SONIC PHANTOMS The Sonic Phantom as Emergent Gestalt

We could generally define a “sonic phantom ” as an illusion of hearing; something apparently heard but having no physical reality in terms of acoustic waves as perceptive input. Sonic phantoms are auditory illusions that we can indeed perceive but their locus of existence as hearing phenomena is only in our mind (our brain). The listener hears sounds that are actually not present as acoustic stimuli, but are instead emergent “fictional ” sounds which arise as a result of a very particular organization of the “real ” acoustic elements present. These kinds of phenomena have been recognized and researched independently in different fields of study and musical practice. Ethnomusicologists typically describe these sonic phantoms as “inherent or subjective patterns” of hearing (Kubik, 1967). Cognitive Psychologists refer to them as “auditory streams ” (Bregman, 1990). And within the realm of composition terms like “emergent gestalts”, “resultant patterns”, or “pseudo-polyphony ” are common to refer to them (e.g., Reich, 2002; Pandey, 2005). Hence, although my preferred term is the one I am introducing here-“sonic phantoms”- throughout this paper I will use some of the different abovementioned terms as befits the context to point to the same phenomenon. A general analysis of different types of music from around the world (both traditional and non-traditional) in which we find examples of prominent emergent gestalts, reveals that these are ofte