What is the connection between music, singing, and human

emotions?

Alan Dawson Duncan

Senior Project Advisor: Torrey Baldwin

Abstract
Music evokes an emotional response in most people who listen to it. The aim of this
paper is to find the reason why this occurs and determine how it works. Much of this
essay covers the therapeutic use of music for medical and societal rehabilitation in order
to build a bigger picture of music’s capabilities. All of the studies and academic journals
cited show that music and singing generally benefit the people listening & participating,
and most of these studies were done within the last decade. Many of the reasons why this
occurs are not currently understood, but neuroscientists are working to find the answers
to this. Regardless of the lack of a full understanding, it is clear that music has multiple
benefits to those performing and/or listening to it, both for recreational and medicinal
purposes.

12th Grade Humanities

Animas High School

March 10, 2019

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 I: Introduction

“Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.”

–Edward Bulwer-Lytton

For thousands of years, people around the world have been drawn to create music.

It has a profound effect on human beings that is nearly hypnotic, as is evident by our

seemingly endless fascination with it. Music draws laughter, tugs at one’s heartstrings,

and feeds their soul. These sensations are not without merit. The range of the effects of

music is wide, indeed, and the therapeutic and spiritual values are becoming well known

among practitioners of psychology and other similar fields. People within choral groups

find themselves in a better place emotionally and often find themselves bonding with

their choir mates at an accelerated rate, even within environments in which many people

would not expect such camaraderie. Singing itself is often viewed as a different spectrum

of song, due in part to the fact that it uses the body itself to create harmonious tones and

notes, rather than an external object, such as a trumpet or bass. Some may argue that

singing is superior to other means of performing and listening to music due to the fact

that one’s own body is used to create the melodies, but this is not true. However, this is a

manifestation of preference, as instruments may also be viewed as an extension of their

body, as much as an arm or head is a part of them. One can hum along to any kind of

music, whether directed by the performer’s voice or a musical instrument, and the

psychological influence remains the same. All in all, music and singing have numerous

psychological and emotional effects on people that may be measured qualitatively as well

as used therapeutically to promote individual wellbeing.

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 Part II: Historical Context & Background Knowledge

Music has been a part of human culture around the world for thousands of years.

Prehistoric instruments of ivory and bone have been discovered that are as old as 43,000

years in Africa, and ancient music was likely created in Europe by around 1500 BC.

Archeologists believe that music is as old as visual art by humans, dating back as far as

50,000 BC, due to the discovery of what appear to be musical instruments from this time

period. Musical instruments are not the first form of music created by humans, however.

Research suggests that humans may have used vocal melodies to communicate with one

another similar to the way in which other species of apes and monkeys do with one

another. This was not music as we would define it today, but it could have influenced the

creation of basic ancient instruments such as flutes and drums, inspiring us to create noise

that is harmonious and pleasurable to listen to & make. Our pre-homosapien ancestors

allegedly had largely the same vocal range as we do today 530,000 years ago, so it is also

quite possible that various forms of singing may have been present in their culture. More

likely than not, our voice was the first musical instrument in history. In addition,

relatively recent human history also shows that music has been used as more than a

cultural landmark.

Music has been used medicinally for thousands of years, mainly for its therapeutic

potential and often accompanied with great cultural significance. The use of music for

these purposes seems like a relatively new and unrecognized thing, but its effects have

been known for a long time. For example, “throughout the Middle Ages and the

Renaissance, music was used for psychological, emotional and physical improvement”

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(Hartwig 1). The middle ages are known for their classic brutality and generally poor

quality of life, so people during this time period took comfort in music, as it would allow

them to enter a psychologically better place. Music was also used in military hospitals

after World War II to help soothe the pain and increase the morale of wounded soldiers.

In addition, it is believed that Egyptians used music for healing as far back as 1500 BC

(1). More recently, music has been used on medical patients to assist with the recovery of

conditions such as acute stroke and speech impediments. While we find ourselves

fascinated with the possible medicinal use of music, humans are also generally baffled by

how it affects us on a deep, emotional level.

