Recognition is a funny word: I recognize snippets of familiar songs in all kinds of music -- though the other evening I was told by the composer that I would recognize references to a work that I think I know extremely well and they were nowhere that I could find them.... Then there is the other kind, public recognition, fame.
Recognizing oneself in the experience of music is a great basis for a rewarding listening experience--it can be any aspect of one's past or present, visible or invisible self. I think this is the basis for what I call empathetic listening. Maybe another word is participatory.
Recognizing themes and tracking structures seems to me to be totally irrelevant to this kind of listening. Rather than encourage warming up to experiences of sound it puts a barrier between listener and player that didn't used to be there.
I think of that huge wall separating the Israelis from the Palestinians, or the wall being proposed for the Mexico-U.S. border. What terrible images they are.
