Music & Emotion
Music and Emotion
“How are emotions expressed through music and why does the mind interpret music with a certain emotion or feeling?”
What is music?
Music is an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions through the elements of rhythm, melody, and harmony.
A rhythm can be defined as a strong, regular, repeated pattern of sound. This is the tempo of a song and is what sets the pace/beat of a song. I have discovered that faster tempo songs cause increase heart beat, pulse, and respiration. These physical reactions within the body are due to an emotional response. The faster tempo causes excitement and surprise, which in response causes physical reactions in the body. In contrast slower tempos cause a slowed heart beat, pulse, and respiration. This is due to an emotional response to a calm, relaxing tempo.
A melody is a sequence of single notes that is physically satisfying. It is a combination of pitch and rhythm. All pieces of music contain either major or minor scales (sometimes both). A major scale emit a positive, uplifting sound. Songs composed in major scales cause the listeners to feel light and weightless. The notes combined to create songs in major scales release emotions of happiness and tranquility.
Minor scales emit a sad, gloomy sound.
Music is a poweful tool in expressing emotions. Music is used to change emotions, to release emotions, to match a current emotion, to enjoy or comfort, and to relieve stress. The beauty of music is that there is not just one type or genre of music, but a large selection of music to please all sorts of people and express every emotion.
In a survey I conducted I focused mainly on the emotional responses people have when listening to a certain genre. I found that people associate the faster genres like country, electronica/dance, latin, gospel, jazz, pop, and rock with excitment, surprise, and happiness. I also found that the genres that contain slower tempos like indie/alternative, blues, classical, christian, relate to the emotions of happiness, tranquillity, and sadness.
Songs composed in the minor scales cause the listener to feel distressed and upset. The notes combined in minor scales release emotions of sadness as well as tranquility.
A harmony is a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of notes and chords. Alfred Tomatis stated, "Sounds that contain high frequency harmonics are capable of stimulating the brain positively." This means that when certain chords and notes are played simultaneously the brain interprets it with positive, pleasing emotions.
Emotions Expressed Through Music
Music is a way humans express their emotions. Every great artist and writer composed music influenced by some type of emotion. Emotion is expressed through music by the conection one has with their culrue. The enviornment plays a large role in one's emotions and music is the key way people express that. Music is also a way to enhance individual experiences. Certain songs or genres of music has the ability to take someone back to a time or place, it can remind one of a person, and it is able to bring back memories.