Music

and Emotion
Thompson, Chapter 7
And other materials

Agenda
Music and emotion according to philosophers and

musicologists

Approaches in cognitive science including testing

methods for testing and gathering data

Cross-modal eects e.g., music and lm

Music and emotion

Literature on music and emotion is contradictory, as we

will see

Publications by philosophers, musicologists, music

theorists, as well as cognitive scientists

We begin with philosophy/musicology two schools:

1) Music refers to emotions by representing their form
2) Music arouses emotions via expectation: denial or

fulllment

Categories of thought
1) Music represents emotion in its form
Peter Kivy
Deryck Cooke
Suzanne Langer

2) Music arouses emotions via expectation

Leonard Meyer
Eugene Narmour
David Huron

1) Music represents the

form of emotions
Peter Kivy (1939- ): Philosopher and musicologist

who writes on both music and visual arts.

Some of his writings:

The Corded Shell: Reections on Musical Expression (1980).
Sound Sentiment: An Essay on Musical Emotions (1989).

Music can convey specic emotions, by means of

features (mode, tempo, patterns) that resemble

human behavior expressive of these emotions

Kivys contour and convention

Contour resembles human behavior
Natural connections (music and body)
E.g., slow tempo = sadness

because slow and labored gait of sad individuals

Convention learned from culture

No obvious natural connection
Learned association musical features with emotive ones

(plagal cadence = religious)

Enculturation and learning

1. Music represents the

form of emotions

Deryck Cooke (1959-1976) - The Language of Music

Particular intervals and motives convey distinct emotions

across composers
M3 = joy or triumph
Ascending M6 = longing for pleasure
mi6 = anguish

Testable theory: researchers find support for joyous M3

over mi3, but little else has been tested

1. Music represents the

form of emotions
Suzanne Langer (1957-1985)
Unlike Kivy/Cooke, she believes music represents

undierentiated emotions

Morphology of feeling = Dynamic shifting patterns of

motion/rest, tension/release, agreement/disagreement,

fulllment, excitation, sudden change, etc.

Musical forms signify shifting emotions rather than

specic individual emotions

2) Emotion arises from

expectation fullled or thwarted
Leonard Meyer (1918-2007)
Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956):
Inuential dissertation from University of Chicago

Two types of meaning:

Designated stimulus and referent are dierent in kind

learned associations, like words for objects

Embodied stimulus and reference are same in kind
Musical emotion is embodied; patterns in pitch or
rhythm set expectations for pitch/rhythm continuation

Expectation theories
Based on expectation:
Expectation denied leads to emotion
Meyer denies that music gives rise to specic emotions;

expectation violations create undierentiated arousal.

Expectations based on Gestalt-like principles
Most famous example: gap-ll in melodic structure
Large leaps must be lled in by stepwise motion in the

opposite direction (e.g., Somewhere over the Rainbow)

If that is thwarted. We experience emotion. Music
continually deviates from expectation.

Expectation theory
Meyers student Eugene Narmour (also ESM undergrad)
Developed this further Implication-realization

theory (IR theory) detailed categories of expectation

E.g., Small interval in one direction IMPLIES stepwise

continuation in the same direction. REALIZATION is

expected, thwarted realization creates arousal.

Worked out IR theory in great detail, drawing explicitly

on Gestalt principles like Good Continuation.

Emotional labels (happy, sad, angry) come from individual

custom and tradition (Meyers designated meaning)

Huron on emotion and expectation:

ITPRA THEORY
David Huron on emotion: follows in the tradition of

expectation theories ITPRA THEORY

Huron (2006): ve categories of expectancy responses

Imagination (pre-outcome)
Tension (pre-outcome)
Prediction (post-outcome)
Reaction (post-outcome)
Appraisal (post-outcome)
Combination explains wide range of emotional response

Huron: Pre-outcome responses

Before the musical event:
Imagination response emotional state, while one is

aware that the event has not occurred (e.g., performer

who imagines stage fright results in practicing!)

