Empathies of Musical Performance and Understanding

Abstract

In my commentary on Erin Heisel’s thought-provoking essay, I explore alternative responses to the masterclass she describes. I propose expanding the kinds of empathy that might be most useful to performers to include “cognitive empathy,” while suggesting ways in which an empathy of identification can be problematic. I consider as well expansions to her definition of empathy to engage considerations of musical structure and embodiment, and I close with a proposal to expand Heisel’s pedagogical techniques into situations where empathy may be hard to find.