http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/publications/recent/McDermottHauserMusicOriginsMP.pdf One obvious approach w ould b e to t est whether major and minor keys have similar effects on individuals from foreign cultures who have little to no prior exposure to Western music. Unfortunately, individuals with little exposure to Western music are in practice hard to come by, as Western music has by now permeated most of the globe. Balkwill and Thompson (1999) therefore adopted the opposite approach. They took excerpts of North Indian ragas performed with different emotional connotations and played them to Westerners to see if the Westerners would perceive the intended emotion. More often than not their Western subjects perceived the intended emotion, suggesting that at least some of the cues to emotion are shared across cultures. Tempo may be primarily responsible for their results, but other variables, such as melodic and rhythmic complexity as well as pitch range, also seem to be implicated.
Developmental research has also addressed these questions. In Western music, one of the primary acoustic cues to emotion is the sort of scale from which the notes of a piece are drawn. All other things being equal, to a first approximation, pieces in major keys typically sound happy, while those in minor keys sound sad (Hevner, 1935). The major/minor distinction has been of interest to researchers for some time, and several studies suggest that children below the age of 6 years do not readily associate major and minor keys with a mood (Gerardi & Gerken, 1995; Gregory, Worrall, & Sarge, 1996; see also Kastner & Crowder, 1990). To separate the contributions of tempo and mode to emotional judgments in music, Peretz and colleagues manipulated the two cues independently in a recent developmental study (Dalla Bella, Peretz, Rousseau, & Gosselin, 2001). Children of different ages were played excerpts of classical music, some happy, some sad. Happy selections were played at the same fast tempo and were written in a major key; sad selections were played at the same slow tempo and written in a minor key. To test the role of mode and tempo in perceived affect, each selection was shifted to the other tempo in one set of trials, transposed to the other mode in another set of trials, and shifted in both tempo and mode in yet another. Subjects were asked to judge whether a given stimulus sounded happy or sad. Peretz and colleagues report that the judgments of children 6–8 years old resembled those of adults in being affected both by tempo and mode changes. Five-year-olds, however, although responding to tempo changes, did not associate changes from major to minor keys with changes in affective content. Three- and 4-year-old children were at chance in all conditions.
The results are consistent with the idea that emotional sensitivity to mode may depend more on learning than emotional sensitivity to tempo and might be taken to suggest that the emotional connotations of major and minor keys are not intrinsic to the key, but rather are arbitrarily acquired. As the authors note, it is also possible that the classical excerpts that were used were too complicated for the young children to comprehend. It is well-known that childhood songs (“Old MacDonald,” etc.) and lullabies tend to be among the most repetitive of songs (Unyk et al., 1992), and perhaps this is because children have trouble representing or remembering musical structures that are more complex. But supposing the emotional connotations of music are acquired through learning, how might this occur? Simple associative learning is a candidate. If enough examples of happy and sad events co-occur with major- and minor-key music, for instance, through weddings, funerals, movies, plays, television, etc., one might eventually come to automatically hear minor keys as sad and major keys as happy. Even if emotional connotations are learned rather than innate, there is still something about music that demands explanation, which is the ease with which it acquires emotional associations. Such associations are arguably more potent in music than in any other art form, and one can only speculate as to why.
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Date: 2008-05-24 08:25 am (UTC)One obvious approach w ould b e to t est whether major and minor
keys have similar effects on individuals from foreign
cultures who have little to no prior exposure to Western
music. Unfortunately, individuals with little exposure
to Western music are in practice hard to come by, as
Western music has by now permeated most of the
globe. Balkwill and Thompson (1999) therefore
adopted the opposite approach. They took excerpts of
North Indian ragas performed with different emotional
connotations and played them to Westerners to see if
the Westerners would perceive the intended emotion.
More often than not their Western subjects perceived
the intended emotion, suggesting that at least some of
the cues to emotion are shared across cultures. Tempo
may be primarily responsible for their results, but other
variables, such as melodic and rhythmic complexity as
well as pitch range, also seem to be implicated.
Developmental research has also addressed these
questions. In Western music, one of the primary
acoustic cues to emotion is the sort of scale from which
the notes of a piece are drawn. All other things being
equal, to a first approximation, pieces in major keys typically
sound happy, while those in minor keys sound sad
(Hevner, 1935). The major/minor distinction has been
of interest to researchers for some time, and several
studies suggest that children below the age of 6 years do
not readily associate major and minor keys with a mood
(Gerardi & Gerken, 1995; Gregory, Worrall, & Sarge,
1996; see also Kastner & Crowder, 1990). To separate the
contributions of tempo and mode to emotional judgments
in music, Peretz and colleagues manipulated the
two cues independently in a recent developmental
study (Dalla Bella, Peretz, Rousseau, & Gosselin, 2001).
Children of different ages were played excerpts of classical
music, some happy, some sad. Happy selections were
played at the same fast tempo and were written in a
major key; sad selections were played at the same slow
tempo and written in a minor key. To test the role of
mode and tempo in perceived affect, each selection was
shifted to the other tempo in one set of trials, transposed
to the other mode in another set of trials, and shifted in
both tempo and mode in yet another. Subjects were
asked to judge whether a given stimulus sounded happy
or sad. Peretz and colleagues report that the judgments
of children 6–8 years old resembled those of adults
in being affected both by tempo and mode changes.
Five-year-olds, however, although responding to tempo
changes, did not associate changes from major to minor
keys with changes in affective content. Three- and
4-year-old children were at chance in all conditions.
The results are consistent with the idea that
emotional sensitivity to mode may depend more on
learning than emotional sensitivity to tempo and might
be taken to suggest that the emotional connotations of
major and minor keys are not intrinsic to the key, but
rather are arbitrarily acquired. As the authors note, it is
also possible that the classical excerpts that were used
were too complicated for the young children to comprehend.
It is well-known that childhood songs (“Old
MacDonald,” etc.) and lullabies tend to be among the
most repetitive of songs (Unyk et al., 1992), and perhaps
this is because children have trouble representing or
remembering musical structures that are more complex.
But supposing the emotional connotations of
music are acquired through learning, how might this
occur? Simple associative learning is a candidate. If
enough examples of happy and sad events co-occur
with major- and minor-key music, for instance, through
weddings, funerals, movies, plays, television, etc., one
might eventually come to automatically hear minor
keys as sad and major keys as happy. Even if emotional
connotations are learned rather than innate, there is still
something about music that demands explanation,
which is the ease with which it acquires emotional
associations. Such associations are arguably more
potent in music than in any other art form, and one can
only speculate as to why.