with an almost alchemical power of metamorphosis, making it possible to transform 'I' and 'You' into 'We'. And so it makes a harmony. Conclusions from new academic disciplines remain therefore close to the old knowledge – for Boethius already saw music as harmony. What is music? There are as many answers as perspectives. How to reach the truth then? There is a need for a meeting (sic!).