Perception of emotion in sounded and imagined music

WE STUDIED THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSES BY MUSICIANS to familiar classical music excerpts both when the music was sounded, and when it was imagined.We used continuous response methodology to record response profiles for the dimensions of valence and arousal simultaneously and then on the single dimension of emotionality. The response profiles were compared using cross-correlation analysis, and an analysis of responses to musical feature turning points, which isolate instances of change in musical features thought to influence valence and arousal responses. We found strong similarity between the use of an emotionality arousal scale across the stimuli, regardless of condition (imagined or sounded). A majority of participants were able to create emotional response profiles while imagining the music, which were similar in timing to the response profiles created while listening to the sounded music.We conclude that similar mechanisms may be involved in the processing of emotion in music when the music is sounded and when imagined.

From emotion perception to emotion experience: Emotions evoked by pictures and classical music.

Most previous neurophysiological studies evoked emotions by presenting visual stimuli. Models of the emotion circuits in the brain have for the most part ignored emotions arising from musical stimuli. To our knowledge, this is the first emotion brain study which examined the influence of visual and musical stimuli on brain processing. Highly arousing pictures of the International Affective Picture System and classical musical excerpts were chosen to evoke the three basic emotions of happiness, sadness and fear. The emotional stimuli modalities were presented for 70 s either alone or combined (congruent) in a counterbalanced and random order. Electroencephalogram (EEG) Alpha-Power-Density, which is inversely related to neural electrical activity, in 30 scalp electrodes from 24 right-handed healthy female subjects, was recorded. In addition, heart rate (HR), skin conductance responses (SCR), respiration, temperature and psychometrical ratings were collected. Results showed that the experienced quality of the presented emotions was most accurate in the combined conditions, intermediate in the picture conditions and lowest in the sound conditions. Furthermore, both the psychometrical ratings and the physiological involvement measurements (SCR, HR, Respiration) were significantly increased in the combined and sound conditions compared to the picture conditions. Finally, repeated measures ANOVA revealed the largest Alpha-Power-Density for the sound conditions, intermediate for the picture conditions, and lowest for the combined conditions, indicating the strongest activation in the combined conditions in a distributed emotion and arousal network comprising frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital neural structures. Summing up, these findings demonstrate that music can markedly enhance the emotional experience evoked by affective pictures.

Seeing music performance: Visual influences on perception and experience

Drawing from ethnographic, empirical, and historical/cultural perspectives, we examine the extent to which visual aspects of music contribute to the communication that takes place between performers and their listeners. First, we introduce a framework for understanding how media and genres shape aural and visual experiences of music. Second, we present case studies of two performances, and describe the relation between visual and aural aspects of performance. Third, we report empirical evidence that visual aspects of performance reliably influence perceptions of musical structure (pitch related features) and affective interpretations of music. Finally, we trace new and old media trajectories of aural and visual dimensions of music, and highlight how our conceptions, perceptions and appreciation of music are intertwined with technological innovation and media deployment strategies.

Resonance : a music director’s theomusicological study of ‘praise’ and ‘glory’ in a selection of four liturgical music excerpts

Some of my most powerful spiritual experiences have come from the splendorous and sublime sounding hymns performed by a choir and church organ at the traditional Anglican church I’ve attended since I was very young. In the later stage of my life, my pursuit of education in the field of engineering caused me to move to Australia where I regularly attended a contemporary evangelical church and subsequently became a music director in the faith community. This environmental and cultural shift altered my perception and musical experiences of Christian music and led me to enquire about the relationship between Christian liturgy and church music. Throughout history church musicians and composers have synthesised the theological, congregational, cultural and musical aspects of church liturgy. Many great composers have taken into account the conditions surrounding the process of sacred composition and arrangement of music to enhance the experience of religious ecstasy – they sought resonances with Christian values and beliefs to draw congregational participation into the light of praising and glorifying God. As a music director in an evangelical church this aspiration has become one I share. I hope to identify and define the qualities of these resonances that have been successful and apply them to my own practice. Introduction and Structure of the Thesis In this study I will examine four purposively selected excerpts of Christian church vocal music combining theomusicological and semiotic analysis to help identify guidelines that might be useful in my practice as a church music director. The four musical excerpts have been selected based upon their sustained musical and theological impact over time, and their ability to affect ecstatic responses from congregations. This thesis documents a personal journey through analysis of music and uses a context that draws upon ethno-musicological, theological and semiotic tools that lead to a preliminary framework and principles which can then be applied to the identified qualities of resonance in church music today. The thesis is comprised of four parts. Part 1 presents a literature study on the relationship between sacred music, the effects of religious ecstasy and the Christian church. Multiple lenses on this phenomenon are drawn from the viewpoints of prominent western church historians, Biblical theologians, and philosophers. The literature study continues in Part 2, where the role of embodiment is examined from the current perspective of cognitive learning environments. This study offers a platform for a critical reflection on two distinctive musical liturgical systems that have treated differently the notion of embodied understanding amidst a shifting church paradigm. This allows an in-depth theological and philosophical understanding of the liturgical conditions around sacred music-making that relates to the monistic and dualistic body/mind. Part 3 involves undertaking a theomusicological methodology that utilises creative case studies of four purposively selected spiritual pieces. A semiotic study focuses on specific sections of sacred vocal works that express the notions of ‘praise’ and ‘glorification’, particularly in relation to these effects,which combine an analysis of theological perspectives around religious ecstasy and particular spiritual themes. Part 4 presents the critiques and findings gathered from the study that incorporate theoretical and technological means to analyse the purposive selected musical artefact, particularly with the sonic narratives expressing notions of ‘Praise' and 'Glory’. The musical findings are further discussed in relation to the notion of resonance, and then a conceptual framework for the role of contemporary musicdirector is proposed. The musical and Christian terminologies used in the thesis are explained in the glossary, and the appendices includes tables illustrating the musical findings, conducted surveys, written musical analyses and audio examples of selected sacred pieces available on the enclosed compact disc.

