04 - The Power of Music - The Composition and Perception of Emotion in Melody PDF

The Power of Music:

The Composition and Perception of Emotion in Melody

by

Megan Trenck, B.M.

A Thesis

In

Music Theory

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of

Master of Music

Approved

Dr. Peter Martens
Chair of Committee

Dr. Michael Berry

Dr. Jeff Larsen

Peggy Gordon Miller
Dean of the Graduate School

August, 2011

© Copyright 2011, Megan Trenck.

Texas Tech University, Megan Trenck, August 2011
Acknowledgments
I would first like to thank the faculty of the Music Department at Texas Tech
University for the continuous support and inspiration provided throughout my
education. I give special thanks to Dr. Peter Martens for his time and effort
motivating me to explore the field of music and emotion. I would like to thank Dr.
Michael Berry for first introducing me to the field of music cognition. Thank you
both, Dr. Martens and Dr. Berry, for being supportive mentors. Also, I would like to
thank Dr. Jeff Larsen for his assistance in the statistical analyses and for providing
insight to the perception of emotion in music. Additional and invaluable thanks go
out to my family and friends, especially my mother who always encouraged me to
reach higher in order to fulfill my dreams.
ii
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. ii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................v
List of Tables............................................................................................................................ vi
List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... vii
I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1
II. Experiment 1 ....................................................................................................................... 8
Method ................................................................................................................................. 8
Participants.................................................................................................................. 8
Procedure ..................................................................................................................... 9
Results and Discussion ................................................................................................... 9
Emotion/Mode Correlation .................................................................................... 9
First-Order Intervals...............................................................................................10
Melodic Spans............................................................................................................14
Note Density...............................................................................................................17
Melodic Arches..........................................................................................................17
Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to the Mean ...........................................20
III. Experiment 2 ....................................................................................................................24
Method ...............................................................................................................................24
Participants................................................................................................................24
Stimuli..........................................................................................................................24
Apparatus ...................................................................................................................25
iii
Procedure ...................................................................................................................25
Results 1: Happiness and Sadness ............................................................................26
Discussion 1 ......................................................................................................................29
Results 2: Other Emotions ...........................................................................................33
Discussion 2 ......................................................................................................................38
Structural Features and Positive Emotions.....................................................38
Structural Features and Negative Emotions ...................................................40
IV. Conclusion .........................................................................................................................44
V. Future Research................................................................................................................46
Bibliography ...........................................................................................................................48
Appendices
A. Melodies .................................................................................................................50
B. IRB Exemption Letter.........................................................................................54
C. T-Tests.....................................................................................................................55
D. Correlations Within All Melodies ..................................................................56
E. Correlations by Condition.................................................................................57
iv
Abstract

To investigate some specifics of what makes emotions attributable to
melody, a combination of undergraduate and graduate music majors at Texas Tech
University were asked to compose a melody depicting either happiness or sadness.
No restrictions were placed on the use of time signature, key signature, or tempo,
but melodies were restricted to one monophonic line of music. Melodies were
analyzed for several structural features, some of which were drawn from previous
studies, such as mode and note density, and others that are new to the present
project, such as melodic span, and melodic contour.
Next, a perceptual study was conducted to help determine how well melodies
portrayed the intended emotions. Forty-‐nine undergraduate music majors rated
their perceptions of twelve different emotions in each of the melodies; six emotions
were positively valenced, including happy, and six emotions were negatively
valenced, including sad. Perceptions of emotion in melody were dependent on
several contributing factors ranging from those widely used such as mode and note
density, to those not often connected with perceived emotion such as melodic
contour and formal design. Overall, however, different combinations of these factors
in individual melodies demonstrated that no single musical factor can determine
emotional content.
v
List of Tables
1. Frequencies of First-Order Intervals, with Size Groupings................................11
2. Mean Interval by Melody and Condition...................................................................12
3. Minor Second Distribution ............................................................................................13
4. Frequencies of Melodic Spans by Size and Groupings..........................................16
5. Note Density by Melody..................................................................................................17
6. Frequencies of Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to Mean .............................22
7. Mean Values for all Structural Features by Melody and Condition .................26
8. Perception Ratings for Happy Melodies ...................................................................33
9. Comparison Order of Happy Melodies ......................................................................34
10. Perception Ratings for Sad Melodies.......................................................................36
11. Comparison Order of Sad Melodies .........................................................................37
vi
List of Figures
1. Melodic Spans Outlined ..................................................................................................14
2. Mean Melodic Arch by Condition.................................................................................19
3. Examples of Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to the Mean ...........................21
4. Melody with Bracketed Confirmations and Violations of Post-Skip

Reversal (PSR) and Regression to the Mean (RTM)..............................................22
5. Mean Melodic Arches of Top Five Rated Melodies by Condition ......................30
6. Happy 6 ................................................................................................................................38
7. Happy 7 ................................................................................................................................39
8. Sad 6 ......................................................................................................................................40
9. Sad 10 ...................................................................................................................................41
vii
Chapter I
Introduction
There are many artistic media through which emotion can be expressed. The
raw materials of these art forms are constantly manipulated to convey both general
and specific emotions, and some, such as music, can do so free of verbal content. The
degree to which music can reliably and accurately express emotion is a matter of
considerable debate, but there is wide agreement that music and emotion are
linked.1 Indeed, music has been associated with emotional states since antiquity.
The Epitaph of Seikilos, the oldest complete song, is inscribed on a tombstone with
musical notations and lyrics that read, “While you live, be happy [shine] don't suffer
[be sad] anything at all; [because] life is short and time demands its toll [time leads
to death].”2 Accounts of music regulating mood, for good and ill, are common in
antiquity and repeated as factual well into the modern era, notably in the Baroque
era’s focus on the affective qualities of music. With the 19th-‐century advent of
experimental psychology, music was studied as a human endeavor that was
uniquely emotion-‐laden. Experiments in the late nineteenth century studied music’s
capacity to induce emotion,3 as well as perceived emotional content in music.4

1 Patrik N. Juslin, “Emotional Responses to Music,” in The Oxford Handbook of Music
Psychology, ed. Susan Hallam, Ian Cross, and Michael Thaut (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2009), 131.
2 “Seikilos Epitaph (Ancient Greek),” Original Score with Commentary (Greek and
English), last modified Oct. 30, 2009,

http://imslp.org/wiki/Seikilos_Epitaph_(Ancient_Greek).
3 Benjamin Ives Gilman, “Report on an Experimental Test of Musical Expressiveness
(Continued),” The American Journal of Psychology 5, no. 1 (Oct. 1892): 71.
1
There are many definable parameters within music that could contribute to
emotional content. The semantic meaning of lyrics aside, the primary parameters
include melody, harmony, and rhythm. Each of these parameters has unique
characteristics and tendencies relative to emotional expression. Specific individual
notes or chords do not automatically lend a specific emotional cast to a given
composition; it is the relationship and arrangement of notes that contribute
collectively to the portrayal of an emotion. Looking at paintings, beyond the literal
images on the page, the abstract features greatly contribute to the expression of
emotion. Abstract features in art include not only the choices of color, but also the
type of paint, type and size of brush, and the particular brush stroke the painter
employs. For instance, a watercolor painting using pastel colors, a thin brush, and
short brushstrokes will elicit different emotions than an oil-‐based painting using
bright, vibrant colors and a thicker brush with wide brushstrokes, even if the images
depicted in the paintings are identical.5 The primary parameters of music similarly
contribute to how music portrays emotion. Any alterations of melodic features,
harmonies, or rhythms can, in varying degrees, affect the emotions portrayed by
music. Because of the various ways these parameters can affect emotions in music,
close examinations are needed to study how these parameters can be manipulated
to portray emotions.

