Musical Meaning and Emotion
Embodied cognition and cross-cultural metaphors for pitch
Eitan & Timmers (2010). Beethoven´s last piano sonata and those who follow Crocodiles: Cross-domain mappings of auditory pitch in a musical context. Cognition 114, 405-422.
Though auditory pitch is customarily mapped in Western cultures onto spatial verticality (high-low), both anthropological reports and cognitive studies suggest that pitch may be mapped onto a wide variety of other domains. We collected a total number of 35 pitch mappings and investigated in four experiments how these pitch mappings are used and structured. In particular, we inquired (1) how Western subjects apply Western and non-Western metaphors to "high" and "low" pitches, (2) whether mappings applied in an abstract conceptual task are similarly applied by listeners to actual music, (3) how mappings of spatial height relate to these pitch mappings, and (4) how mappings of "high" and "low" pitch associate with other dimensions, in particular quantity, size, intensity and valence. The results show strong agreement among Western participants in applying familiar and unfamiliar metaphors for pitch, in both an abstract, conceptual task (Exp. 1) and in a music listening task (Exp. 2), indicating that diverse cross-domain mappings for pitch exist latently besides the common verticality metaphor. Furthermore, limited overlap between mappings of spatial height and pitch height was found, suggesting that, the ubiquity of the verticality metaphor in Western usage notwithstanding, cross-domain pitch mappings are largely independent of that metaphor, and seem to be based upon other underlying dimensions. Part of the discrepancy between spatial height and pitch height is that, for pitch, "up" is not necessarily "more", nor is it necessarily "good". High pitch is only "more" for height, intensity and brightness. It is "less" for mass, size and quantity. We discuss implications of these findings for music and speech prosody, and their relevance to notions of embodied cognition and of cross-domain magnitude representations.
The use of ornamentation to communicate an emotional intention
Timmers, R. & Ashley, R. (2007). Emotional ornamentation in performances of a Handel sonata. Music Perception, 25, 117-134.
Ornamentation is one aspect of music associated with emotional affect in Baroque music. In an empirical study, the relationship between ornamentation and emotion was investigated by asking a violinist and flutist to ornament three melodies in different ways to express four emotions: happiness, sadness, love and anger. The performers adapted the type of ornaments to the instructed emotion as well as the characteristics of the ornaments. The flutist specifically varied the duration, timing and complexity of the ornamentation, while the violinist varied the complexity, density and sound level of the performances. The ability of the performers to communicate the emotions was tested in a listening experiment. Communication was found to be generally successful, with the exception of the communication of happiness. This success was not due to general consensus about the expression of emotions through ornamentation. Rather the listeners were sensitive to a performer´s specific use of ornamentation.
Expression and perception of emotion in performance
Timmers, R. (2007). Vocal expression recorded performances of Schubert songs. Musicae Scientiae, XI, 237-268.
This exploratory study focuses on the relationship between vocal expression, musical structure, and emotion in recorded performances by famous singers of three Schubert songs. Measurement of variations in tempo, dynamics, and pitch showed highly systematic relationships with the music's structural and emotional characteristics, particularly as regards emotional activity and valence. Relationships with emotional activity were consistent across both singers and musical pieces, while relationships with emotional valence were piece-specific. Clear changes in performing style over the twentieth century were observed, including diminishing rubato, an increase followed by a decrease of the use of pitch glides, and a widening and slowing of vibrato. These systematic changes over time concern only the style of performance, not the strategies deployed to express the structural and emotional aspects of the music.
Timmers, R. (2007). Perception of music performance on historical and modern commercial recordings. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 122, 2872-2880.
Performing styles as well as recording styles have changed considerably within the 20th century. To what extent do the age of a recording, the unfamiliarity with performing style, and the quality of a reproduction of a recording systematically influence how we perceive performances on record? Four exploratory experiments were run to formulate an answer to this question. Each experiment examined a different aspect of the perception of performance, including judgments of quality, perceived emotion, and dynamics. Fragments from Die junge Nonne sung by famous singers from the start, middle and second half of the 20th century were presented in a noisy and clean version to musically trained participants. The results show independence of perception of emotional activity from recording date, strong dependence of perceived quality and emotional impact on recording date, and only limited effects of reproduction quality. Standards have clearly changed, which influence judgments of quality and age. Additionally, changes restrict the communication between early-recorded performers and modern listeners to some extent as shown by systematically smaller variations in communicated dynamics and emotional valence for older recordings.
Timmers, R., Marolt, M., Camurri, A., & Volpe, G (2006). Emotional engagement with performances of a Scriabin etude: An exploratory case study. Psychology of Music, 34, 481-510.
In an explorative study, the variation in listeners´ judgments of the emotionality of three performances of a Skriabin etude was investigated. Three performances of the Skriabin etude were recorded. Video and/or audio recordings were presented to 24 listeners who segmented the music in short phrases and indicated their emotional engagement with the music using a slider. The relation between the performance data and the listeners´ responses was analyzed as well as the effects of musical training, medium and musical structure. The analyses were done using multiple regression analyses and decision trees. The results confirmed the hypothesized influence of the performer´s interpretation, the listener´s background and the global phrase structure, though not always in the expected way. Especially the dynamics of the performance correlated with listeners´ judgments of emotionality, while tempo correlated more strongly with the indications of phrase structure. This was more clearly the case for non-musicians than for musicians. The movements of the pianist were related to the dynamics of the performance and seemed to aid the communication of emotional intensity.