History of Gestalt Psychology and Music

Looking back at the antecedents of Gestalt theory, Wolfgang Köhler mentioned Carl Stumpf’s doctrine of tonal fusion and Christian von Ehrenfels’ essay on figural qualities. Remarkably, in both cases music plays a decisive role: Stumpf elaborated the notion of Tonverschmelzung in his investigations into the psychological foundations of music; Ehrenfels started from the question “What is a melody?” in his attempt to introduce Gestaltqualitäten. The two approaches were somewhat complementary in nature: Stumpf undertook an analysis of the synchronic, or harmonic, dimension of the combination of sounds, whereas Ehrenfels focused on the diachronic or melodic. The two concepts stimulated innovative theoreti- cal reflections and provoked lively controversies on many levels, influencing the psychology of acoustic perception and the philosophy of music, as well as general psychology and philosophy. The ensuing debates involved numerous philosophers and psychologists of the time, including, but not limited to, researchers from Austrian and German universities. As Köhler duly noted, the Berlin School of Gestalt theory has its roots in this milieu.