Seeing in the Mind’s Eye

This chapter considers the psychological mechanism known as visual imagery. Visual imagery is defined as a process whereby an emotion is evoked in the listener because he or she conjures up inner images while listening to the music. Images might come about in three ways. First, mental imagery may occur when listeners conceptualize the musical structure through a nonverbal mapping between the metaphorical ‘affordances’ of the music and image-schemata grounded in bodily experience. A second type of imagery might occur when a listener brings to a listening experience certain types of knowledge or myths about the circumstances surrounding the creation of the piece or about the artist in question. Thirdly, a music listener can create images based on how certain aspects of the music mirror aspects of the listener's current life experience.