Tension response physiological state; preparation for

an imminent event, change in arousal

Tension responses may have evolutionary bases =

ght, ight, or freeze

Huron: Post-outcome responses

After the musical event, you might have any

one of these responses (emotional reaction):

Prediction response limbic reward in response to

accuracy of prediction/expectation (accounts for qualia)
Reaction response rapid, automatic, preattentive kneejerk reactions activates bodily actions (laughter)
Appraisal responses considered and conscious
assessments of outcome (post-cognitive)

How does ITPRA

explain musics emotion?
Huron combines the pre-event and post-event aspects

of the theory:

Tension response to music is high, but appraisal response is

of safety (we know we are safe in concert hall); generates a

positive valence (safety) with heightened tension awe
Sense of danger in the world translates to awe in music
One reason why we enjoy sad music our appraisal response

knows that we are safe and not touched by a real reason for
sadness (more on that next class)

What do we mean by valence?

Circumplex Model of emotion another way to

account for complex emotions

Data plotted on a two-dimensional circular array

Horizonatal axis = valence (positive negative)
Vertical axis = activity (active passive)
Each emotion is plotted as a mixture of activity plus

positive/negative valence (next slide)

Circumplex model of emotion

Activity

Valence

Boldface =
Basic emotions

Cognitive studies of
emotion distinguish.
Basic emotions
Evolved to cope with survival
Exist in all cultures, universal
Have distinct (facial) expressions
Typically happiness, sadness, anger, fear in music
studies; other studies include disgust, surprise
Which pictures show these emotions? Which is which?
Secondary emotions
Socially constructed; culturally dependent; examples?

How do basic emotions work with music?

Listen to an excerpt of a work
Close your eyes and concentrate (2min)
Happiness, sadness, anger, or fear?
If you could freely describe an emotion emotion this

evokes, what would it be?

Any physiological reactions?

Tears, slowing heart, chills (frisson)
Any learned associations?

Experimental evidence: basic emotions

Terwogt and van Grinsven (1991) question: Are basic

emotions universal? How early do they emerge?

Had listeners match facial expressions to music.

Children and adults associated music excerpts with

four faces (happy, sad, fearful, angry)

Even 5-year-olds good at happy/sad. High
agreement, but less so on fear, anger.
94% adults made same sad/happy discrimination

What musical factors happy/sad?

What factors do you associate with happy/sad?
Happy
Fast, major, high tessitura, bright timbre
Sad
Slow, minor, low tessitura, dark timbre
What other auditory signal evokes these emotions

in a similar way? Universality?

Theories of emotion and cognition

(1) Pre-cognitive theory: emotion response occurs

prior to (or separate from) cognitive appraisal

Primitive response in peripheral nervous system

Adrenalin, trembling = fear (seeing a snake)
May be automatic response to acoustic features of

the music (tempo, loudness, timbre)

(2) Post-cognitive theory of emotion: listening to

music leads to cognitive interpretation, and then to

an appraisal where emotion arises

Support for pre-cognitive theory

We know preferences do not depend on

cognitive processing: e.g., Mere Exposure

Eect
Repeated exposure results in liking, even if that

exposure is not recalled post-cognitively

Dissociation in brain damage

Peretz & Gagnon (1999): Amusia patient unable to
recognize familiar melodies by name, but accurately
perceived emotion in music (so pre-cognitive)

Support for pre-cognitive theory (2)

If music is not recognized, yet emotion is perceived

accurately, it may be that

Amygdala undamaged in the amusic brain -- part of

the limbic system, associated with emotion (oldest

part of human brain, seen in reptiles, other
mammals)
Supports automatic processing of emotion without
higher-level cognitive processing

How do researchers measure emotion?

(1) Self-report (journals and surveys)
(2) Semantic dierential scales:
A rating scale with emotion at either end:
Sad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Happy
Relaxed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Agitated
(3) Continuous ratings, sliding scale (tension)
(4) Physical measurements, such as pulse,
hormones in saliva, skin response, brain imaging

Montreal validated auditory tests

Remember the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia

(MBEA)?

This team of researchers has developed emotion tests too

For speech and music (validated by a large number of

independent raters)

Emotion on ah by trained actors; improvised emotion on

violin and clarinet

Their stimuli are downloadable and awaiting further

experimentation

Montreal Aective Tests:

Basic Emotions in Speech / Instruments
Montreal Aective Voices (MAV)
Which emotion?

