I observe the accelerating crisis of listening. Such observation implies more. A crisis of this particular attention might be humanity’s biggest challenge yet.
Let me explain: Very recently, I listened to a student’s performance in the presence of her parent. The student, an intuitive, gifted and able young musician, performed complex music with intermittent inspiration. Despite its inconsistent focus, her performance nevertheless reflected sincerity and truthful musical insight at many points. It was, what we might call, a promising if variable performance. At times, the performance simply functioned technically, which could be explained by a lack of preparation triggering survival responses. I was nevertheless puzzled. I knew the student was technically sufficiently prepared. While I was struck by the frequent individuality and by the way the performance seemed to reflect in principle so much life, identity, inherent sensitivity and detailed intuition, I was also perplexed by the inconsistency, the occasional lack of care and attention to the emotional and spiritual dimension of the music. It was as if the performance unfolded against a silent forcefield of spiritual indifference. It was struggling quite actively at times to hold its interpretative focus. In response, I made a very conscious attempt to increase my own listening attention more actively. I figured if I, one of her two listeners, searched for more artistic, meaningful intent in the music and its performance, this curiosity might communicate itself intuitively to the performer and help her maintain her focus more positively. This seemed to work- it seemed to me that the focus improved and the musician’s notable excursions into functional, even occasionally disengaged playing declined.
To be sure, this might be dismissed as either a deluded or trivial achievement. We might say: humans respond to each other. So, what? Increased attention from an individual, especially in position of authority, may generate an increased response from another. However, the matter does not seem that simple to me, because increasing attention to functional aspects of the performance would not have brought the same settlement, I suspect. It may in fact have increased the performer’s anxiety and distraction. I have observed that effect in various contexts before. So, I suggest here that it was the quality of attention, its specific intentionality and curiosity which perhaps inspired increased spiritual consistency- notwithstanding that there was no verbal communication to establish this commitment.
How might one explain this? In music, listening cannot be reduced to the efficient gathering of acoustic information. Detecting literal correctness, absorbing the emotional impact or judging functional connections are secondary here. First and foremost, listening to music is a search for meaning. A musical performance aims to be meaningful. This is achieved in a dialogical way akin to a conversation. Musicians and listeners join in a dialogical search with active curiosity and autonomous attention. It is not possible to exempt either from this requirement without undermining the validity of the entire activity. Music and music making exercise our ability to actively direct our intentionality and listening attention to the music and its performance. In the context of a world where the use of technological devices conditions our attention to respond more readily to external stimuli, an interpretative listening with its necessary, authentic, autonomous and active intentionality is becoming increasingly challenging to sustain. Mesmerised by a desire to progress our pressing practical or social agendas, we underestimate the care and sincerity required to return our attention actively to a search for meaning. My further observation of the student’s performance makes this stunningly clear: During her entire performance the parent did not disengage from her own mobile phone. Captivated by the device, she scrolled and wrote text messages and chatted on social media, I suspect. Committing attention to respond to a device creates a forcefield of inattention around us and suffocates the curiosity others may have to search for meaning through active listening as well. Sincere curiosity is replaced by lewd desire for news on the device. If we do not pay appropriate attention when listening, the silent noise of distracted listeners will lead young musicians into a noisy silence. The often lamented polarisation of our society may be a reflection of the increased polarisation in our listening as our attentive search for meaning collapses and we become reactively trapped by noise in our own silence.
