Notions related to the Description of the Inner Song

Actual song: The phenomenological object constituted in consciousness through listening to the performance. The actual song is made of two co-constituted elements: the musical instrument, and the melody; this co-constitution allows the performance to be given as my performance. 

Inner Instrument: The reproduction of the perceivable musical instrument in phantasy; it is one of the two co-constituted elements of the inner song.

Inner Melody: The phantasized melody; it is one of the two co-constituted elements of the inner song.

Inner Rhythm: An auto-affection given through primal-sensation. It gives the pre-egoic temporality through a kinaesthetic synthesis of the biological rhythms like the heartbeat and the respiration.  

Inner Song: In the broader sense of the word, the inner song is the phantasy object reproducing the possible perception of the realization of the inner song in performance. Itis made of two co-constituted elements: the inner instrument and the inner melody. It belongs to the trained consciousness of the musician, it can lead to composition, improvisation, or interpretation, and it is phantasized with the intention of being played.

There can be several declinations of that inner song which require a distinct type of phenomenological analysis. First, the inner song that is phantasized during practice or rehearsal, so that the actual song is being played alongside the phantasy (this is the focus of the present dissertation). Second, the inner song that is phantasized during the final performance. Third, the inner song that is usually played in reality, but the playing is not immediate to the experience of the phantasied inner song (for instance, when an interpreter imagines playing a song while having a walk, and plays the song later, or a composer who imagines several renditions, but only plays it after deciding on a particular one). Fourth, the inner song that is intended but, for whatever reason, is not ever actually played. I will be focusing of the inner song of the practicing musician rehearsing and playing the inner song immediately.

Melody: The sonorous musical object co-constitued with the musical instrument in the field of perception of the phenomenological consciousness of the musician, but would be apprehended and constituted as a mere sonorous object for the audience who is not performing it. It is distinct from the sound of the musical instrument. The term “melody” does not have the meaning that it has in music theory, the melody can here be melodic as well as harmonic.

Musical Instrument: The transcendent perceivable musical instrument.

Musician: In the present description, it is the synonym of the practicing musician, the one rehearsing and apprehending both the actual song and the inner song given in the phenomenological consciousness. It is distinct from the performer.

Musician’s Attitude: The particular phenomenological attitude which the musician takes on during a practice session or a rehearsal. In this attitude, the musician grasps the inner song and the actual song, in order to verify the inner song through its realization and evaluate how the actual song realizes the inner song.

Musician’s Body: The phenomenological Body [Leib] constituted through the transcendent perception of the musical instrument. It is made of several layers of kinaesthetic sensations as well as some particularly developed aspects of the body (specific muscles, calluses on the fingers for the string instruments, throat muscles for the wind instruments, etc.). Among the various organs of that Body, I single out the natural voice which plays an essential role in the realization of the inner song.

Musician’s intention: The specific intention seizing upon the inner song as a succession of phantasies incorporating the corresponding actual song.

Natural Attitude: The particular attitude which the musician is in before the epoché. In this attitude, the musician is absorbed in the perception (for instance, the movements performed on the instrument, but also any kind of other perception of the natural world on hand).

Untrained voice: The embodied voice which is constituted through a synthesis of perception between feeling the voice in the Body and hearing it through the ear. 

Performance: The final representation in front of an audience.

Performer: The musician performing on stage in front of an audience.

Performer’s Attitude: The particular phenomenological attitude which the musician is in during the final performance in front of an audience. In this attitude, the musician is absorbed in listening to the inner song in order not to fail the performance. There is as little as possible of this back and forth between the inner song and the actual song.

Phantasy Body: The Body through which the musician phantasizes the inner song, feeling the musical instrument, the distance of the moves, the tensions, etc. It is made of several layers of kinaesthetic phantasms. Among the various organs of that Body, I single out the phantasy voice which plays an essential role in the realization of the inner song.

Phantasy voice: The voice through which the musician sings the inner song to him- or herself. This voice is part of the constitution of the phantasy Body. It both temporalizes and spatializes the inner song as it provides the temporal continuity as well as the flesh of the inner melody.

Primal-Phantasy [Ur-Phantäsie]: The now of the inner song corresponding to the coincidence between the present beat of the inner pulse and a particular moment of the unfolding of the inner song. 

Realization [Realisierung]: The process through which the musician works on performing the inner song through the musical instrument. It implies a structure of reference between the inner song and the actual song as respectively the model [Vorbild] and the image [Abbild], and the apprehension of one through the other.

Sound: The specific voice of the musical instrument which both belongs to the instrument itself and is issued by the musician. It is the result of a particular encounter between the instrument and the musician.

Technique: The acquired capability to play a specific musical instrument. It is constituted thanks to the retaining of the kinaesthetic sensations. It is a system of appearances and includes possibilities of new appearances in perception.

Trained voice: The voice as the musical instrument of the singer.

World of the Inner Song: The phenomenological world in which the inner song and the actual song are given as correspondent, the first one in phantasy, and the second one in perception.