4 June E. Downey, “A Musical Experiment,” The American Journal of Psychology 9, no.
1 (Oct.1897): 69.
5 Barry Nemett, “Two-‐Dimensional Materials and Techniques,” in Images, Objects,
and Ideas: Viewing the Visual Arts (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College
Publishers, 1992).
2
Melody, as one of the primary parameters of music, has garnered significant
attention with respect to emotional expression in music. E. T. A. Hoffmann, a well-‐
known critic, composer, and author from the turn of the nineteenth century, states:
[T]he first and foremost element in music is melody, which seizes the human
imagination with magical power. It cannot be said often enough, that without
expressive, singable melody any instrumental color is merely glistering
apparel, not adorning any living body…6

From a similar premise, Richard Wagner writes:
Melody is the redemption of the poet’s endlessly conditioned thought into a
deep-‐felt consciousness of emotion’s highest freedom: it is the willed and
achieved unwillful, the conscious and proclaimed unconscious, the vindicated
necessity of an endless-‐reaching content, condensed from its farthest
branchings into an utmost definite utterance of feeling.7

Hoffmann and Wagner both deemed melody to be the most important aspect
and the “shaping organ” of music.8 Recent research has attempted to discover which
features in melody figure most prominently in the depiction of emotion. In a 1990
study, Kastner and Crowder reported that children ages three to twelve rated folk
melodies in a major mode as happier than folk melodies in a minor mode. 9 Kastner
and Crowder’s study helped substantiate the correlation of emotion and mode in
music. In 2001, William Collier and Timothy Hubbard focused on participants’

6 E. T. A. Hoffmann, E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Musical Writings. Ed. David Charleton Trans.
Martyn Clarke. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 156.

7 Richard Wagner, Wagner on Music and Drama: A Compendium of Richard Wagner’s
Prose Works, trans., H. Ashton Ellis, selected and arranged with an introduction by
Albert Goldman and Evert Sprinchorn (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1964), 209.
8 Hoffmann, E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Musical Writings, 156.
9 Marianna Pinchot Kastner and Robert G. Crowder, “Perception of the Major/Minor
Distinction: IV. Emotional Connotations in Young Children,” Music Perception 8, no. 2
(Winter 1990): 198.
3
reported emotions on the effects of differing musical structures. One of their main
questions in this experiment was if a minor scale could be manipulated in such a
way that it would receive a “happy” rating over a “sad” rating, and vice versa. All
ascending scale forms were given higher “happy” ratings than descending scales,
leading the authors to conclude that listeners rely heavily on melodic direction and
pitch height in making judgments about emotional content, rather than solely on the
mode. Collier and Hubbard noted “that emotional valence may be based more on the
horizontal rather than the vertical aspect of music.”10
This horizontal component of music may be a definable difference between
the major and minor scales, however. Those acquainted with Western tonal music
will likely associate the major mode with happy emotions and the minor mode with
sad emotions. Rudolf Arnheim explains the major-‐happy and minor-‐sad correlation
using the structure of the scales. Considering the major and natural minor scales as
comprised of two tetrachords separated by a whole step, the half-‐step placement
determines the direction of melodic energy. The preponderance of upward-‐
propelling motion in the major scale creates a sense of liberation and of overcoming
weight, while the resistance to upward motion in the minor scale is experienced as
giving in to gravity and as a passive letting-‐go.11

10 William Collier and Timothy Hubbard, “Musical Scales and Evaluations of
Happiness and Awkwardness: Effects of Pitch, Direction, and Scale Mode,” The
American Journal of Psychology 113, no. 3 (Autumn 2001): 357.
11 Rudolf Arnheim, “Perceptual Dynamics in Musical Expression,” The Musical
Quarterly 70, no. 3 (Summer 1984).

4
This motion and mode theory as proposed by Arnheim figured prominently
in Hunter, Schellenberg, and Schimmack’s 2010 study that focused on the
similarities and differences in listeners’ perceptions of emotions when listening to
30-‐second excerpts of pieces composed by J. S. Bach. Eight excerpts were played at
both a slow and a fast tempo (the fast tempo was exactly twice as fast as the slow
tempo) and both in major and in minor, creating four different versions of each
excerpt. Excerpts with two predictors for happiness, major mode and fast tempo,
received the highest happy ratings, while the sad ratings were given to pieces in
minor mode and at a slow tempo. Excerpts that had conflicting variables for
happiness and sadness received similar ratings for both emotions, but excerpts with
a fast tempo in the minor mode received higher happy ratings than did excerpts
with a slow tempo in the major mode. From these findings, the tempo of a piece of
music seemed to have more influence on the perceived emotional content than did
the mode of the piece.12 Note that in using the same pieces played at two different
tempi, the authors are essentially testing the effect of note density (mean number of
notes per second). Musical tempo -‐ the rate of a regulating musical beat -‐ does not
provide an accurate basis for comparing the number of attacks per second across
different pieces.
To further explore how emotions are portrayed in music using modern
composers, William Forde Thompson and Brent Robitaille examined the portrayal

12 Patrick G. Hunter, E. Glenn Schellenberg, and Ulrich Schimmack, “Feelings and
Perceptions of Happiness and Sadness Induced by Music: Similarities, Differences,
and Mixed Emotions,” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 4, no. 1
(2010): 51-‐52.
5
of six specific emotions – joy, sorrow, excitement, dullness, anger, and peace –
through newly composed melodies. Five highly trained composers each composed a
melody to depict each emotion, and listeners then rated the presence of each
emotion in each melody. Thompson and Robitaille observed that melodies aimed at
depicting joy were largely tonal while melodies composed to depict sadness and
anger used chromaticism.13 Excitement was perceived not only in melodies
intended to portray excitement, but also in melodies expressing joy and anger.
Based on these results, excitement in melodies could be a measure of arousal
instead of valence, capable of being expressed in melodies portraying either positive
or negative emotions. In melodies intended to convey sorrow, peace ratings were
second behind sorrow ratings, and yet melodies intended to convey peace received
high joy ratings. Peace, like excitement, could be a stronger measure of arousal
instead of valence in emotional expression.
In “The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression”
(2009), Alf Gabrielsson provides a comprehensive summary of many reports on the
emotional effect of different musical parameters. Gabrielsson concludes that
“differences between major and minor mode are thus mainly associated with
difference in valence, positive or negative.”14 While the major mode is not a

13 William Forde Thompson and Brent Robitaille, “Can Composers Express Emotions
through Music?” Empirical Studies of the Arts 10, no. 1 (1992): 144.
14 Alf Gabrielsson, “The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived
Expression,” in The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology, ed. Susan Hallam, Ian
Cross, and Michael Thaut (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 143.
6
necessary requirement for the perception of happiness in music and minor for
sadness, the long-‐established correlation holds true.15
In order to discover whether these implicit correlations exist more broadly,
two experiments were conducted in which novice composers were solicited to write
a melody depicting a discrete emotion. These melodies were analyzed for several
structural features and characteristics that have been implicated in recent research
on music and emotion, such as mode, intervallic content, density, and contour, as
well as for features that have not yet been investigated such as melodic spans,
phrase structure, post-‐skip reversal, and regression to the mean, explained fully
below. In Experiment 2, listeners assessed the emotional content in these melodies.
These data were then used to evaluate the success of the composers in
communicating their intended emotion, and to further explore links between
structural features and specific emotions.

