Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine Merleau-Ponty’s references to music in his classic text Phenomenology of Perception. This procedure reveals four major themes related to music, namely notions of motor space and tacit knowledge, the unity of music and sound, music and the tradition, and intersubjectivity and contestation. Recent work in neuroscience seems to bear out the relevance of Merleau-Ponty’s thinking to musicking as a fundamentally embodied process, what he terms ‘a unique way of being.’