Over the last couple of decades, several studies about the emotional effects of

music have been published alongside those showing its possible medicinal value. The arts

have always fascinated us, and music is one that we have always cherished dearly. The

rest of this paper will cover the findings and implications of the studies that show how

music can affect us emotionally as well as its use for improving medical care.

Part III: Research & Analysis

Music is capable of evoking an array strong emotions in those performing and

listening to it. Many genres and styles of music will make a person feel happiness or

enthusiasm, and this is often associated with upbeat and fast melodies as well as positive

lyrics. Other kinds of music may cause of person to feel melancholy, tenderness or even

peacefulness that results in general sad feelings. This kind of music is most often rooted

in slower tempos and depressive lyrics. A study lead by Tuomas Eerola shows that there

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are many “individuals who actually enjoy and derive pleasure from [sad music]” (2),

despite the fact that sad music generally brings negative feelings to those listening to it.

In an attempt to learn the reason behind this, they recorded the responses most frequently

given by participants as to why they actively listen to depressing music. Some of the most

common responses were to help them channel or get in touch their emotions, sort their

thoughts, receive comfort, and to re-experience previously held feelings (4). Many of

these feelings that the study participants were related to specific life experiences, such as

difficult periods regarding personal trauma, reminiscence, unexpected experiences, and

more; these experiences can in turn be reflected upon with sad music to bring comfort

and emotional regulation for the listener. In addition, many of the participants reported

having a physical response to the music, including chills, tearing up, and outright crying

(8). Lastly, the most common feelings felt by participants were as follows: Sadness, being

moved, pleasant melancholia, comfort, peacefulness, and even joy (11). Despite its

depressing nature, sad music may cause a person to feel a wide array of other emotions,

including some that may be defined as the exact opposite of sadness. Yet some of these

emotions can be felt so vividly through music that a person may have physical reactions

as a result of stimulation of the motor cortex in the brain. Of course, sad music is not the

only type of song that evokes a response from those listening to or performing it. One

example of this is choral singing.

Choral singing has been a popular activity for a long time. People within these

groups often find themselves bonding with and supporting one another. Psychologists and

psychiatrists have known its therapeutic value for some time, and the use of group

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singing for these purposes is becoming more common. Choir conductor Laya Silber

created a choir group inside of an Israeli women’s prison with the goal of rehabilitation

and giving the inmates something to be proud of—an accomplishment despite their

unfortunate circumstances. She stated that the prison population “could best benefit from

the unique disciplinary and social aspects of choral singing” (2). The aforementioned

rehabilitation of inmates comes from a variety of aspects found within choral singing.

First, Silber wished to provide the inmates with a “normative social situation” that would

come from “the experience of being a meaningful part of a group” (2, 3). This is derived

from the natural social bonding of group activities in addition to providing a relatively

normal situation to people who are unable to experience a great deal of normality due to

their incarceration. Second, Silber says that a choir provides a non-verbal medium for

prisoners to have a musical experience that, as she describes it, “[invites] the soul into a

metaphysical journey” (3). She describes this as a sort of phenomenon described in the

book Rhythm and Resistance, as “‘enclaves of autonomy’ generated by music, where one

can escape and create a new reality” (3). The poetic phrasing Silber used to describe this

state of alludes to the concept of “flow”, a state of mind that occurs when one has

achieved a sharp focus. Regardless, she argues that meaningful group activity and, in this

case, singing has an unseen yet profound positive effect on the inmates’ psyche. Lastly,

she says that self-esteem and a positive view of oneself are extremely important for

anyone, inmates included. Silber then elaborates on how this works:

The development of new skills, the successful mastery of the complex tasks

involved in choral singing, and the affirmation that comes after a well-

received performance, may contribute to a positive self-image. (4)

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 Choral singing is a complex task, and Silber recognizes this as well as the fact that

successful choral performances, as well as any other successful presentation, will make

the participants feels better about themselves and their capabilities. The therapeutic value

of choral singing is vast, indeed, and instances such as this that prove its value and the

value of other forms of therapeutic music are not isolated.