Choreographic approaches to music composition for a new musical interface : the eMic

Gesture in performance is widely acknowledged in the literature as an important element in making a performance expressive and meaningful. The body has been shown to play an important role in the production and perception of vocal performance in particular. This paper is interested in the role of gesture in creative works that seek to extend vocal performance via technology. A creative work for vocal performer, laptop computer and a Human Computer Interface called the eMic (Extended Microphone Stand Interface controller) is presented as a case study, to explore the relationships between movement, voice production, and musical expression. The eMic is an interface for live vocal performance that allows the singers’ gestures and interactions with a sensor based microphone stand to be captured and mapped to musical parameters. The creative work discussed in this paper presents a new compositional approach for the eMic by working with movement as a starting point for the composition and thus using choreographed gesture as the basis for musical structures. By foregrounding the body and movement in the creative process, the aim is to create a more visually engaging performance where the performer is able to more effectively use the body to express their musical objectives.

The Innocent Pleasure : A Study on Luther's theology of music

The aim of the study is to examine Luther s theology of music from the standpoint of pleasure. The theological assessment of musical pleasure is related to two further questions: the role of emotions in Christianity and the apprehension of beauty. The medieval discussion of these themes is portrayed in the background chapter. Significant traits were: the suspicion felt towards sensuous gratification in music, music as a mathematical discipline, the medieval theory of emotions informed by Stoic apatheia and Platonic-Aristotelian metriopatheia, the notion of beauty as an attribute of God, medieval aesthetics as the aesthetic of proportion and the aesthetic of light and the emergence of the Aristotelian view of science that is based on experience rather than speculation. The treatment of Luther s theology of music is initiated with the notion of gift. Luther says that music is the excellent (or even the best) gift of God. This has sometimes been understood as a mere music-lover s enthusiasm. Luther is, however, not likely to use the word gift loosely. His theology can be depicted as a theology of gift. The Triune God is categorically giving. The notion of gift also includes reciprocity. When we receive the gifts of God, it evokes praise in us. Praising God is predominantly a musical phenomenon. The particular benefit of music in Luther s thought is that it can move human emotions. This emphasis is connected to the overall affectivity of Luther s theology. In contrast to the medieval discussion, Luther ascribes to saints not just emotions but particularly warm and tender affections. The power of music is related to the auditory and vocal character of the Word. Faith comes through hearing the Word that is at once musical and affective perception. Faith is not a mere opinion but the affective trust of the heart. Music can touch the human heart and persuade with its sweetness, like the good news of the Gospel. Music allows us to perceive Luther s theology as a theology of joy and pleasure. Joy is for Luther a gift of the Holy Spirit that fills the heart and bursts out in voice and gestures. Pleasure appears to be a central aspect to Luther s theology. The problem of the Bondage of the Will is precisely the human inability to feel pleasure in God s will. To be pleased in the visible and tangible creation is not something a Christian should avoid. On the contrary, if one is not pleased with the world that God has created, it is a sign of unbelief and ingratitude. The pleasure of music is aesthetic perception. This in turn necessitates the investigation of Luther s aesthetics. Aesthetic evaluation is not just a part of Luther s thought. Eventually his theology as a whole could be portrayed in aesthetic terms. Luther s extremely positive appreciation of music illutrates his theology as an affective acknowledgement of the goodness of the Creation and faith as an aesthetic contentment.

Digital Musical Interactions: Performer-System Relationships and their Perception by Spectators

This article adopts an ecological view of digital musical interactions, first considering the relationship between performers and digital systems, and then spectators’ perception of these interactions. We provide evidence that the relationships between performers and digital music systems are not necessarily instrumental in the same was as they are with acoustic systems, and nor should they always strive to be. Furthermore, we report results of a study suggesting that spectators may not perceive such interactions in the same way as performances with musical instruments. We present implications for the design of digital musical interactions, suggesting that designers should embrace the reality that digital systems are malleable and dynamic, and may engage performers and spectators in different modalities, sometimes simultaneously.

