Strong Experiences with Music: Music is much more than just music

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1 Introduction
2 How the investigation was carried out
3 General points about the accounts
4 Experiences during childhood
5 Experiences during teenage years
6 When music takes over
7 Merging with the music
8 Feeling light, floating, leaving one's body
9 Inner music
10 Inner images
11 Feelings / Emotion
12 Music and existence
13 Music and transcendence
14 Music and religious experiences
15 New insights, new possibilities
16 Confirmation through music
17 Music as therapy
18 When performing music oneself
19 Singing in a choir
20 Music in love - happy and unhappy
21 Music in connection with illness and death
22 Music at funerals
23 Music in Nature
24 Music from and in other cultures
25 Music at concerts: Classical music
26 Music at concerts: Jazz
27 Music at concerts: Pop and rock
28 Metaphors and similes
29 Survey of all reactions
30 Music in SEM
31 What in the music elicited the reactions?
32 Causes, consequences and importance
33 Overview, comparisons, questions, outlooks
Postscript to the Swedish edition
Appendix A: A descriptive system for Strong Experiences with Music
Appendix B: An example of analysis of an account

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Nowadays we listen to music whenever and wherever we like. Never before has the scope of what is available been so great and varied. The mass media and Internet have given us unlimited paths into the world of music. Just like music is varied and endless, so are our reactions to music. The very same piece of music can generate completely different reactions in different people, and a person can react quite differently to the same piece of music on different occasions. Sometimes the reactions become more intense and profound than usual and leave powerful impressions in our memories. In this book several hundred people - women and men, young and old, musicians and non-musicians - talk about such strong experiences with music and what they have come to mean for them. The experiences extend across almost all of the twentieth century and have occurred in highly varying and often unexpected situations. The music absorbs the listeners and shuts out everything else. It evokes strong emotions and a lot of other reactions, from purely physical responses to experiences of existential and spiritual character. Every account is unique, moving, and bears witness to strong commitment. The experience may lead to the release of pent-up feelings, liberation and inner cleansing, and work as therapy. One can feel confirmed and understood, gain increased self-confidence, and acquire another view of oneself and of life in general. There is also the possibility of a new view of music and what it can mean for well-being, health, and quality of life. There are many similarities with strong experiences in other areas, such as nature, love, religion, literature, art, and dance. Strong Experiences with Music is a ground-breaking new book. It draws on over two decades of research and accounts from almost 1,000 participants. It addresses itself to all who have an interest in music and what music can mean. It should be possible to read without special previous knowledge, the technical language of music and psychology is kept at a minimum. Experts in the fields of music psychology music education, and musicology may find supplementary information in special analyses and notes to be consulted at will.

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British Journal of Music Education

An elegant and careful investigation, this book is unquestionably a momentous contribution to the mission of the author, and our field

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