Music and Our Emotions - Glowsticking.com

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Wednesday, 20 February 2008 15:27

In music's fundamental form (repetition with variation) offers freedom of interpretation. When both music and lyrics are added in a combination, it offers us specificity but yet it reduces the freedom of elucidation within the music. Music is mysterious in itself, but it is not something humans need to survive, but why is it created and what draws us to listen?

Emotions, being the one feelings that is the most unclear, is able to be tapped by music. Some believe that a piece of music will have the same emotional outcome in most, if not all, people. If this were true, then understanding how powerful music effects our emotions would be less complex.

Music can produce different emotions in individuals, but can also have different emotional responses in the same person at different times. Common sense and common experience tell us that our emotional reactions have an strong effect. Neither sense or experience are related to the liking, or hedonic value, and brain arousal, which results in an emotion. It may help explain why the same music can produce different emotions in the same person at different times; we may like it to the same extent, but if it arouses us differently, then it will evoke a different response.

Music also can produce physical effects (sensations such as tingles, chills, etc). In a study, more than 80% of adults reported that music caused physical responses such as thrills, laughter, and tears. It was reported that the stronger the emotional content of a piece of music, the more likely an individual is going to experience chills. These reactions were most probable when music produced feelings of sadness.

The four emotional states concentrated by workers that are produced by music are sadness happiness, anger, and fear. Tempo and articulation were believed to help explain how an emotion is influenced. Four tempos were played (either fast or slow) and articulations were staccato (very brief notes, separated by brief silences) or legato (playing so a note glides into the next one without interruption).

-Happiness: fast tempo, staccato
-Sadness: slow, legato
-Anger: fast, legato
-Fear: slow, staccato

Happiness and anger were associated with being louder and sadness and fear with softer music. The same tempo and articulation that performers use to represent an emotion are the same that listeners use to receive the intended emotion.
A big question is if a listener is actually feeling a real emotion or simply a correctly guessing the performers intention. To some believers, they claim music does not actually produce genuine emotions. They argue that a listener can recognize the emotion intended in music, but do not experience a true emotion from the music. It is difficult for someone to tell the difference between the judging of a sense. For example, happiness heard from music, and an actual happy feeling because people would label both as ?happy?.
Physical tests were performed to see if there were any changes in blood pressure, breathing, skin temperature, etc. The three moods ?happy?, ?sad?, and ?fear? were used to determine the extent of changes. ?happy? had the largest changes in respiration; ?sad? involved the largest in heart rate, blood pressure, and skin temperature; ?fear? had the greatest change in rate of blood flow. Genuine emotion can be physically defined and can result in a true emotion that was also intended by the producer.