Though it cannot function as a standalone medicine, music is known to assist in

the recovery process for medical patients with various conditions. For example, one study

has shown that classical music, when played to intensive care patients for 30 minutes, had

the same effect as 10mg of the muscle relaxant, diazepam (Hartwig 1, 2). Music may also

facilitate good emotional wellbeing through several methods, one of which being to use

music with comforting qualities in conjunction with guided imagery to make the subject

feel more at ease with their situation and surroundings (2). The auditory stimulation

provided by music may also be used to gradually increase or decrease the listener’s heart

rate through altering the tempo respectively (2). All three of these effects can be

incredibly helpful for the recovery of patients with varying conditions, as it can be a

substitute muscle relaxant, calm the subject and lower their cortisol levels, and even

reduce their heart rate if necessary. Further, music can be used on patients suffering from

more than physical conditions; it may also be used to help those suffering from mental

illnesses, as well.

Aphasia is a condition that causes people to lose their ability to understand or

express speech caused by brain damage. Some people with non-fluent aphasia are

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actually able to sing despite their inability to formulate speech, however, and may even

do so better than they can form normal dialogue. The cause of this has been considered to

be the intricate neurological differences between regular speech and singing. In fact,

“different musical features have also shown that it may be processed in widely distributed

neural networks” (Kyoko et al. 2). This means that music arouses various parts of the

brain based on its individual components, such as tempo, timbre, melody, pitch, and

more. The wide array of individual pieces means that several parts of the brain are

working all at once to fully interpret the complex piece, making actively listening or

singing along to music a real workout for the brain. The authors of this study elaborated

further on how singing affects speech functions:

Singing is considered to be an effective means for patients to produce

words that they cannot pronounce otherwise. Singing may facilitate

speech at different stages of processing: at the motor stage, by reducing

the speech rate in patients with dysarthria, at the level of word retrieval,

by providing structural constraints, such as the number of syllables per

beat, and at a motivational level, by engaging recreational skills (2).

Through complex stimulation of the brain, a gradual recovery from aphasia can be

achieved. In particular, rhythmic speaking can slip off of the tongue, so to speak, making

an otherwise difficult task for these patients become relatively trivial. This study found

that therapeutic singing has a positive effect and strengthened the remaining functional

parts of the brain in a way that standard speech therapy cannot (6). Yet this, too, is not

alone in its effectiveness. A separate study found that the use of music reduced the

postoperative pain and distress in patients suffering from acute stroke by 89%, in addition

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to their findings that music-supported therapy can, “induce changes to the brain, or

plasticity, and cause the activation of the auditory-motor circuits that improve motor

skills after acute or chronic stroke” (Supnet et al. 3). Music is not magic, but its influence

over us is plain to see. Simple administration of music in the ER is capable of

dramatically improving the patients’ experience and, most importantly, recovery, as is

evident in the aforementioned study. Music has profound effects on the human brain;

neuroscience may have the answers as to why this is the case.

The brain is the central command center for our body and mind. It reads and

interprets the stimuli we experience every day of our lives, from the sights and smells to

the touch and sound. Music is a highly complex stimulus that interacts with multiple parts

of the brain in order to be interpreted. Different parts of music, such as pitch, timbre,

tempo, melody, and rhythm interact with different parts of the brain. For example, timbre,

which is the quality of a musical sound that distinguishes different types of sound

production, interacts with the parietal lobe, planum temporale, and the anterior superior-

temporal gyrus in order to be interpreted (Lin et al. 3). Just this one component of music

interacts with three unique parts of the brain, and others, such as pitch, interact with

seven different parts of the brain. For the emotional interpretation of music, another

seven parts of the brain are used to recognize it. Yet for the purpose of this paper, the

most important of them is the limbic circuit, which is made up of multiple unique parts of

the brain. This is where music becomes emotion within the human brain, the part of us

that makes us feel deeply for the tone of the music and its message. Music is interpreted

directly through the part of the brain that processes emotion.

