Ludic Music

Abstract

Abstract The third chapter of the book contrasts a more dynamic, interactive ludic hearing with the more static, reflective aesthetic hearing. Building on the work of game music scholars Isabella van Elferen, William Cheng, Kiri Miller, and Julianne Grasso, on the one hand, and on Carolyn Abbate’s ‘drastic’ critique of musical hermeneutics on the other, it asks what it is like to experience oneself as playing along to video game music. The chapter proposes a number of case studies to consider the variety of phenomena that are involved in ludic hearing—Proteus and the question of entrainment, Journey and embodiment or ‘inward dancing,’ representations of synaesthesia and glee as an affect in rhythm games like Rez—before concluding with a consideration of ludic affects beyond glee.