The transcendent experience in experimental popular music performance

This thesis is an investigation into experiences of transcendence in music performance driven by the author’s own performance practice and the experimental popular music environment in which he is situated. Employing a phenomenological approach, 19 interviews were conducted with musicians, both locally and internationally, who were considered strong influences on the author’s own practice. The interviews focused on transcendent experiences in music performance and provided rich texts for analysis and comparison with existing models of transcendent experience. The main areas investigated are how transcendence was experienced, the musical and extra-musical aspects of these experiences, and how discussing the significance of these experiences is useful for one’s musical practice and in educational contexts. The framework of transcendent experience in experimental popular music developed in this thesis encapsulates a diverse range of personal and collective experiences of music performance. Despite this diversity, of individual musicianship, experiences and personality, a common experiential ground of experimental popular music performance providing a vehicle for shared musical experiences and meaning, including transcendence, is revealed. The outcomes of this study provide unique insight into the creative processes and music-making in the form of experimental popular music and, in doing so, have potential implications for education and general musicianship