To Örebro University

In this paper we sketch a hermeneutical-phenomenological framework building on two distinct but complementary bodies of theory. The first is an aesthetics of play, as developed by philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer. The second is a theory of vitality affect and affect attunement, as put forth by developmental psychologist Daniel Stern. This will account for how music may not only seize a listener in the moment of play, but also for what it is that both seizes and becomes seized, in a mimetic movement ultimately describable as attunement through vitality affect – thus providing an important key to what makes music exclusive and irreplaceable to many listeners.

This edited volume offers a new perspective on the new objectivity movement in music during the interwar period, challenging the view of it as a solely German or Berlin-based movement. Unlike architecture or visual arts, musicology has rarely applied the term beyond Germany. Yet, new objectivity in music—spanning composition, performance, and listening—had significant European expressions. Key features included a rejection of expressionism, interest in mechanical reproduction (radio, gramophone), and objective performance styles. Through historiographical analysis and diverse case studies from several European countries, the book presents the movement as a broader, locally rooted phenomenon reflecting a shared Zeitgeist. It explores how these ideas emerged independently across national contexts, offering new insights into the cultural and political dynamics of the period. By examining aesthetic, institutional, political, and performative dimensions, the book invites a rethinking of new objectivity as a transnational and multifaceted phenomenon, and proposes its relevance as a tool for historiographical inquiry in music studies.

 Vad innebär det att gestalta ett stycke musik? I den här presentationen försöker vi besvara frågan – åtminstone vad det kaninnebära att gestalta ett stycke musik – mot bakgrund av Hans-Georg Gadamers fenomenologiska hermeneutik. Framför allt är det Gadamers idé om spel som en utgångspunkt för tolkning och förståelse som hjälper oss att åskådliggöra ett antal skeenden under den specifika gestaltningsprocess vi valt att studera. Dessutom visar sig musiken belysa och konkretisera Gadamers spelmetafor på nya sätt. 

Utgångspunkten för undersökningen är de loggboksanteckningar som fördes av en av oss vid en tidigare instudering av Ludwig van Beethovens Sonat för piano och violin i c-moll op. 30 nr 2. Instuderingen skedde vid tolv repetitionstillfällen, genomförda i tre skilda omgångar, under en tidsperiod av sex månader, varav de flesta tillfällena varade i 2 till 3 timmar. Det sista tillfället innefattade dessutom en inspelning av sonaten (vilket hade en särskild påverkan på gestaltningen). 

Medan Gadamers begrepp visade sig särskilt belysande i de inledande faserna av gestaltningsarbetet, så fann vi hans begrepp om horisontsammansmältning otillräckligt för att beskriva de tillfällen av upplevd samstämmighet som succesivt uppstod mellan musiker och verk ju längre gestaltningsarbetet fortskred. Som en substantiell vidareutveckling av Gadamers idéer föreslår vi därför – på grundval av de erfarenheter som det musikaliska gestaltningsarbetet inneburit och svarande på vår inledande frågeställning – det Daniel Stern beskrivit som vitalitetsaffekt och affektintoning. 

This edited volume offers a new perspective on the new objectivity movement in music during the interwar period, challenging the view of it as a solely German or Berlin-based movement. Unlike architecture or visual arts, musicology has rarely applied the term beyond Germany. Yet, new objectivity in music—spanning composition, performance, and listening—had significant European expressions. Key features included a rejection of expressionism, interest in mechanical reproduction (radio, gramophone), and objective performance styles. Through historiographical analysis and diverse case studies from several European countries, the book presents the movement as a broader, locally rooted phenomenon reflecting a shared Zeitgeist. It explores how these ideas emerged independently across national contexts, offering new insights into the cultural and political dynamics of the period. By examining aesthetic, institutional, political, and performative dimensions, the book invites a rethinking of new objectivity as a transnational and multifaceted phenomenon, and proposes its relevance as a tool for historiographical inquiry in music studies.