15 cf. Hunter et al., “Feelings and Perceptions of Happiness and Sadness Induced by
Music.”
7
Chapter II
Experiment 1
The first experiment, aimed at determining the differences of structural
features in melodies composed to depict a specific emotion, used happy and sad as
oppositional emotions to highlight these structural differences.
Happiness and sadness, two basic emotions, function as umbrella terms for
larger families of emotions. While happiness and sadness certainly do not cover the
gamut of emotions, they are two commonly referenced emotions that provide
measurable contrasts for research in emotional content in music.16 Findings from
other researchers agree that happiness and sadness are two of the most frequently
occurring emotions in music.17 These findings suggest that frequently occurring
emotions in music are not completely subjective and have some objective qualities
and systematic relationships in their structures that can be modeled successfully.18
Method
Participants
Twenty upper-‐level undergraduate and graduate music students at Texas
Tech University were solicited as fellow students of the author to compose a melody

16 Paul Ekman, “An Argument for Basic Emotions,” Cognition and Emotion 6 (3/4
1992): 172.
17 Researchers include Juslin and Laukka, (2004); Sloboda, (1992); Wells and
Hakanen, (1991); and Zetner et al, (2008).

18 Patrik N. Juslin et al., “How does Music Evoke Emotions?” in Handbook of Music
and Emotion: Theory, Research, and Applications ed. Patrik N. Juslin and John
Sloboda (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 612.
8
depicting either happiness or sadness. The mean age of the composer-‐participants
was 27, ranging from 20-‐40, with a mean of 15 years of formal musical training.
Eight of the twenty participants were familiar with non-‐Western musical cultures.
Seven participants were female, thirteen male. Participants also reflected a variety
of primary instrument/vocal types.
Procedure
Half of the participants were instructed to compose a melody portraying
happiness and the other half of the participants were instructed to compose a
melody portraying sadness on a sheet containing a treble clef staff. There were no
restrictions placed on the use of time signature, key signature, or tempo. The
composition was limited, however, to a single voice or instrument with no harmonic
accompaniment. Biographical information was gathered on the same sheet, and
participants also rated, on a five-‐point scale, how strongly they thought their melody
portrayed the intended emotion (see Appendix A for all melodies).
Results and Discussion
Emotion/Mode Correlation
The first step in looking at the structural differences within the melodies was
examining the correlation of emotion and mode. All ten happy melodies were
composed in the major mode and eight of the sad melodies were composed
throughout in the minor mode with one sad melody mixing modes between phrases
and one in the major mode. Participants used various forms of the minor scale in the
9
sad melodies, using raised leading tones where expected in common practice
tonality. Thus the construction of these melodies confirms the longstanding
associations of mode and emotion.19
First-Order Intervals
Table 1 shows the numbers and percentages of first-‐order intervals
(intervals between adjacent notes) by emotional condition. There were no intervals
larger than an octave. Similar intervals are grouped and subtotaled in the table: 0-‐2
semitones (unison and steps), 3-‐7 semitones (smaller leaps), 0-‐7 semitones (all
intervals within a perfect fifth), and 8-‐12 semitones (larger leaps up to an octave).

19 cf. Candace Brower, “A Cognitive Theory of Musical Meaning,” Journal of Music
Theory 44, no. 2 (Autumn 2000).

10
Table 1: Frequencies of First-Order Intervals, with Size Groupings
Interval in Happy Happy Sad Sad

Semitones Count Percent Count Percent
0 12 6.12% 13 6.60%
1 39 19.90% 61 30.96%
2 80 40.82% 72 36.55%
0-2 131 66.84% 146 74.11%
3 22 11.22% 20 10.15%
4 13 6.63% 13 6.60%
5 18 9.18% 9 4.57%
6 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
7 5 2.55% 3 1.52%
3-7 58 29.59% 45 22.84%
0-7 189 96.43% 191 96.95%
8 0 0.00% 4 2.03%
9 2 1.02% 0 0.00%
10 3 1.53% 1 0.51%
11 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
12 2 1.02% 1 0.51%
8-12 7 3.57% 6 3.05%
Total 196 197

The vast majority of first-‐order intervals in both melody conditions were a
perfect fifth or smaller (0-‐7 semitones). The comparisons between conditions do
little to support the general notion that larger melodic intervals convey positive
emotions and smaller intervals convey negative emotions.20
As seen in Table 2, the mean first-‐order interval in semitones was also
calculated by melody and by condition, and difference in mean interval between
conditions was as expected but was not significant. The ten melodies within each
condition were arbitrarily numbered for ease of reference and will be referred to
with these labels below.

20 cf. Gabrielsson, “Musical Structure and Perceived Emotion,” 144.
11
Table 2: Mean Interval by Melody and Condition
Mean Mean
Melody Interval Melody Interval
Happy 1 3.94 Sad 1 2.25
Happy 2 2.19 Sad 2 2.36
Happy 3 2.40 Sad 3 1.83
Happy 4 2.71 Sad 4 3.43
Happy 5 4.83 Sad 5 2.17
Happy 6 2.40 Sad 6 1.81
Happy 7 2.17 Sad 7 2.28
Happy 8 2.33 Sad 8 1.93
Happy 9 2.34 Sad 9 2.70
Happy 10 1.56 Sad 10 1.86
Mean 2.59 Mean 2.22

The only first-‐order interval comparison in Table 1 that is statistically
significant is the minor second (p = .01). Was a greater amount of half steps
intentionally used to portray sadness, or did the greater number stem from the scale
structure used for each melody? In major scales there are two occurrences of minor
seconds, between mi – fa and ti – do.21 Minor mode melodies were frequently
composed using the harmonic minor collection, which contains three minor
seconds, between re – me, sol – le, and ti – do. This difference in scalar structure can
explain the minor second difference shown in Table 1, as detailed in Table 3.

21 Solfège based on a movable-‐do system for both the major and minor modes.
12
Table 3: Minor Second Distribution
Happy Happy Sad Sad

Count Percentage Count Percentage
ti -‐ do 17 41.46% 14 22.95%
re -‐ me 0 0.00% 25 40.98%
mi -‐ fa 24 58.54% 4 6.56%
sol -‐ le 0 0.00% 15 24.59%
other 0 0.00% 3 4.92%
41 61

The steps between mi – fa and ti – do in the happy category account for all of the
minor seconds; no chromaticism was used. The higher number of minor seconds in
the sad melodies was split somewhat evenly between the expected scale steps with
a higher number of steps around re-‐ me. The exploitation of half steps in sad
melodies is partially made possible by the additional opportunities for half steps.
Not only do sad melodies incorporate more kinds of diatonic half steps, but
additional chromatic half steps were incorporated.
Gabrielsson observes that “the minor second [is perceived] as the most sad
interval.” 22 The greater quantity and frequent use of minor seconds in sad melodies
may help in the depiction of sadness, yet this conclusion is confounded by the
inherent structure of major and minor scales. Is harmonic minor associated with
sadness because of its greater opportunity for half step usage, or did the harmonic
minor collection evolve out of an attempt to maximize half-‐step motion within a
diatonic scale?

