On the Intimacy of Music

Elena Ungeheuer (DE)

© Elena Ungeheuer

© Elena Ungeheuer


Even if one does not want to make the absolute generalization that music per se is an intimate art – since it touches the body and soul so intuitively – one can nevertheless observe a few striking features of the intimate. They apply to the space surrounding man and music, the sensitive contacts of the person-musical instrument, the hearing of/listening to sound processes that subtly undermine a general understanding. Intimacy refers to closeness that comes and goes in contrast to the distance of the sound constantly conveyed through the media. How is intimacy in a musical sense suggested, addressed, generated, and how is it once again abandoned? The examples are taken mainly from contemporary music.