Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound [Paperback]

Don Ihde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0791472566 | ISBN-13: 978-0791472569 | Edition: 2

New and expanded edition of the now classic study in the phenomenology of sound.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Listening and Voice is an updated and expanded edition of Don Ihde's groundbreaking 1976 classic in the study of sound. Ranging from the experience of sound through language, music, religion, and silence, clear examples and illustrations take the reader into the important and often overlooked role of the auditory in human life. Ihde's newly added preface, introduction, and chapters extend these sound studies to the technologies of sound, including musical instrumentation, hearing aids, and the new group of scientific technologies which make infra- and ultra-sound available to human experience.

"The significance and importance of the topic, and centrality of the topic to a particular field of study, is directly related to Ihde's strong reputation. His work is central to any study of the interface between the human body and technology, and his reputation began with, and still includes, the first edition of this book. He has been important to the field for thirty years and continues to contribute new insights." -- Lenore Langsdorf, coeditor of Recovering Pragmatism's Voice: The Classical Tradition, Rorty, and the Philosophy of Communication
"This book is pathbreaking. It is still the only detailed phenomenology of listening and voice that we have. Philosophy, up until Ihde, was obsessed with visual representation and visual metaphors. Ihde contrasts visual perception with aural experiments, mixing up the examples and talking about pop music and opera in the same analytical voice." -- Trevor Pinch, coauthor of Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Don Ihde is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. He is the author of many books, including Experimental Phenomenology: An Introduction, also published by SUNY Press, and Bodies in Technology. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press; 2 edition (October 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791472566
• ISBN-13: 978-0791472569
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #396,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for the thinking musician, December 13, 2007

By 

Jeff Hodges (Denton, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound (Paperback)

One of the big gaps in phenomenological discourse is that of musical production. At the one end, we find phenomenologists who have a great respect for music. These philosophers have done great work on the act of passive listening, but being trapped within their "regional ontology," their expertise on musical production is less well-developed. Conversely, some well-read musicologists have taken phenomenological concepts and run with them, often to unconvincing ends.

When I began reading "Listening and Voice," I felt certain that it would fall into the former category. The majority of Ihde's phenomenological work has been centered on technology. This rewrite of his earlier work on the auditory field, headed by the word "listening," invited a certain mode of skepticism. However, this has turned out to be a uniquely powerful work on auditory experience that has both confirmed and changed many things about the way in which I listen to and create music, noise, and silence.

Central to Ihde's thesis is the fact that we live in a socio-academic realm that is profoundly attracted to visuality. The metaphors that we use to explicate knowledge betray this bias: i.e. "enlightenment," "insight," or the "mind's eye." He proposes to enhance our discourse by taking an "auditory turn" away from this visual reduction. His following discussion on the auditory and visual fields, the primordial meaning of voice, and the pervasiveness of the auditory imagination are highly profound and relatively readable compared to most phenomenological monographs.

The lowdown: There are times when this book makes me stand up and cheer, and others when it makes me furrow my eyebrows and stare off into space. This is where a really great philosophical works should take you. Any fan of music, poetry, drama, or, most ethically, silence, will hold this work close to their heart.