22 Gabrielsson, 144.
13
Similar patterns of first-‐order interval distribution can be seen in David
Huron’s assessment of folk songs from several nationalities.23 The most common
interval in Western traditions is the major second, followed by the perfect fourth
and the perfect fifth, as in Table 1. 24 The percentage of minor seconds in happy
melodies resembles that of Huron’s Western folk songs (19.90% vs. approximately
15%, respectively), while the minor second for sad melodies does not (30.96%),
likely due to the prevalence of the major mode in Western folk songs. Yet the
overall similarities confirm the predominance of small intervals in tonal melodies.
Melodic Spans
While tallying the first-‐order intervals sheds light on the note-‐to-‐note
component of the melodies, comparing larger melodic spans can provide a more
musical basis from which to explore structural differences between happy and sad
conditions. Melodic spans are the distance music travels in one direction, measured
in semitones. Figure 1 shows an example of a study melody with brackets outlining
each span and its size.

3 3 5 3 3 5 7 2 2

Figure 1: Melodic Spans Outlined

23 David Huron, Sweet Anticipation (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2006), 74, Figure
5.1.
24 Western nationalities examined include American, English, and German.
14
Note that pitches at the melodic peaks and valleys serve as boundaries for the spans
on either side of them. Note repetitions do not count as a change of direction;
therefore they are considered a continuous note until a different pitch occurs. Some
of the melodic span counts are simultaneously counts of first-‐order intervals. All
one-‐semitone spans are first-‐order intervals by definition, since that is the minimal
distance music can move. Additionally, other first-‐order melodic leaps surrounded
by changes of direction are also counted as melodic spans. Approximately 20% of
the first-‐order intervals for both happy and sad melodies were also spans. Table 4
below shows the distribution of melodic spans by individual sizes and by groupings.
15
Table 4: Frequencies of Melodic Spans by Size and Groupings
Happy Happy Sad Sad

Count Percentage Count Percentage
1 5 5.32% 9 9.78%
2 8 8.51% 11 11.96%
3 15 15.96% 15 16.30%
4 6 6.38% 11 11.96%
1-4 34 36.17% 46 50.00%
5 25 26.60% 19 20.65%
6 0 0.00% 2 2.17%
7 13 13.83% 8 8.70%
8 7 7.45% 9 9.78%
9 5 5.32% 4 4.35%
10 4 4.26% 2 2.17%
11 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
5-11 54 57.45% 44 47.83%
12 5 5.32% 2 2.17%
13 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
14 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
15 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
16 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
17 1 1.06% 0 0.00%
12-17 6 6.38% 2 2.17%
Total 94 92

The greater prominence of smaller spans in sad melodies appears to be a
structural difference in melodies that composers used to help depict sadness,
however, the difference is not significant (p = .10). Happy melodies are mainly
comprised of spans falling in the middle category, predominantly perfect fourths
and perfect fifths. Happy melodies, therefore, have a greater average span size
(5.57) compared to that of sad melodies (4.73). The only two structural features that
were correlated were the melodic span and the first-‐order intervals (p = .005).
16
Note Density
The note density of a melody is calculated as the mean number of notes per
second. Listed below in Table 5 is the note density for each melody and the mean
density by condition. Happy melodies had a greater density relative to sad melodies
(p = .01).
Table 5: Note Density by Melody
Note Note
Melody Density Melody Density
Happy 1 1.89 Sad 1 2.02
Happy 2 3.03 Sad 2 1.50
Happy 3 2.63 Sad 3 0.89
Happy 4 1.88 Sad 4 1.16
Happy 5 1.35 Sad 5 1.30
Happy 6 5.13 Sad 6 0.59
Happy 7 1.50 Sad 7 1.11
Happy 8 2.17 Sad 8 1.44
Happy 9 1.35 Sad 9 1.07
Happy 10 2.08 Sad 10 1.01
Mean 2.30 Mean 1.21

Melodic Arches
Following David Huron’s method of calculating pitch means in “The Melodic
Arch in Western Folksongs,” each note was assigned a number based on its relation
to the first note.25 The first note of each melody was assigned “0,” since that served
as the basis for the ensuing interval measurements. Subsequent notes were assigned
a number based on their distance from the first note, measured in semitones, with a

25 David Huron, “The Melodic Arch in Western Folksongs,” Computing in Musicology
10 (1996): 5.
17
positive or negative value based on whether the note was higher or lower than the
first note.
To accurately compare contours across melodies, the melodies needed to be
represented with an equal number of points. In addition to using the initial and final
pitches, eight equally distributed points were selected from each melody to
represent the melodic shape. Figure 2 shows the composite melodic shape of
melodies by condition. The percentages used on the x-‐axis represent segments of
the melodies within which mean pitch height was calculated; for example, the data
point at 12.5% is mean of the second note through the note closest to 12.5%
through the melody. The point at 25% begins with the next note after the first
segment and continues through the first quarter of the melody.
18
5.00
4.00
Mean Semitone Distance
3.00
2.00
Happy Mean
1.00 Sad Mean
0.00
-‐1.00
-‐2.00
Melodic Bins

Figure 2: Mean Melodic Arch by Condition

Looking at Figure 2, differences can be seen in the composite melodic
arches by condition. The composite melodic arch in the happy category is more
symmetrical with an overall convex arch shape and a concave dip in the middle. The
composite melodic arch in the sad category shows a greater initial increase in pitch
height during the first eighth of the melody with a gradual declination to the end.
Interestingly, both graphs exhibit declinations below the eventual final note, with a
small rise to their final note. David Huron finds that the symmetrical convex contour
type comprises nearly 40% of all melodic arch shapes, and that descending, right-‐
19
skewed contour types make up nearly 30% of arch shapes.26 Results from the
present study support Huron’s findings about the predominance of symmetrical and
right-‐skewed melodic arch shapes, and suggest relationships between these two
predominant melodic arch shapes and emotional content. Collier and Hubbard’s
findings, discussed above, indicated that listeners gave descending melodic lines
higher sad ratings, regardless of mode. The composite melodic shapes in Figure 2
suggest that a predominance of descending motion is indeed a general feature of sad
melodies, and that novice composers created a steep initial ascent in order to
maximize the possibility for overall melodic descent.
Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to the Mean
Two further ways to analyze melodic motion are post-‐skip reversal and
regression to the mean, as proposed by Huron in Sweet Anticipation. In post-‐skip
reversal, leaps are followed by a change in direction. Regression to the mean states
that, after a leap, the ensuing note will move toward the floating mean, whether or
not that constitutes a change or continuance of direction.27 Studies by Huron have
proven that listeners tend to expect post-‐skip reversal, while regression to the mean
actually prevails in analysis.28
The string of floating mean values in each melody is calculated as follows:
The first mean in a melody was the average of the pitch heights of the first two
notes. The next mean pitch was the average of the first three pitch heights,

