Emotion manipulation through music.

Micallef Grimaud, A.

Abstract

This paper focusses on the relationship between music and perceived emotions, specifically looking at how altering the structure and expressive cues of a musical composition affects the perceived emotional expression. Although research on music and emotions has been carried out for over a century, several issues have yet to be resolved. One of the main issues has been retaining ecological validity of music while it is being altered to communicate different emotional expressions. This study tackles this issue by using specifically composed music examples that can be regarded as ‘real music’ and hold ecological validity even when manipulated. Additionally, this paper takes a different approach to the conventional way of how music structure affects perceived emotion. During this study, participants are instructed to alter parameters, such as tempo, mode and articulation, of the music to convey different emotional expressions. This approach allows to discover the distinct values and combinations of the structural parameters in relation to the desired emotions. A detailed account of the differences and similarities between the music examples conveying the same emotional expression is given, and the optimal cue combinations for each of the different perceived emotional expressions are presented and discussed within the wider context of emotion communication in music.

Citation

Micallef Grimaud, A. (2019, July). Emotion manipulation through music. Poster presented at International Society for Research on Emotions Conference (ISRE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: International Society for Research on Emotions Conference (ISRE)
• Start Date: Jul 10, 2019
• End Date: Jul 13, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 15, 2020
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1142515