Extension, Variability, and Normativity: Deniz Peters on Musical Experience

Abstract

In his essay, “Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the ‘Musical Other,’” Deniz Peters aims to present a non-reductive account of musical empathy in musical experience that takes seriously the contributions of bodily experience through what he terms “emotional co-constitution.”  I set Peters’ view in the context of what I call the Structural Object Model of musical experience and elaborate on some of the challenges Peters’ essay raises for both theoretical and empirical research on musical experience, concentrating on implications concerning ranges of cases covered by the theory, the variability of listeners’ experiences, the normativity of the theory, musical sophistication, and the cultural roots of musical experience.