26 David Huron, “Melodic Arch,” 17.
27 Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 80.
28 Ibid., 83.
20
continuing in the same fashion through the end of the melody. Any single value in
the floating mean thus represents all musical events that have occurred prior to that
point.
As seen in Figure 3, five possible outcomes can arise when analyzing the note
following a skip: a) confirmation of both Post-‐Skip Reversal and Regression to the
Mean, b) confirmation of Post-‐Skip Reversal but not Regression to the Mean, c)
confirmation of Regression to the Mean but not Post-‐Skip Reversal, d) confirming
neither Post-‐Skip Reversal or Regression to the Mean, and e) a mean landing skip
where regression to the mean is not possible/allows an equal opportunity for a
change or continuance of direction, but where post-‐skip reversal states that a
change of direction should occur.
Mean
Pitch


a. b. c. d. e.

Figure 3: Examples of Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to the Mean
(Middle Line is Mean Pitch)
Figure 4 depicts a melody composed for Experiment 1 with all leaps and
continuations bracketed and labeled accordingly.
21
Figure 4: Melody with Bracketed Confirmations and Violations of Post-Skip
Reversal (PSR) and Regression to the Mean (RTM)
Shown in Tables 6a and 6b are the confirmations and violations of post-‐skip
reversal and regression to the mean in all melodies, by condition.
Table 6: Frequencies of Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to Mean
a: Occurrences in Happy Melodies
no RTM RTM on mean

no PSR 12 9 1
21.05% 15.79% 1.75%
PSR 2 32 1
3.51% 56.14% 1.75%
Total 57

b: Occurrences in Sad Melodies
no RTM RTM
no PSR 12 3
23.53% 5.88%
PSR 5 31
9.80% 60.78%
Total 51

22
No statistically significant differences occur in any of the categories between
conditions. From these results it can be noted, however, that “RTM/PSR” and “no
RTM/no PSR” comparisons show particularly little difference between conditions.
Within the mixed categories, happy melodies regress toward the mean more
frequently than sad melodies while sad melodies show a stronger tendency to
follow post-‐skip reversal. While the small numbers of occurrences are not
conclusive evidence of differences between conditions, conclusions can be made
about the general construction of melodies. The majority of leap continuations will
confirm both post-‐skip reversal and regression to the mean, smaller numbers of
leap continuations will confirm neither post-‐skip reversal nor regression to the
mean, and occasional leap continuations will confirm either post-‐skip reversal or
regression to the mean.
23
Chapter III
Experiment 2
After analyzing the technical construction of melodies composed to depict
happiness or sadness from the first experiment, this second study aimed to uncover
how well these intended emotions were perceived by listeners. Listener ratings
were used to analyze further which structural differences from Experiment 1 helped
to depict different emotions.
Method
Participants
Participants in this study were 49 undergraduate music majors enrolled in
three sections of Aural Skills 2 at Texas Tech University. The participants’ ages
ranged from 17-‐37, with a median of 19 years old, and a mean of 9 years of formal
music training. Participants consisted of 22 males and 27 females. Participants also
reflected a variety of primary instrument/vocal types.
Stimuli
The stimuli were MIDI files of the 20 melodies composed for Experiment 1,
generated using the Acoustic Grand Piano sound with the automatic Finale 2009
presets. Pitches, durations, rests, and tempi were input into Finale as written by the
composers, but any other markings that might contribute to the portrayal of
emotion, such as articulation, dynamics, and fermatas, were ignored.
24
Apparatus
Stimuli were presented over the built-‐in classroom stereo sound system as
participants rated the melodies on the forms provided.
Procedure
The melodies were presented in two different randomized orders. Twenty-‐
seven participants listened to random order A and twenty-‐two participants listened
to random order B. After listening to each melody, participants were asked to first
rate whether or not they perceived any of the twelve different emotions in each
melody. The melodies were visually separated into two groups of emotions by
general association; following Kate Hevner’s organization of emotions, the “positive”
group included graceful, happy, joyful, lively, triumphant, and exciting while the
“negative” group included solemn, melancholy, tragic, sad, longing, and gloomy.29 If
participants did perceive a given emotion, they then rated how strongly they
perceived each emotion, on a scale of one to five (1 = mildly and 5 = extremely).
Thirty seconds of silence were placed between melodies to give the participants
time to rate the perceived emotions before proceeding to the next melody. This
response method allowed participants to record perceptions of multiple emotions
for each melody.

29 Kate Hevner, “Experimental Studies of the Elements of Expression in Music,” The
American Journal of Psychology 48, no. 2 (April 1936): 249.

25
Results 1: Happiness and Sadness
Tables 7a and 7b list the melodies in order of highest to lowest rated target
emotion. Also listed are the means for each structural feature and the composers’
ratings by individual melody and by condition. Data from these tables will be used
throughout this section.
Table 7: Mean Values for all Structural Features by Melody and Condition
a: Mean Values for Happy Melodies
Happy Sad Mean Composer

Melody Mean Mean Density Interval Span Rating
Happy 2 3.55 0.00 3.03 2.19 5.11 4.00
Happy 7 3.45 0.00 1.50 2.17 6.25 4.00
Happy 10 3.14 0.00 2.08 1.56 7.00 2.00
Happy 3 3.02 0.04 2.63 2.40 4.00 3.00
Happy 6 2.96 0.00 5.13 2.40 5.05 5.00
Happy 5 2.88 0.00 1.35 4.83 11.60 4.00
Happy 1 2.67 0.02 1.89 3.94 5.73 3.00
Happy 4 2.67 0.08 1.88 2.71 5.75 4.00
Happy 9 2.63 0.00 1.35 2.34 4.69 2.00
Happy 8 2.02 0.00 2.17 2.33 7.00 4.00
Mean 2.90 0.01 2.30 2.59 5.57 3.50

26
Table 7: Mean Values for all Structural Features by Melody and Condition
cont’d
b: Mean Values for Sad Melodies
Happy Sad Mean Composer

Melody Mean Mean Density Interval Span Rating
Sad 6 0.00 3.37 0.59 1.81 4.22 4.00
Sad 7 0.00 3.08 1.11 2.28 4.10 4.00
Sad 4 0.00 2.81 1.16 3.43 6.00 3.00
Sad 10 0.09 2.65 1.01 1.86 5.78 3.00
Sad 9 0.00 2.35 1.07 2.70 5.40 4.00
Sad 5 0.00 2.10 1.30 2.17 4.88 3.00
Sad 2 0.06 1.88 1.50 2.36 4.00 4.00
Sad 8 0.20 1.04 1.44 1.93 7.00 1.00
Sad 3 0.71 0.94 0.89 1.83 3.44 3.00
Sad 1 0.92 0.35 2.02 2.25 4.24 2.00
Mean 0.20 2.06 1.21 2.22 4.73 3.10

