Being Touched by Music - A Qualitative Investigation of Being Transformed by Listening

The psychology of music has been given much academic attention from a range of disciplines spanning Anthropology Musicology Psychology and Psychoacoustics. Their investigations have provided a wealth of knowledge about the function of music and its impact on our lives. Despite this we have generated relatively few insights about the lived experience of being personally and deeply moved when listening to music. This phenomenon remains comprehensible primarily through the disciplines of Philosophy and Art. A scientific mode of inquiry based on a qualitative human-science approach allows for an exploration of this phenomenon that reveals the lived experience of individuals who encounter music in this way. This work was conducted as a Doctoral dissertation at Duquesne University. It is a hermeneutic inquiry intended to deepen our understanding of music's ability to touch move and change us. While many questions are yet to be explored this research offers a way of understanding how individuals experience musical transformation and the meaning these experiences hold for them.