Reorienting Audition Through Bodily Listening in Place

Abstract

Sunlight streams through the window of my music room, spilling out across a low chest and onto the variegated maple floor. Sunlight plays across the dark shiny grain of the old wooden chest, reflecting and shifting as I move. I slide the sunbeam across the surface of the chest by moving laterally. A blue and yellow Ghanaian batik runner threads the middle of the chest, interrupting the reflection, the colours intensified in my sustained gaze. I stand sock-footed in the patch of sunlight on the floor. Warmth of light, chill of floor on my feet. I am holding my flute. I resist the urge to close my eyes and bathe in the familiar intimacy of sound. Instead, I keep my eyes open and play long, low tones while focusing on the play of sunlight, the warmth, and the feeling of toes and heels as I curl, lift, and lower them while never losing contact with the floor. I am acutely aware of my flute. Of how it feels in my hands, under the pads of my fingers, stale, sour, metallic smell of old breath lingering in the head joint. I focus on my finger pressure on the keys. Inadvertently lifting my right middle finger causes a slight leak, a small squeak. I try to let sounds emerge as a by-product of my interactions with flute, feet, light, and space. Reorienting Audition Through Bodily Listening in Place