As previously noted, happiness and sadness are basic emotions that are
central to larger families of emotions. Even though the participants rated their
perceptions of twelve different emotions for each melody, the present analysis will
focus on ratings of perceived happiness and sadness.
Structural features within happy and sad melodies were correlated with the
perceptual data using the Pearson correlation. Not surprisingly, happy melodies
conveyed more happiness than sad melodies and sad melodies conveyed more
sadness than happy melodies (p < .001 in both comparisons), but happy melodies
conveyed their target emotion better than sad melodies (p = .025).30 Both happy and
sad ratings across all melodies correlated significantly with density (happy p = .006

30 A similar discrepancy in overall happiness and sadness ratings can also be seen in
Hunter, Schellenberg, and Schimmack’s “Feelings and Perceptions of Happiness and
Sadness Induced by Music: Similarities, Differences, and Mixed Emotions” and
Thompson and Robitaille’s “Can Composers Express Emotion Through Music?”
27
and sad p = .008). The mean rating for happy and sad melodies was not correlated
significantly with mean interval or span, but the mean interval and mean span were
correlated (p = .005).
Data analyses were also conducted within each condition. Happiness ratings
were not significantly correlated with density, mean span, or mean interval. In
addition, no structural features were significantly correlated with each other in
happy melodies. Within the sad melodies, the sadness ratings and density were
correlated (p = .028). None of the other structural features were correlated with
sadness ratings or with each other. Not only was the difference in density between
happy and sad melodies significant, but density also decreased significantly as the
sad melodies became sadder.
Based on the perceptual data, composers were generally successful
composing happy melodies. The lowest happy rating was a 2.02 and the highest was
a 3.55, a difference of 1.53. On the other hand, the sadness ratings of the sad
melodies ranged from .35 to 3.37, a difference of 3.02. The greater variance of
composers’ success within the sad condition, however, allowed for stronger
correlations between ratings and structural features. (These correlations within
conditions will be explored further in Discussion 1.)
In addition to examining the structural features, composers’ ratings
evaluating how well their melody portrayed their target emotion were also
examined. Across all melodies, the composers’ ratings correlated significantly with
listeners’ ratings. Composers of happy melodies, however, did not accurately predict
28
how much happiness their melody portrayed to the listeners (p = .88), while
composers of sad melodies did (p = .027).
Happy melodies that were given higher happiness ratings exhibited clearer
phrase structures, most often clearly defined periods. As the happiness rating
decreased, the clearly defined period structure was less evident, and the lower rated
happy melodies were generally a single continuous phrase. Not many sad melodies
were composed with balanced phrase structures, and sad melodies did not show a
link between the sadness ratings and form. Overall, however, high perceptual
complexity in form is associated with sadness and low perceptual complexity,
happiness.31
Discussion 1
The results from the perceptual test do not provide any stronger correlations
between the structural features and the listeners’ ratings than those between the
structural features themselves. The perceptual data do, however, allow an
investigation of which structural features might have the greatest effect on
perceived emotion. Figure 5 depicts the mean melodic arches for the five highest
rated melodies in each condition – the “happiest” and “saddest” melodies.

31 Gabrielsson, “Emotional Expression in Music,” 145.
29
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00 Happiest Mean

Saddest Mean
-‐1.00
-‐2.00
-‐3.00
-‐4.00
-‐5.00
Figure 5: Mean Melodic Arches of Top Five Rated Melodies by Condition

The clear differences between conditions seen above in Figure 2 are
exaggerated in the mean melodic arches in Figure 5, and it is instructive to compare
the arches between Figures 2 and 5 within conditions. Note that the mean happiest
contour is still roughly symmetrical, but has a greater climax, reaching almost five
semitones above its origin, versus a peak of 3.5 semitones in Figure 2’s mean happy
contour. Differences also occur in the descent of these two happy arches; the overall
happy arch is more symmetrical and ends close to where it began, whereas the
happiest arch in Figure 5 ends roughly 1.5 semitones higher than its origin.
Within sad melodies, the general contour is similar between the two figures,
but the melodic arch for saddest melodies in Figure 5 reaches a higher peak than
30
that in Figure 2, and also ends over three semitones lower than its starting pitch.
This melodic arch’s descent spans approximately nine semitones, compared to a
descent of just over five semitones in Figure 2’s mean sad contour. The extended
melodic descent of the saddest melodies lends further evidence to the association of
descending motion and negative valence.
Recall that post-‐skip reversal and regression to the mean did not exhibit any
significant differences between conditions, but that trends indicated a link between
decreased happiness ratings and more mixed confirmations (no PSR/RTM and
PSR/no RTM); the three happy melodies that received the highest happiness ratings
contain no instances of mixed confirmations. The three sad melodies that received
the highest sadness ratings contain 62.5% of the mixed confirmations found in all
ten sad melodies. Thus the higher occurrences of double confirmation or non-‐
confirmation of post-‐skip reversal and regression to the mean seem to be associated
with higher happiness and lower sadness ratings.
The greater variance of listeners’ perception of sadness in sad melodies
suggests that there are certain structural features without which sadness is more
difficult to portray. Three sad melodies stand out for having received higher ratings
in some positive emotion than they received for sadness. Sad 3 received the second
lowest sad rating (.94). Sad 3 was the only sad melody composed completely in the
major mode and has a clear three-‐phrase structure. Sad 3, however, has the second
lowest density (.89); in this case, the combination of mode and form seemed to
31
prevail over density in determining emotional affect.32 Sad 1, with the lowest
sadness rating of .35, mixes modes between phrases, not changing to minor until its
last quarter. Sad 1 also had the highest density of the sad melodies with a 2.02,
which is higher than that of five happy melodies. Major mode and high density likely
made it more difficult to perceive sadness in Sad 1. Sad 8, receiving the third lowest
sadness rating (1.04), also goes against the trends exhibited by the majority of the
sad melodies. The overall density of the minor-‐mode Sad 8 is 1.44, one of the highest
densities for sad melodies. Moreover, Sad 8 begins with a quick arpeggiation
followed by a rapid stepwise descent, all in the first measure. The note density in
this first measure is 3.45, much higher than any other density not only in sad
melodies, but also in the majority of happy melodies. The longer notes in the last
three measures of its four-‐measure length have a density of .77, creating the overall
density of 1.44. Sad 8 is a counterexample to Sad 3 of density having a pronounced
effect over mode.
Two of these least sad melodies exhibited a high note density. Two melodies
incorporated use of the major mode. One was also composed using a clear phrase
structure, uncommon to the saddest melodies. The major mode, higher note density,
and simple formal design appear to be characteristics of melodies intended to
portray happiness; the sad melodies that contained these characteristics received
the lowest sadness ratings. Yet there was a lack of similar variation within happy