Montreal Emotional Bursts (MEB)

Violin
Clarinet
Paquette, Peretz, Belin, 2013 WHAT CHARACTERISTICS?

Emotion and arousal:

Daniel Berlyne (1924-1976)

Berlyn proposed that there is an optimal level of

complexity in a stimulus that leads to preference, gives

rise to emotion

He proposes the inverted U-function for hedonic

value

Relates stimulus complexity to arousal or pleasure (=

hedonic value)

Berlynes inverted U-function

Inverted U-function for hedonic value what does this

show?

Inverted U-function
X-axis is degree of complexity or novelty; Y-axis is

pleasure

Listeners prefer moderate complexity

Curve peaks in middle (max pleasure)
Too simple, not interesting, low arousal
Too complex, unpleasant (low arousal)

For musicians, peaks later (preference for higher

complexity than nonmusicians)

Perhaps explains musicians higher assessment of atonal

music than nonmusicians?

Mandlers work on exposure (1984)

Based on Berlynes ideas two main points:
1. Repeated exposure changes response
Initially simple and pleasing, on repetition becomes

lightweight, trivial, low arousal (e.g., simple pop

songs?)
Initially complex, becomes more pleasing with
familiarity (e.g., complex chromaticism)

2. Mandler also argues that emotional response to music

has an adaptive value (Huron does, too)

Adaptive value (Mandler)

Emotional responses to music, example of more general

adaptive biological response to unexpected events

Ability to anticipate events crucial for human survival;

guided by responses to auditory events

Musical stimulus leads to increased breathing, heart rate

(automatic, unconscious, pre-cognitive) AND to cognitive

re-evaluation of stimulus.

Combination of arousal and cognitive activity leads to

emotional experience (pre-cognitive and post-cognitive

elements)

Multiple mechanisms theory

Juslin &Vstull (2008)

Perhaps conicting theories of music/emotion can be

explained by multiple mechanisms operating at once

Juslin &Vstull (2008): six mechanisms give rise

to emotion; these may be combined

(1) Brain stem reex (primitive response to acoustic

characteristics loud, dissonant, fast increases arousal)
(2) Evaluative conditioning
Association by repetition (Happy Birthday = happy)

Multiple mechanisms (2)

(3) Emotional contagion
Perceiving emotion can induce emotion
Seeing someone cry or laugh (mirror neurons)
(4) Visual imagery
E.g., slow ascending passage evokes sunrise
(5) Episodic memory for an event in the listeners life;
emotion for that event is evoked (lovers have our song)
(6) Musical expectancy violation or fulllment
E.g., Meyer, Narmour, Huron

Is musical emotion real?

Does music evoke the idea of sadness, or does it make

you sad?

Disagreement among writers

Cognitivist position we sense which emotion the

performer/composer intends to portray, but we dont

feel the emotion itself
Emotivist position music elicits a real emotional
response

Thoughts?

Evidence for emotivist position: chills

Sloboda (1991) survey of physical responses to musical

emotion 1 = never, 5 = very often.

Highest response for shivers, laughter, lump in throat,

tears. 2.6 to 3.0 rating (out of 5).

Body of research on music and chills physiological

reaction (not the idea of chills, but real chills)

Are there pieces that give you the chills?

Evidence for emotivist position (2)

Recent studies collect physiological measurements

(Krumhansl 1997):
12 measurements, such as heart rate, breathing rate,
blood pressure, nger temperature, skin conductance

ALL measures were aected by music, regardless of

which emotion (happy, sad, fearful).

Reduced heart rate, skin conductance, temperature.
Increased breathing rate, blood pressure.

Sad: greater change in heart, blood pressure. Skin

conductance; Happy: greater change in respiration

Evidence for emotivist position (3)

Continuous measurement studies

(e.g., slider can be moved as

emotion increases)
Tension varies continuously

through piece
Continuous Response Digital
Interface (CRDI)
This one from Silvey (2011)
Pictures at an Exhibition
Piano, or brass, or orchestra
(piano largest response!)

But rst, for Thursday:

Read Thompson, Chapter 8 on Music and Well-Being
AND a short qualitative experiment on music and

dementia (McDermott et al, 2014)

One week from today: papers are due (so continue

working on those)