Abstract
When intimacy is mentioned in music reviews, daily speech, and research on music—when a voice or other sound is described as “intimate,” for example—it might at first be understood as synonymous to perceived proximity. Yet it implies much more, including several engaging aspects of close interpersonal relations or interactions. This dissertation examines this experience of intimacy when one listens to music recordings, and the role of record production in triggering such an experience. I refer to this specific sense of intimacy as acousmatic intimacy in order to distinguish it from the intimacy that one experiences in everyday interpersonal encounters. I investigate this notion through a combination of literary reviews, sound analyses, and interviews with recordists, all informed by my overall hermeneutic approach. The aim of the dissertation is to conceptualize “acousmatic intimacy” as a theoretical approach to the sensation of intimacy that may be experienced when one listens to music recordings—that is, when the origins of the sounds (musicians and instruments) are absent. Such a sensation is often triggered by what musicians and recordists do in the process of making the recordings. As such, the dissertation provides qualitative insight into some of the ways in which listeners connect to music, and, more specifically, into the role of recordists in influencing listeners’ interpretation of musical meaning. The concept of acousmatic intimacy may eventually serve as a useful hermeneutic analytical framework for analyzing recorded music, and for understanding listening processes and production strategies.