Between silence and pain: loudness and the affective encounter

Abstract

As an axiomatic condition of sound, loudness is implicated at all levels of aural perception. Ever in contest, loudness asserts its importance in noise ordinances and stage whispers, on the battlefield and by the infant’s bedside. Yet despite its pervasiveness, loudness remains among the least-analyzed components of the sonic encounter. Focusing on musical applications and listener accounts, this article considers the role of loudness as a generator of sonic affect, situating it within a matrix of psychoacoustic and phenomenological processes. The essay distills three (non-exhaustive) types of commonly reported loudness-effects, which are dubbed ‘listener collapse’, ‘imagined loudness’, and ‘noise occupation’. A final section applies these effects to two recent theories of musical aesthetics: Michel Poizat’s operatic ‘cry’ and Fred Moten’s discussion of ‘Aunt Hester’s scream’. Though multiple levels of loudness experience are considered, the analysis pays particular attention to the force of high-intensity sound, which foregrounds the physical–and sometimes painful–aspects of sonic experience.