Papers by Nanette Nielsen
The vitality and affective potential of the live concert experience is a result of rich, cross-se... more The vitality and affective potential of the live concert experience is a result of rich, cross-sensory interactions and varied participatory practices. The complexity of such entanglements has recently led philosophers to argue for an enactive, affordance-based approach that interrogates a variety of perceptual and sensory possibilities inherent in aesthetic experiences. Further, Shaun Gallagher's recent addition of the 4As (Affect, Agency, Affordance, Autonomy) to the 4Es (Embodied, Embedded, Enacted, Extended) for clarifying mind-world relations seem to have potent explanatory power for these kinds of encounters. Building on such current philosophical approaches while examining specific (and actual) live musical engagement, this article offers an interpretation of selected audience data from the MusicLab Copenhagen with the Danish String Quartet research concert to discuss particular responses from the audience physically present at the venue. Responding to neuroaesthetic approaches, we clarify the audience members' individual and collective aesthetic experience through an enactive, affordance-based approach. We suggest that what is at play in the live concert environment is a mode of attentive dynamic listening. Rather than seeking to characterize the audience as passively responding to music, a 4Es/4As approach to aesthetic experience seeks to clarify embodied-enactive audience engagement for which anticipation is a dynamic factor that enables further musical action and resonance, also for the musicians on stage.
Literature in the psychology of music and in cognitive psychology claimsparadoxicallythat musical... more Literature in the psychology of music and in cognitive psychology claimsparadoxicallythat musical absorption includes processes of both focused attention and mind wandering. We examine this paradox and aim to resolve it by integrating accounts from cognitive psychology on attention and mind wandering with qualitative phenomenological research on some of the world's most skilled musicians. We claim that a mode of experience that involves intense attention and what superficially seems like mind wandering is possible. We propose to grasp this different mode of experience with a new concept: "mind surfing". We suggest that a conjoined consideration of attention's intensive and selective capacities can partially explain how one can be both focused and freely "surfing" on a "musical wave" at the same time. Finally, we couple this novel and foundational work on attention with a 4E cognition account to show how music acts as an affective and cognitive scaffold, thereby enabling the surfing.
This project encompasses data captured at MusicLab Copenhagen, a "science concert" orga... more This project encompasses data captured at MusicLab Copenhagen, a "science concert" organized by RITMO/University of Oslo and The Danish String Quartet on 26 October 2021 in Copenhagen.
This Handbook offers an overview of the thriving interdisciplinary field of Western music and phi... more This Handbook offers an overview of the thriving interdisciplinary field of Western music and philosophy. It seeks to represent this area in all its fullness, including a diverse array of perspectives from music studies (notably historical musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology), philosophy (incorporating both analytic and continental approaches), and a range of cognate disciplines (such as critical theory and intellectual history). The Handbook includes, but does not confine itself to, consideration of key questions in aesthetics and the philosophy of music. Each essay provides an introduction to its topic, an assessment of past scholarship, and a research-driven argument for the future of the research area in question. Taken together, these essays provide a current snapshot of this field and outline an abundance of ways in which it might develop in the future.
Music studies and philosophy have over the past few years seen increasing
interaction: music sch... more Music studies and philosophy have over the past few years seen increasing
interaction: music scholars have found inspiration in philosophical topics and
methods, and philosophers have engaged enthusiastically with the world of music,
for example by using the art form to gain new insight into topics such as emotion,
consciousness, and ethics. This scholarly interaction continually presents new and
exciting interdisciplinary avenues through which both music studies and philosophy
can develop and grow. While drawing on a selection of recent literature and
approaches, this article accounts for (what I call) ’musical ethics’ and discusses what
music might bring to scholarly discourse about ethics. Instead of viewing music as a
philosophical ‘problem’ that needs to be solved, I suggest that a more fruitful strategy
is to approach music and musical engagement as a philosophical opportunity
through which we can better understand ourselves and the world around us. With a
focus on examples of film music, I argue that musical ethics can uncover important
facets of what it means to be both human and humane.