Gesture interaction in music for instruments and electroacoustic sounds

Esta tese apresenta alguns aspectos em como o fenómeno do gesto musical pode ser compreendido na percepção da interação musical na música para instrumentos e sons electroacústicos. Através de exemplos de análise, classificação e categorização de diferentes relacões gestuais entre instrumentos e sons electroacústicos, pretende-se estabelecer modelos específicos de interacção que podem ser aplicados como método analítico assim como na composição musical. A pesquisa parte de uma variedade de definições sobre gesto musical na música em geral, na música contemporânea e na música electroacústica em particular, para subsequentemente incluir as relações entre dois eventos sonoros com características diferentes - o electroacústico e o instrumental. São essencialmente abordadas as relações entre gestos musicais através da análise de diversas características: altura, ritmo, timbre, dinâmica, características contrapontísticas, espectromorfológicas, semânticas e espaciais. O resultado da pesquisa teórica serviu de suporte à composição de diversas obras, onde estes aspectos são explorados sob o ponto de vista da criação musical.

Spatial hearing and sound perception in musical composition

This thesis explores the possibilities of spatial hearing in relation to sound perception, and presents three acousmatic compositions based on a musical aesthetic that emphasizes this relation in musical discourse. The first important characteristic of these compositions is the exclusive use of sine waves and other time invariant sound signals. Even though these types of sound signals present no variations in time, it is possible to perceive pitch, loudness, and tone color variations as soon as they move in space due to acoustic processes involved in spatial hearing. To emphasize the perception of such variations, this thesis proposes to divide a tone in multiple sound units and spread them in space using several loudspeakers arranged around the listener. In addition to the perception of sound attribute variations, it is also possible to create rhythm and texture variations that depend on how sound units are arranged in space. This strategy permits to overcome the so called "sound surrogacy" implicit in acousmatic music, as it is possible to establish cause-effect relations between sound movement and the perception of sound attribute, rhythm, and texture variations. Another important consequence of using sound fragmentation together with sound spatialization is the possibility to produce diffuse sound fields independently from the levels of reverberation of the room, and to create sound spaces with a certain spatial depth without using any kind of artificial sound delay or reverberation.

The expression and production of piano timbre : gestural control and technique, perception and verbalisation in the context of piano performance and practice

La version intégrale de cette thèse est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).

Investigation of the value chain for creative products : a phenomenological study of the perceptions of music intermediaries

During the past decade, innovative digital technology and Internet marketplaces have created a variety of 'phenomena' of businesses, media and institutions considered to be important interaction channels in the music industry, along with an influx of Peer-to-Peer services such as Napster, and Kazaa shifting the business models of major music labels and distributors. Considering the Australian Music Association reported an annual retail turnover of approximately $300 million in 1992 and later in 1999, an increase in figures reported at $396.8 million with the inclusion of music DVD sales, the notion of value-adding to a music product emerges as a profitable venture at each length of the music industry's value chain. In spite of this, Australian studies have often overlooked the underlying perceptions, fears and ideas of those working within the value chain, especially regarding the impact of new technology on their roles. This paper identifies the perceptions of various intermediaries within the Australian Music Industry, identifying common themes and viewpoints amongst the study's participants. Consequently, the paper concluded that the perception of value in the music industry is somewhat influenced by a variety of factors, including music knowledge, communication and dependence on intermediaries to name a few. Common themes were revealed throughout the study include the perception of competitive advantage, new opportunities from new technology and the notion of defining a gimmick versus Value-Adding emerged as indicative of adding value from the study participants.

Authenticity in a modern music industry : a qualitative exploration into 'selling out'

This paper looks at the impact of authenticity in the modern music industry. With a focus on the influence of an artist’s life cycle and the evolution of the music industry, this paper explores the relationship between authenticity, the concept of selling out and social perception. A conceptual model is presented depicting the above relationships derived from the relevant literature. The paper concludes with a discussion of the method that will be used to undertake this research.

Women's bodies, self perception and physical activity : a naturalistic study of women's participation in aerobics classes

The aim of this study was to describe the behaviour and perceptions of women in aerobic or exercise to music classes. In particular, the study examined the meaning women attach to this activity choice and the interaction of aerobics participation with cultural pressures and beliefs such as that of the ‘ideal female bodyshape’. A naturalistic method of study was chosen in order to gain a comprehensive view of the subjective experience of aerobics participation. Approximately fifty female health club members were observed over a three month period in order to identify and describe patterns of involvement, behaviour and perception and the factors affecting them. Six groups of women were identified. These were ‘Naturals’, ‘Compulsive’, ‘Functional Feminist’. Several factors were observed as potentially contributing to the patterns observed. These included attitude toward perceived cultural ideals and pressures of female expectation and shape, perceptions of aerobics and exercise, pre-occupation with slenderness and bodyshape, self-image and body image. The relationship between these factors was found to be dynamic and reciprocal, with participation possibly intensifying or alternately reducing bodyshape concern. Aerobics was seen to have a multifaceted yet very individual and important appeal to the women observed.