Polyphonizing as a Contemplative Practice
November 17, 2025 Jakob Stillmark
When music incorporates borrowed material within repetitive structures, listeners often experience a dual perception, shifting focus from the borrowed material's representational meaning to its immediate sonic qualities. This shift is described as aesthetic contemplation. The author presents an artistic exploration of how contemplative practices can guide compositional techniques, drawing on experiments with repetition and fragmentation of musical borrowings and on meditative experience. A central insight is that moments of dual perception are inherently polyphonic, leading to a compositional approach called "polyphonizing." The work integrates perspectives from sound studies, phenomenology, and metacognition.