1.2.1 Musical Imagery

Musical imagery is another term for audiation, and is used particularly with regard to composers. Fiske (1993) devotes an entire chapter to the imagery phenomenon, which he thinks is some form of echoic imagery. He allows that there are varying extents of specificity, that they link to immediate and past musical experiences, and that the imagery appears in two forms. These forms are:

1. An active impression of what is heard during an actual musical performance; that is, sound as it is immediately presented and perceived, and the listener's understanding of that sound's function in the context of the immediately perceived tonal-rhythmic pattern;
2. The recall of previously learned tonal-rhythmic patterns which can be self-generated (a) in the absence of any auditory stimulus, or (b) for the purpose of comparison (in some form of representation) with an immediately available musical performance. (Fiske, 1993, p. 95)

He quotes the experiences and beliefs of composers and musicologists regarding musical imagery. (see Appendix 3, p.81).

Jourdain (1997) gives an exhaustive account of imagery. He states that imagery must arise from memory, and focusses on the auditory imagery of composers. He says:

This ability which he claims is rare may not be rare at all. At this point in time it is impossible to prove how accurate a person's audiation is. The accessibility of music in Western society has ensured that most people receive a rich background in music, often without their realising it. Musical performers and conductors need to be able to audiate many voices accurately for private rehearsal and memorisation. People without musical training may in fact possess this ability; yet not possess the language to describe what it is they do. Jourdain says that people "bring a tune to mind by silently singing it". That doesn't necessarily mean that they are doing the singing as if in their own inner voice. They will hear the singer's voice, and the musical timbres of various instruments. What a person audiates depends on how they listen to a piece of music, which is different for each and every piece. Jourdain also refers to research conducted with brain scans to determine the presence of imagery (audiation). He states that "imagery 'occurs' in parts of the brain concerned with perception… [the] auditory cortex [is activated] during auditory imagery. So when a stone-deaf Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony, his auditory cortex was in a sense still "hearing"…" (Jourdain, 162). Unfortunately Jourdain fails to reference this statement, leaving the author unable to verify the information. It does seem clear however that imagery (and thus audiation) is an accepted, recognised and valid concept.