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 Part IV: Discussion & Conclusions

To say that music is complex would be an understatement. It has numerous key

components, each with their own purpose and effect on those performing it and those

listening to it. One of these effects is its capability to assist in the medical rehabilitation

of people suffering from various ailments, such as speech impediments and acute stroke,

with examples like the former being done through action rather than mere listening. The

connection between music, singing, and human emotions is the final piece of the question

itself: The human element. Music changes in use and interpretation, but what makes it

meaningful is us. We attempt to give it meaning, to give a song a message of sorts, and in

return we listen, make the meaning our own.

Take the example of how music may be used for medicinal purposes. It cannot be

used as medicine by itself whatsoever, but it reduced the pain felt by acute stroke

patients. Singing proved to be more effective than speech therapy with some patients

suffering from non-fluent aphasia, and helped fortify the intact parts of their brains. The

nature of rhythmic speech allowed the latter example to work, while the former example

worked as a result of the patients’ interpretation of the music, which helped them to

recover more easily. Unfortunately, we do not know everything there is to know about

the human brain. We know its individual sections and where they are, but what counts as

which piece is still being studied. Thus, we know where emotions are processed and how

we interpret, say, music and singing, but we do not know all of the minute intricacies of

how it all works. For example, we know what mechanisms within the brain are at work

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when listening to music and singing, but we do not understand how exactly it helps with

patient recovery beyond music’s capability to relax them.

That’s not to say music is an enigma, however. The reality is that we simply do

not know everything about it, but for the purpose of this paper, we know enough. Music

has a strong effect on its listeners, and that it has therapeutic potential. Playing the music

or singing is yet another thing that people will say is powerful, and this has therapeutic

value, as well, as demonstrated by Laya Silber in Israel. Like any form of art, different

people are going to have different preferences as to whether they prefer to listen, to play,

to sing, et cetera. Once again, the connection between music & singing and human

emotions is the final part of the question: Humanity. The music will always have what the

artist intended for it, and the music will always be interpreted as everyone else sees fit for

themselves.

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 Works Cited

Akanuma, Kyoko, et al. “Singing Can Improve Speech Function in Aphasics Associated
with Intact Right Basal Ganglia and Preserve Right Temporal Glucose Metabolism:
Implications for Singing Therapy Indication.” International Journal of Neuroscience, vol.
126, no. 1, 2015, pp. 39–45., doi:10.3109/00207454.2014.992068.

Eerola, Tuomas, and Henna-Riikka Peltola. “Memorable Experiences with Sad Music—
Reasons, Reactions and Mechanisms of Three Types of Experiences.” Plos One, vol. 11,
no. 6, 2016, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157444.

Lin, Shuai-Ting, et al. “Mental Health Implications of Music: Insight from

Neuroscientific and Clinical Studies.” Harvard Review of Psychiatry, vol. 19, no. 1,
2011, pp. 34–46., doi:10.3109/10673229.2011.549769.

Livesey, Laetitia, et al. “Benefits of Choral Singing for Social and Mental Wellbeing:
Qualitative Findings from a Cross-National Survey of Choir Members.” Journal of
Public Mental Health, vol. 11, no. 1, 2012, pp. 10–26.,
doi:10.1108/17465721211207275.

Hartwig, Rebecca. “Music Therapy in the Context of Palliative Care in Tanzania.”

International Journal of Palliative Nursing, vol. 16, no. 10, 2010, pp. 499–504.,
doi:10.12968/ijpn.2010.16.10.79215.

Silber, Laya. “Bars behind Bars: the Impact of a Women's Prison Choir on Social
Harmony.” Music Education Research, vol. 7, no. 2, 2005, pp. 251–271.,
doi:10.1080/14613800500169811.

Supnet, Charlene, et al. “Music as Medicine: The Therapeutic Potential of Music for
Acute Stroke Patients.” Critical Care Nurse, vol. 36, no. 2, 2016,
doi:10.4037/ccn2016413.

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