The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features.
One of the primary functions of music is to convey emotion, yet how music accomplishes this task remains unclear. For example, simple correlations between mode (major vs. minor) and emotion (happy vs. sad) do not adequately explain the enormous range, subtlety or complexity of musically induced emot...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4140734?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818025361070358528 |
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| author | Malinda J McPherson Monica Lopez-Gonzalez Summer K Rankin Charles J Limb |
| author_facet | Malinda J McPherson Monica Lopez-Gonzalez Summer K Rankin Charles J Limb |
| author_sort | Malinda J McPherson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | One of the primary functions of music is to convey emotion, yet how music accomplishes this task remains unclear. For example, simple correlations between mode (major vs. minor) and emotion (happy vs. sad) do not adequately explain the enormous range, subtlety or complexity of musically induced emotions. In this study, we examined the structural features of unconstrained musical improvisations generated by jazz pianists in response to emotional cues. We hypothesized that musicians would not utilize any universal rules to convey emotions, but would instead combine heterogeneous musical elements together in order to depict positive and negative emotions. Our findings demonstrate a lack of simple correspondence between emotions and musical features of spontaneous musical improvisation. While improvisations in response to positive emotional cues were more likely to be in major keys, have faster tempos, faster key press velocities and more staccato notes when compared to negative improvisations, there was a wide distribution for each emotion with components that directly violated these primary associations. The finding that musicians often combine disparate features together in order to convey emotion during improvisation suggests that structural diversity may be an essential feature of the ability of music to express a wide range of emotion. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T04:14:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1ff74c07cc43486ab7694903bb53a7d8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T04:14:53Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-1ff74c07cc43486ab7694903bb53a7d82022-12-22T02:02:38ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0198e10514410.1371/journal.pone.0105144The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features.Malinda J McPhersonMonica Lopez-GonzalezSummer K RankinCharles J LimbOne of the primary functions of music is to convey emotion, yet how music accomplishes this task remains unclear. For example, simple correlations between mode (major vs. minor) and emotion (happy vs. sad) do not adequately explain the enormous range, subtlety or complexity of musically induced emotions. In this study, we examined the structural features of unconstrained musical improvisations generated by jazz pianists in response to emotional cues. We hypothesized that musicians would not utilize any universal rules to convey emotions, but would instead combine heterogeneous musical elements together in order to depict positive and negative emotions. Our findings demonstrate a lack of simple correspondence between emotions and musical features of spontaneous musical improvisation. While improvisations in response to positive emotional cues were more likely to be in major keys, have faster tempos, faster key press velocities and more staccato notes when compared to negative improvisations, there was a wide distribution for each emotion with components that directly violated these primary associations. The finding that musicians often combine disparate features together in order to convey emotion during improvisation suggests that structural diversity may be an essential feature of the ability of music to express a wide range of emotion.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4140734?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Malinda J McPherson Monica Lopez-Gonzalez Summer K Rankin Charles J Limb The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features. PLoS ONE |
| title | The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features. |
| title_full | The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features. |
| title_fullStr | The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features. |
| title_short | The role of emotion in musical improvisation: an analysis of structural features. |
| title_sort | role of emotion in musical improvisation an analysis of structural features |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4140734?pdf=render |
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