This qualitative inquiry explores the content, processes, and social functions of personal meanings of specific pieces of music. The inquiry analyses the personal meanings adhering to 390 pieces of music selected by 79 adults aged between 30 and 78 years. An innovative aspect of the inquiry is that its data sample was not collected by the researcher but drawn from an archive of radio interviews conducted by a previous interviewer. Analysis and interpretation of these data was guided by the systematic methods of constructivist, grounded theory methodology. The inquiry reveals that the content of personal meanings of specific pieces of music aligns with meanings described in previous research. However, probing beneath the surface of such descriptions, this inquiry reveals a number of distinguishing characteristics of personal meanings. Firstly, personal meanings adhere to specific pieces of music. In this case, the sounds of a piece of music, its sonic materiality, matter. Secondly, personal meanings are not fixed but are dynamic, cumulative admixtures of multiple meanings. Thirdly, personal meanings adhere to pieces of music via a number of pathways which integrate aesthetic responses to the music, acquired knowledge about the music or its performance, and biographical associations into the ongoing story of informants' lives. Fourthly, personal meanings constitute social action simultaneously engaged in the reflexive project of self and ongoing reproduction of expectations and assumptions about the role of music in social life. The inquiry suggests that previously collected qualitative data can provide trustworthy samples for later research. It also highlights the need for scholars of music to reconsider the potential of subjective meanings as sites for investigating the human experience of music.

This research brings attention to the ‘obsolescence of periodization’ (Hoptman, 2014, p. 13), a phrase applied to some contemporary painters who do not consider themselves restricted to a painting style or period. Rather, these artists acknowledge influences from a variety of periods. Research produced for this study acknowledges the influence on my practice of seemingly diverse fields of painting and performative art: The Sublime, Expressionism, and Relationality.

The research is focused on affect and sensory-emotive transference, originating from my encounters with land. Affect is synaesthetic, implying a participation of the senses in each other (Massumi, 1995, p. 96). Embodiment of sensory-emotive content is examined in the well-researched fields of Sublime painting and Expressionist painting. I also question whether my research focus, emphasising human reciprocity with land, extends to the ‘contested critical terrain of relational art’ (Watson, 2015, p. 151).

Process, in this study, became a record of dialogue between the activity of land and the activity of painting, whereby ‘feelings were seen to emerge out of sensory immersion’ (Kirk, 2014, p. 120). It consequently became less important to have finished works and more important to have active readings of the dialogue formed with the land through art practice. While including painting and drawing, process expanded my practice to also include digital video, sculpture, installation and performance drawing, in a broad range of art activities termed relationscapes.