What does it mean to ask someone to try to “hear (x) as a (musical) work”? This sentence refers to an aspectual perception involving a type of object and a type of attention, in such a process, the active role of knowledge with regards to the production of an artifact is highlighted. Here, a first level of understanding will coincide with one’s capacity to identify musical objects and follow their concatenation. The transition to the upper level of understanding depends on the identification of symbolic, intentional and more generally contextual references. While at the first level the listener considers the expressive properties supervenient upon the physical and phenomenal properties of the musical object, at the upper level, he or she focuses on the artistic properties of the work supervenient upon expressive and structural properties. By asking someone to try to hear a piece of music “as a work”, we thus invite that person to identify a structural type in the sounds being heard, and to apply criteria which allow the choice of aesthetic properties with an artistic value among those supervenient upon the physical and phenomenal base.