Expanding Phenomenological Methods: Musical Absorption in Concert

This chapter argues that musicking and musical absorption constitute a ripe field for phenomenological investigations because such musical activity engages a number of intertwined bodily, affective, and cognitive capacities, such as different forms of memory, attention, reflection and meta-cognition, imagination, mind wandering, and empathy. These capacities, in turn, connect back to core discussions in orthodox phenomenological philosophy. From here, the chapter ventures into a presentation of using qualitative, “phenomenological interviews” for enlightening the phenomenology of musical absorption while critically engaging with core insights in debates on expertise and the psychology of music. Finally, the chapter expands to include insights from physiological and psychological experimental science proposing how one could structure “research concerts” that integrate phenomenological, qualitative, and quantitative traditions into live citizen science events.