In this chapter, I explore how Carl Nielsen’s criticism of the shortcomings of language opens up ... more In this chapter, I explore how Carl Nielsen’s criticism of the shortcomings of language opens up for understanding in greater depth his musical aesthetics, not least his somewhat obscure and grandiose, yet pervasive idea that ‘music is life’. Using Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony The Inextinguishable (‘Det Uudslukkelige’) (1916) as an example, and analysing aspects related to movement and the temporal in particular, the chapter puts the statement ‘music is life’ into further relief.
With a focus on narrative film music techniques and sonic constructions of subjectivity, this art... more With a focus on narrative film music techniques and sonic constructions of subjectivity, this article explores the soundtrack of The Memory Dealer. We account for whether and how immersion is achieved and discuss the ways in which TMD brings novelty to the area of sound studies, not least through its relevance for phenomenology. Analyzing participants’ responses, we argue that immersion in TMD is less dependent on a narrative understanding of the soundtrack and more reliant on a particular kind of subjective immersion that is deepened and maintained through sound. We show how, in order to achieve this immersion, the soundtrack needs to support a balance between players’ self-reflection and their self-consciousness: whereas the former can deepen engagement, the latter can be distracting and pull the player out of the experience. The various levels of subjectivity and sonic interaction in TMD reveal new avenues for immersion through sound in pervasive drama.
In this Preludium we clarify the history and scope of The Memory Dealer (TMD), and the methods, i... more In this Preludium we clarify the history and scope of The Memory Dealer (TMD), and the methods, ideas, and incentives behind the research presented in the current volume. As a new experimental, “pervasive” drama that exploits digital and personal technologies to create fictional narratives that are then layered onto real world spaces, TMD introduces new possibilities both for storytelling and for the positioning of the audience. As the articles in this volume bear witness to, TMD can be thought of as a new kind of “sound narrative”; what remains the most direct experience of the drama is undoubtedly the soundtrack. As a novel soundworld prompting new responses – responses that can be explored and analyzed – TMD is a rare form of documentation that offers fertile ground for exploration.
Paul Bekker’s Musical Ethics, 2018
German music critic and opera producer Paul Bekker (1882–1937) is a rare example of a critic gran... more German music critic and opera producer Paul Bekker (1882–1937) is a rare example of a critic granted the opportunity to turn his ideas into practice. In this first full-length study of Bekker in English, Nanette Nielsen investigates Bekker's theory and practice in light of ethics and aesthetics, in order to uncover the ways in which these intersect in his work and contributed to the cultural and political landscape of the Weimar Republic. By linking Beethoven's music to issues of freedom and individuality, as he argues for its potential to unify the masses, Bekker had already in 1911 begun to construct the ethical framework for his musical sociology and opera aesthetics. Nielsen discusses some of the complex (and conflicting) layers of modernism and conservatism in Bekker that would have a continued presence in his work and its reception throughout his career. Bekker's demands for a 'practical ethics' led to his criticisms of metaphysically grounded approaches to aesthetics, and his ethical views are put into further relief in a sketch of the development of his music phenomenology in the 1920s. Nielsen unravels the complex intersections between Bekker's ethics and his opera aesthetics in connection with his practice as an Intendant at the Wiesbaden State Theatre (1927–1932), offering a critical reading of an opera staged during his tenure: Hugo Herrmann’s Vasantasena (1930). Further works are considered in light of the theoretical framework underpinning the book, inspired by several intersections between ethics and aesthetics encountered in Bekker's work.
The Philosophers' Magazine, 2017
twentieth-century music, 2013
Ernst Krenek's operaJonny spielt auf(1927) was, according to the composer, concerned with ‘th... more Ernst Krenek's operaJonny spielt auf(1927) was, according to the composer, concerned with ‘the problem of freedom’. But in what ways did it grapple with this problem? This article offers a new interpretation of Krenek's opera in light of the composer's views on freedom, developments in contemporary criticism, and the wider context of German Idealism. By focusing on constructions of subjectivity inJonny, I argue that, much as Krenek lamented the fact that the opera's fundamental message had not been taken seriously enough in the work's reception, he himself had presented this theme of individual freedom ambiguously in musical terms. As a work that mediated between ethics and aesthetics, consistently adhering to an irreconcilable dialectic between the individual and the community,Jonny spielt aufcontributed in important ways to the discourse that would stir so many Weimar intellectuals over the next few years to warn against the power of mass culture.
