Pauline Oliveros, born on the 30th of May 1932 until her death on the 24th of November 2016, was an American composer and accordionist responsible for the concept of “deep listening”. Her creations are described to be meditative improvisational music – not in the sense that they are intended to support meditation sessions but rather each piece are embodiments of meditation.
Sonic Meditations departs from standard musical notation, conceptualises where music grows from and how it can be realised. Sonic Meditations revolve around the cognition of sound – through the practice of meditation. Sonic Meditations is essentially a workshop for use, as it is a series of pieces. This set consists of 25 brief text instructions, each describing a performing or listening activity.
Deep Listening involves “going below the surface of what is heard”, to constantly remind us that we never hear the same thing twice, that the act of listening is inherently incomplete. “Deeply listening” to sounds means being attuned to – being physically and subjectively in touch with – what we call the “as-yet-unheard”. Simply means to listen actively and selectively. Deep listening represents a heightened state of awareness and connects to all that there is.
I find her perspective of “deep listening” quite intriguing as she describes it to be “exploring the difference between hearing and listening”. At first thought, hearing and listening are both similar actions which we experience in our everyday lives but specifically in the case of deep listening: the ear hears, the brain listens, and the body senses vibrations. To hear is the physical means that enables perception whilst to listen is to give attention to what is perceived both acoustically and psychologically.