The article discusses the results of an empirical study that investigated, under the light of embodied cognition theories, how listeners build syntactic meaning during musical listening. An experimental protocol was developed, combining interpretative phenomenological analysis, using the think-aloud protocol—implemented through an original tool called simultaneous listening analysis—to address the oral statements and gestural actions of listeners, aiming to identify cues of the underlying mental processes involved in musical understanding. Preliminary results indicated that utterances derived from the musical imagery domain play a central role in the syntactic construction of the musical flow. Contrary to initial concerns, the predominance of personal imagery in the experience of music did not appear to pose an obstacle but rather provided more explicit access to cues about listeners' cognitive strategies for inferring meaning through syntactic organization. The protocol proved effective in yielding consistent data, demonstrating significant uniformity in the results. However, some limitations were identified, such as the significant reliance on the researcher’s actions during the interviews and simultaneous listening analysis, which inevitably results in a decisive influence. Furthermore, it was observed that the interaction between syntactic organization and critical semantic construction is bidirectional: in addition to being a consequent product, semantic production can also feedback and reconfigure syntactic perception. The dynamics of this mutual influence, although expected, require further investigation for a better understanding and refinement of the protocol.
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