Music and emotion

Abstract

Introduction Music has been said to be emotion’s language. Research confirms a link between music structure and triggered emotions.ObjectivesTo assess the relationship between selected music excerpts and the emotions trigged, in order that the former will be used in future research.MethodsAn anonymous study was performed in April 2019 on 65 subjects of both sexes, aged 19- 33 (mean=21,09; SD=3,05).Subjects listened 4 excerpts of music, believed to be related either to excitement or to calmness, and answered to a questionary on emotion’s triggered by each exposure.ResultsRegarding to the music excerpts that were believed to induce excitement 80% of the subjects mentioned exciting emotions, 78% enjoyed the music while 78% didn’t knew them. For the ones that were believed to induce calmness 69% of the subjects mentioned calm emotions, 84% enjoyed the music and 62% didn’t knew the music. In an excerpt of music related to calmness, we observed association between knowing the music and the emotion trigged (p=0,027). The triggered emotion responses were independent of liking the music (P>0,05).ConclusionsIn our study, independent of liking the music, the participants reported to have perceived the expected emotions triggered by musical excerpts, showing this to be a phenomenon related to music structure. Calmness perception may be also influenced by previous knowledge of the music and related experiences. The role of individual perceptions will be looked for in following studies.DisclosureNo significant relationships.