Unlocking the Musical Mind: An Introduction to Music and Emotion
- camador
- May 6, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 12
New Book: If you like this topic, you can get a lot more information in my new book Designing Music for Emotion - A Practical Guide for Fim and Media Composers and Music Enthusiasts
Buy it on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/3kjsNDz
Buy it on my Shop: www.carlosamador.co.uk/shop
Music and emotion is a branch in music psychology that explores the profound connection between sound and human feelings. It delves into how melodies, rhythms, harmonies and orchestration evoke various emotional responses, shaping our experiences and perceptions. Through interdisciplinary study, it examines the intricate interplay between musical elements and psychological processes, shedding light on the captivating ways music impacts our emotions.
Below are some terms commonly used in the field of Music and Emotion:
Affect: An overarching term encompassing all valenced states, such as emotion, preference, and mood.
Attention: It primes the brain to better perceive the environment during an emotional state (Huron, 2006).
Emotion: A brief, intense psychophysiological reaction involving subjective feelings, behavioural expressions, physiological arousal, neural activation, action tendencies, and regulatory processes (Gabrielsson, 2011; Juslin and Laukka, 2004).
Musical emotions: Emotions induced by music, which frequently include a pleasurable component, even in the case of negative emotions (Kawakami et al., 2014).
Mood/preference: Affective states of lower intensity and longer effect than emotions (Juslin, 2020).
Most emotions are related to universal face expressions (Juslin, 2020). Plutchik’s wheel of emotions is based on the different intensities of these 8 basic emotions and their blends (Plutchik and Kellerman, 1980).
Plutchik's wheel of emotions. Taken from Plutchik and Kellerman (1980)
Level of Arousal & Valence
Russell (1980) classified emotions in a two-dimensional space in terms of level of arousal and positive/negative valence (affective quality specifying the intrinsic attractiveness or averseness of an object, person or situation).
Emotions valence and level of arousal. Taken from Korn (2017).
Two Groups of Emotions often Used in Film Music
Eliciting basic emotions like happiness and sadness through music is often more straightforward than evoking complex emotions. Two prevalent emotional groups frequently explored in film music are:
Emotions of uncertainty: Fear or fascination with the unknown. Emotions with negative valence include anxiety, fear or compounded emotions like suspense (fear + hope + anxiety). Emotions with positive valence include curiosity, interest, or compounded ones like mystery (curiosity + desire to learn the outcome). They are characterised by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physiological changes such as piloerection.
Emotions of Surprise: Pleasurable states that involve a component of manageable fear, often directed to objects that do not pose a serious threat and result in incomparable experiences (Lehman, 2018): laughter (dissolved fear), awe (manageable contained fear, freeze response) and frisson (manageable fear, readiness to fight) (Huron, 2006).
Elicitation vs. Expression of Emotions
Whether music can elicit (Emotivists’ view) or just express (formalists resemblance theory) emotions is controversial (Juslin, 2010). Scherer and Zentner (2001) suggest that musical emotions require the combination of musical structural features (see Figure 3), performance, listener and contextual features to successfully elicit emotions.
Principles for Eliciting Emotions In Music
1. Evolutionary Principles on Music and emotion (Universal)
Phenomena commonly used in film and media music to elicit emotions by activating our survival biology mechanisms. Two common approaches include:
a) The 'startle effect' or brain stem reflex: This is a hardwired attention response to extreme values of basic acoustic properties. Imagine a sudden, booming violin note that makes you jump in your seat as in the shower's scene of Hitchcock's Psycho (Davis, 1984).
b) Aligning internal bodily rhythms with external musical rhythms, inducing anxiety through a beat faster than the resting heart rate. Ever felt your heart race to match a fast-paced rhythm? That's your body syncing up with the music and feeling a touch of anxiety."
2. Associative/semiotic Principles in Music and Emotion
Semiotics explores the symbolic, cultural, and associative meanings of musical signs, considering how they are constructed, interpreted, and communicated within specific cultural and historical backgrounds. Sociocultural context contributes to meaning via a store of musical signs that are common to transmitter (composer) and receiver (listener) (Tagg, 2012). A musical gesture (signifier) transforms into a musical sign filled with emotional depth when it's linked to a specific emotional meaning (signified). Some associations (icons), like mimicking natural sounds that resemble primal cries of distress (onomatopoeic sounds), resonate universally. Others, like cultural references (indices) or symbolic motifs, gain significance through shared cultural understanding or artistic intent (e.g., indices: Dies Irae for death, V7 resolving to I, minor for sad; artificial associations: love leitmotif or a National Anthem). These associations only work when both the creator (composer) and the audience (listeners) recognise the intended emotional message behind the music.
3. Psychological Principles on Music and Emotion: Musical Expectancy
In both music and other aspects of life, emotions are aroused when desires and expectations are delayed, inhibited, violated or confirmed (Meyer, 1956). Although psychological principles are universal, they are applied within a specific store of musical signs (style), which familiarity is cultural.
Hope you enjoyed this introduction into Music and Emotion ! #musicemotion
In the upcoming blog, I'll explore whether systematic approaches can be applied to your music, drawing from the principles discussed above, to effectively evoke emotions in your audience! Please, do not hesitate to ask any questions !
New Book: If you like this topic, you can get a lot more information in my new book Designing Music for Emotion - A Practical Guide for Fim and Media Composers and Music Enthusiasts
Buy it on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/3kjsNDz
Buy it on my Shop: www.carlosamador.co.uk/shop
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