32 This does not follow the general findings of Hunter et al. (2010) as discussed
above.
32
melodies, which makes it more difficult to pinpoint necessary factors for expressing
happiness in individual pieces.
Results 2: Other Emotions
Table 8 lists the ratings for each emotion in all ten happy melodies, with the
mean values for each structural feature. Melody names in the table have been
abbreviated to H1 for Happy 1, etc. Shaded, boldface cells give the highest rated
emotion for each melody.
Table 8: Perception Ratings for Happy Melodies
H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 H10
Graceful 0.71 1.04 0.81 1.47 0.76 1.23 1.34 0.73 0.92 0.85
Happy 2.67 3.55 3.02 2.67 2.88 2.96 3.45 2.02 2.63 3.19
Joyful 2.39 4.00 2.83 1.94 2.94 3.02 3.69 2.29 1.73 2.77
Lively 2.43 4.53 3.19 1.06 2.14 4.71 2.92 2.63 1.73 1.94
Triumphant 2.18 3.22 1.51 1.58 1.10 1.60 3.15 1.08 1.20 1.38
Exciting 1.63 3.37 2.08 0.62 1.20 4.47 1.79 1.38 0.90 1.04

Solemn 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.04 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.18 0.00
Melancholy 0.00 0.06 0.00 0.10 0.06 0.00 0.00 0.08 0.06 0.00
Tragic 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Sad 0.02 0.00 0.04 0.08 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Longing 0.06 0.00 0.04 0.22 0.15 0.00 0.00 0.04 0.33 0.00
Gloomy 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Density 1.89 3.03 2.63 1.88 1.35 5.13 1.50 2.17 1.35 2.08
Mode Major Major Major Major Major Major Major Major Major Major
Mean
Interval 3.94 2.19 2.63 2.71 4.83 2.40 2.17 2.33 2.34 2.08
Mean Span 5.73 5.11 4.00 5.75 11.60 5.05 6.25 7.00 4.69 7.00
Composer
Rating 3 4 3 4 4 5 4 4 2 2

33
The emotions that received the highest ratings for individual happy melodies
were happy, joyful, and lively. The ratings for lively garnered the highest rating
values of the entire study. The four melodies that received lively as the highest rated
emotion also had the four highest note densities. Three of the four lively melodies
had higher ratings for joyful compared to their happy ratings.
The ordering of happy melodies ranked by happiness ratings (left column)
compared to the ordering by any emotion (middle column) is similar, as seen in
Table 9 below. Melodies sharing a box indicate a tie in the rating. The right column
lists the strongest perceived emotion in each melody, according to the ordering of
the middle column. The most drastic difference occurred with Happy 6, which
moved from fifth place in the Happy Order to first place in the Overall Order. After
Happy 6 moved up, the ordering of the next four melodies remained the same. Note
that the top five and bottom five melodies were consistent between orderings.
Table 9: Comparison Order of Happy Melodies
Happy Order Overall Order Strongest Emotions

Happy 2 Happy 6 Lively, Exciting, Joyful
Happy 7 Happy 2 Lively, Joyful, Happy
Happy 10 Happy 7 Joyful, Happy, Triumphant
Happy 3 Happy 10 Happy, Joyful, Lively
Happy 6 Happy 3 Lively, Happy, Joyful
Happy 5 Happy 5 Joyful, Happy, Lively
Happy 1 Happy 9 Happy, Joyful, Lively
Happy 4 Happy 8 Lively, Joyful, Happy
Happy 9 Happy 1 Happy, Lively, Joyful
Happy 8 Happy 4 Happy, Joyful, Triumphant

34
Comparing the top three perceived emotions in each melody sheds light on
the portrayal of certain emotions. The top three emotions in seven of the happy
melodies were happy, joyful, and lively (in different orders and varying strengths).
The other three melodies received at least two of these three in their top three, with
exciting and triumphant as the third emotion. Notably, all ten had their joyful rating
in the top three perceived emotions.
In six of the ten happy melodies, the value for the highest rated emotion was
within one point of the composer’s rating. In three of the four melodies where the
composer’s rating was not within one point of the highest perceived emotion value,
the composer’s rating was higher than the mean listener rating.
As seen below, Table 10 lists the ratings for each emotion for the sad
melodies and the corresponding values for the structural features. Melody names
were also abbreviated here, similar to that of the happy melodies.
35
Table 10: Perception Ratings for Sad Melodies
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 S10
Graceful 1.33 0.65 2.00 0.74 1.31 0.31 0.71 0.49 0.49 1.49
Happy 0.92 0.06 0.71 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.20 0.00 0.09
Joyful 0.94 0.02 0.21 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.20 0.00 0.00
Lively 1.39 0.10 0.15 0.00 0.04 0.00 0.00 1.59 0.00 0.07
Triumphant 0.71 0.06 0.46 0.00 0.23 0.00 0.06 0.16 0.14 0.00
Exciting 0.76 0.08 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.04 0.76 0.08 0.00

Solemn 0.47 1.57 1.61 2.50 2.59 3.02 2.75 0.90 1.88 2.31
Melancholy 0.76 1.88 0.85 2.51 1.98 2.55 2.59 1.35 1.60 2.39
Tragic 0.27 1.16 0.60 2.06 1.69 3.14 2.02 0.88 1.78 2.41
Sad 0.35 1.88 0.94 2.81 2.10 3.37 3.08 1.04 2.35 2.65
Longing 1.65 2.29 1.81 2.63 1.71 2.27 2.47 0.82 1.84 3.14
Gloomy 0.20 1.37 0.65 2.21 1.69 3.71 2.60 1.10 2.61 1.69

Density 2.02 1.50 0.89 1.16 1.30 0.59 1.11 1.44 1.07 1.01
Mode M/m minor Major minor minor minor minor minor minor minor
Mean
Interval 2.25 2.36 1.83 3.43 2.17 1.81 2.28 1.93 2.70 1.86
Mean Span 4.24 4.00 3.44 6.00 4.88 4.22 4.10 7.00 5.40 5.78
Composer
Rating 2 4 3 3 3 4 4 1 4 3

The highest perceived emotion values for the individual sad melodies were
more varied than they were for the happy melodies. The emotions that received the
highest ratings include solemn, sad, longing, and gloomy, plus two emotions from
the positive category, graceful and lively. As seen in Table 10, there is much less
consistency in the strongest perceived emotions across sad melodies. Ratings of sad
melodies did not establish connections between specific emotions and density. For
instance, the four least dense melodies received longing and gloomy as their highest
rated emotion, but longing also was also highly rated in melodies that had the
highest densities.
36
Six of the composers' ratings for their sad melody were within one point of
that melody’s highest rated emotion, similar to the findings for the happy melodies.
Sad 8 received its highest rated emotion in the positive category; yet with the self-‐
rating of 1, the composer seemed cognizant of his melody’s lack of success
portraying sadness.
Listed below in Table 11 is the ordering of the melodies by sadness ratings
(left column) compared to the ordering by the strongest perceived emotion (middle
column) with their corresponding strongest perceived emotion (right column).
Table 11: Comparison Order of Sad Melodies
Sad Order Overall Order Strongest Emotions

Sad 6 Sad 6 Gloomy, Sad, Tragic
Sad 7 Sad 10 Longing, Sad, Tragic
Sad 4 Sad 7 Sad, Solemn, Gloomy
Sad 10 Sad 4 Sad, Longing, Melancholy
Sad 9 Sad 9 Gloomy, Sad, Solemn
Sad 5 Sad 5 Solemn, Sad, Melancholy
Sad 2 Sad 2 Longing, Sad, Melancholy
Sad 8 Sad 1 Longing, Lively, Graceful
Sad 3 Sad 8 Lively, Melancholy, Gloomy
Sad 1 Sad 3 Graceful, Longing, Solemn

