Tracking auditory attention in group performances: A case study on Éliane Radigue’s Occam Delta XV

While the empirical study of the processes and mechanisms underlying joint musical performance has gained a lot of traction in the past few decades, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the study of musicians’ listening strategies in what remains a mainly audio-centric medium. Yet, understanding how musicians listen to each other is particularly crucial for more open-ended, improvised, or indeterminate musical practices, as it plays a crucial role in shaping how the performance will unfold. In this article, we report on an exploratory study that was designed to investigate the dynamics of musicians’ auditory attention in such settings, using Quatuor Bozzini’s performance of Éliane Radigue’s Occam Delta XV (2018) as a case study. Using a post hoc annotation procedure, we found striking differences between musicians’ overall auditory attention, with each musician’s listening orientation relating differently to the general narrative of Occam Delta XV. We also found that joint listening between musicians was more likely to emerge when coordination was more challenging, suggesting that attentional focus was used strategically by the performers as a way of enhancing coordination within the group. Taken together, our findings shed important light on musicians’ listening and interactional strategies in collective music-making.