The interactive dialectics of musical meaning formation

Interactions with music are based on bodily activities that co-determine perception and meaning formation. This chapter focuses on the idea that assessments of music may change "on the fly", while interacting with music. Assume a context in which we play music with friends. In this context, being in sync (thesis) and being out of sync (antithesis) offers a setting for conflicting assessments about timing. Interactive dialectics can be seen as a dynamic model that regulates changes in state-assessments during embodied interaction with music. Historically, attempts to formalize the dynamic model have been conceived in terms of formal logical systems, which describe conflict and conflict resolution of conceptualized meanings as a form of "reasoning". In the last decade, music research has rapidly embraced embodiment as a key element in our understanding. The embodied grounding of musical meaning explains why assessments have a compelling character even at the conceptual level