This chapter explores the role of record reviews in disseminating the idea of absolute music during the interwar years, focusing on the writings of Swedish critic Kajsa Rootzén. Through her regular reviews in Svenska Dagbladet, Rootzén promoted a mode of solitary listening cantered on the musical work rather than performance or sound quality. The chapter argues that record reviews helped reify the concept of the autonomous musical work, contributing to a new paradigm of listening shaped by repetition, introspection, and conceptual framing. Rootzén’s writing exemplifies a “cordial objectivity” that aligns with broader Neue Sachlichkeit themes while articulating a historically significant shift in musical perception—away from live interpretation and toward the private experience of the recorded work as die Sache selbst.

In this chapter we explore how techniques used for musical identification may shape the ways in which people – composers, producers and listeners – hear sounds as music. Our thesis is that for more than three centuries, manual and automated techniques used for identifying music have played a central role in efforts to safeguard rights to music and to define what counts as music in the first place. In other words, musical identification techniques are not just tools for managing music rights and finances but are also vehicles for establishing and safeguarding culturally specific ideas and boundaries concerning music itself. To test and explore this thesis, we focus on three legal issues that arose in 1817, 2002 and 2017, concerning the authenticity and originality of musical works. Central to our investigation is the realization that distinguishing one piece of music from another is key to the protection of copyright and that the principles that underlie such distinctions define what a composer does, what a producer produces and what listeners listen to. In other words, music identification techniques both shape and delimit musical possibilities.

In a recent study by one of us – on hip hop, metal and punk fans in Beijing – many informants’ answers were more or less unison: What initially drew the informants to the music was – the music! This shouldn’t cause any wonder. Why should anything else than music be what makes one passionate about music? Nevertheless, this obsession with the music (as it were) turned out to be an obstacle to explanation. Music psychology, analytical aesthetics, or cultural theory, all tended towards a distal, arm’s-length approach to music. Music, so goes the assumption, is first heard, and then there is a reaction, a feeling of empowerment, of enrichment, or of the sublime – feelings the achievement of which music is the means to. However, listeners in the study testified to having been struck by the music without any previous encounters. The music was new and virtually unknown to them. The feelings in question were instant, not an outcome of reflexion, not an outcome at all. And the power of this instant encounter, the informants claim, nourishes their life-long relationships with the music. Thus, to avoid what we regard as an impasse of cause-and-effect (or stimulus-response) models, we propose a phenomenologically oriented twofold approach. To explain the initial attraction to unknown music, we firstly refer to H.-G. Gadamer's theory of play, as a fundamental aspect of life whereby the listener becomes "played" by the music in the moment it is heard. Secondly, we suggest that that which is set to play in the listener are the pre-cognitive vitality-affects which tie individuals together with each other, and with the music, eventually forming what Daniel Stern calls ways of being together.

The wellbeing of older men is an understudied, yet urgent research topic. After retirement, men may lose their social networks and professional identity, which can lead to loneliness, depression, and a heightened risk for suicide. These problems are worsened by a reluctance amongst many men to seek help. Existing social support systems are oftentimes not customised to older men’s needs and interests. Previous studies suggest that music can play a significant role for the social and emotional wellbeing of older men. Therefore, a music listening group was set up to explore how music listening can serve as a wellbeing resource for older men. Eight men 64-86 years old met to listen to and discuss music of their own choice, with a trained music therapist (first author) as the group leader. Focusing on the participants’ identity performances, a deductive thematic analysis was conducted, guided by Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective of frontstage-backstage, Stern’s theories on vitality affect, and masculinity theory. The participants performed their identities mainly in line with traditional masculinities in their verbal frontstage performances, revealing ambivalent masculine identities, while using music to connect to, experience and express other, more “sentient” backstage identities which surpass traditional norms. The music chosen was characterised by the participants’ curiosity and openness to learning about new music. The results have implications for music therapy in highlighting the wellbeing needs of older men and music’s many aesthetic and wellbeing potentials for this hitherto understudied group.