Ernst Krenek's opera Jonny spielt auf (1927) was, according to the composer, concerned with 'the ... more Ernst Krenek's opera Jonny spielt auf (1927) was, according to the composer, concerned with 'the problem of freedom'. But in what ways did it grapple with this problem? This article offers a new interpretation of Krenek's opera in light of the composer's views on freedom, developments in contemporary criticism, and the wider context of German Idealism. By focusing on constructions of subjectivity in Jonny, I argue that, much as Krenek lamented the fact that the opera's fundamental message had not been taken seriously enough in the work's reception, he himself had presented this theme of individual freedom ambiguously in musical terms. As a work that mediated between ethics and aesthetics, consistently adhering to an irreconcilable dialectic between the individual and the community, Jonny spielt auf contributed in important ways to the discourse that would stir so many Weimar intellectuals over the next few years to warn against the power of mass culture.
In order to show how Vasantasena combined modernist and conservative features, the author first o... more In order to show how Vasantasena combined modernist and conservative features, the author first offers a brief account of how the mass culture of the Weimar Republic provided a fertile environment for a rethinking of operatic aesthetics. Benjamin Goose has shown how critics in Germany in the 1920s increasingly presented opera as part of mass culture against which they nevertheless attempted vehemently to defend it. It is against this backdrop the shared aims of producer - Paul Bekker - and composer Hugo Herrmann as well as the wider cultural context that the author can explore the use of melodrama in Vasantasena. Finally, if Herrmann acknowledged that the opera embraced 'a variety of forms and styles', an examination of the score demonstrates that it can be understood through one musical-dramatic form in particular, namely melodrama, which often tended towards an eclectic mix of genres and styles.
The Opera Quarterly, 2007
In a letter of August 24, 1929 to his close friend and colleague Leo Kestenberg, 3 Bekker comment... more In a letter of August 24, 1929 to his close friend and colleague Leo Kestenberg, 3 Bekker commented on the link between theory and practice in his work: if, as a writer, he had been in danger of becoming wholly lost in abstraction, his theater work had put him in touch with concrete reality. 4 ...
Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, 2002
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Papers by Nanette Nielsen
interaction: music scholars have found inspiration in philosophical topics and
methods, and philosophers have engaged enthusiastically with the world of music,
for example by using the art form to gain new insight into topics such as emotion,
consciousness, and ethics. This scholarly interaction continually presents new and
exciting interdisciplinary avenues through which both music studies and philosophy
can develop and grow. While drawing on a selection of recent literature and
approaches, this article accounts for (what I call) ’musical ethics’ and discusses what
music might bring to scholarly discourse about ethics. Instead of viewing music as a
philosophical ‘problem’ that needs to be solved, I suggest that a more fruitful strategy
is to approach music and musical engagement as a philosophical opportunity
through which we can better understand ourselves and the world around us. With a
focus on examples of film music, I argue that musical ethics can uncover important
facets of what it means to be both human and humane.
interaction: music scholars have found inspiration in philosophical topics and
methods, and philosophers have engaged enthusiastically with the world of music,
for example by using the art form to gain new insight into topics such as emotion,
consciousness, and ethics. This scholarly interaction continually presents new and
exciting interdisciplinary avenues through which both music studies and philosophy
can develop and grow. While drawing on a selection of recent literature and
approaches, this article accounts for (what I call) ’musical ethics’ and discusses what
music might bring to scholarly discourse about ethics. Instead of viewing music as a
philosophical ‘problem’ that needs to be solved, I suggest that a more fruitful strategy
is to approach music and musical engagement as a philosophical opportunity
through which we can better understand ourselves and the world around us. With a
focus on examples of film music, I argue that musical ethics can uncover important
facets of what it means to be both human and humane.