The only emotion that was common within the top three perceived emotions
was sadness, appearing in eight melodies. No other emotion appeared in the top
three of more than four melodies. Two sad melodies had a positive emotion as their
strongest perceived emotion, Sad 8 and Sad 3. These two sad melodies, along with
Sad 1, were the anomalies discussed above. Note that the strongest perceived
37
emotion for Sad 1 was longing, but the second and third strongest perceived
emotions were lively and graceful, both emotions from the positive category.
Discussion 2
Structural Features and Positive Emotions
After comparing the differences between the Happy Order and the Overall
Order, a close examination of specific melodies can illustrate how each one contains
a nuanced portrayal of positive emotions. Figure 6 below shows Happy 6, the happy
melody that most strongly portrays a positive emotion and had lively, exciting, and
joyful as the top three rated emotions.
Figure 6: Happy 6

Happy 6 is by far the densest melody, and is clearly divided into two phrases
forming a period. Relative to the other happy melodies, Happy 6 does not, however,
exhibit a large mean interval or span (the fifth highest mean interval and eighth
highest mean span). Despite the relatively small mean interval and span, Happy 6
contains several prominent factors for the portrayal of happiness: major key, high
38
note density, a clearly defined period structure, and a melodic contour that ends
higher than where it began.
Figure 7 shows Happy 7, the second strongest melody depicting happiness.
The most strongly perceived emotions for Happy 7 were joyful, happy, and
triumphant.
Figure 7: Happy 7
Like Happy 6, Happy 7 contains two clear phrases that constitute a period.
Happy 7 also has a relatively small mean interval (ninth largest), but a somewhat
larger span (fourth largest). Happy 7 does contain several factors for the portrayal
of happiness, including the major mode (based on the pitch collection, not the key
signature), a clear period structure, and a symmetrical arch shape, but it has only
the eighth highest note density out of the ten happy melodies. In this case, density
was not necessary to convey a high degree of happiness.
Clearly the major mode was a common, even necessary factor for happiness
in these melodies. Additionally, four of the top five melodies in the overall rankings
have four of the highest densities, making density another major contributing factor
39
for the portrayal of happiness. Mean interval and mean span were not major
determinants of happiness. For instance, Happy 5 had the highest mean interval and
span, but had the lowest density, perhaps why Happy 5 was sixth in each order.
As noted above, the four melodies with the highest lively ratings also had the
four highest densities; thus lively seems to be an emotion strongly linked to musical
motion. Within the happy melodies, as happy ratings increase, ratings for joyful also
increase, but at a faster rate. Generally, joyful was rated higher than happy in the
happiest melodies whereas happy was rated higher than joyful in the least happy
melodies. Exciting and lively also appear to have a similar relationship, in that when
lively ratings increased exciting ratings did also, but at a similar rate; all ten ratings
for lively were higher than the ratings for excitement. Triumphant and graceful,
however, did not appear to have any strong associations with other emotions or
structural features.
Structural Features and Negative Emotions
Sad 6 is depicted below in Figure 8. Not only did Sad 6 receive the highest
sadness rating, but it also received the highest negative rating in the Overall Order.
The most strongly perceived emotions for Sad 6 are gloomy, sad, and tragic.
Figure 8: Sad 6

40
Sad 6 was composed in the minor mode and had the lowest density. Sad 6
was also comprised of the smallest mean interval and the third smallest mean span.
Sad 6 is a single continuous phrase, lacking any clearly definable internal phrase
structure. Without fully investigating the perceived emotional content of different
meters, a brief look at the use of 5/4 for Sad 6 might unearth some repercussions of
using an uneven meter. Although Sad 6 was the only melody that specifically used
an uneven meter, the asymmetry of 5/4 ties in to other asymmetrical aspects of the
sad melodies; no instances of parallel periodic structures appeared in any sad
melodies and internal phrases within sad melodies were irregular in length. Three
additional sad melodies, Sad 2, Sad 4, and Sad 8, were composed with tempi and
rhythmic configurations that likely made it difficult for listeners to grasp a regular
meter.
Figure 9 shows Sad 10, which received the second highest negative emotion
rating in the Overall Ordering. The most strongly perceived emotions in Sad 10 were
longing, sad, and tragic.
Figure 9: Sad 10

41
Unlike Sad 6, Sad 10 does portray clearly defined phrases that constitute a
period as well as a relatively large mean span, characteristics more common to
happy melodies. Yet Sad 10 did have the third lowest density, was also composed in
the minor mode, and had the third smallest mean interval. In this melody, these
factors seemed more important in listeners’ perceptions of negative emotions.
Factors that are frequently employed to depict sadness in melodies are the
minor mode and low note densities. Two of the three melodies that received the
lowest ratings for negative emotions were at least partially composed in the major
mode. Four of the top five melodies in the overall rankings had the lowest densities.
While the mean interval and mean span did exhibit some direct associations with
negative emotions, these two structural features were not superordinate in the
portrayal of negative emotions.
Perhaps surprisingly, all sad melodies received at least one nonzero rating
for graceful, a positive emotion. Within the sad melodies, graceful did not exhibit
any relationships to any other perceived emotion or structural feature. Gracefulness
could be largely attributed to the flowing nature of many melodies, but the portrayal
of gracefulness in melodies seems to have underlying characteristics that were not
uncovered in these analyses. Gracefulness itself may be of neutral valence, and so
can readily be associated with both positive and negative emotions.
Even discounting the prominent graceful ratings and the two melodies that
received a positive emotion as the strongest perceived emotion, sad melodies
received a greater number of ratings in happy emotions than happy melodies did in
42
sad emotions. As in the happy melodies, sad melodies of higher note density
generally received higher ratings for liveliness. The one exception here is again the
major-‐mode Sad 3; Sad 3 had the second lowest note density but received the third
highest lively rating (.15). In the presence of the major mode, perhaps density is not
required for the perception of some liveliness. When comparing the major-‐mode
Sad 3 to the happy melodies, the lively rating and density for Sad 3 follow the
ordering of the other happy melodies.
Overall rankings of negative emotions emerge based on their relative
strengths in individual melodies. Sadness tended to receive the highest ratings,
suggesting that sadness was easily perceptible. Ratings for melancholy were
generally lower than sadness ratings, gloomy ratings were lower than melancholy
ratings, and ratings for tragic tended to be the lowest ratings out of these four
emotions. Gloomy and tragic might seem to be extreme versions of sad, like joyful
was to happy, but no clear relationships emerge from the ratings of these emotions.
43
Chapter IV
Conclusion
The two experiments in this study established relationships between
different structural features and how they aid in the depiction of different emotions
in melody. Based on these findings, the strongest correlations exist between the
main target emotions, happy and sad, and both mode and note density, confirming
the long-‐standing association between emotion and mode33 as well as the notable
influence note density has on perceived emotion.34 The melodic contour also differs
notably between conditions, although no significance tests were possible with the
current data set. A weaker, yet still important, factor exists in the regularity of
formal design, especially among the top five rated melodies in each condition.
Two structural features that were not significantly correlated with emotion
intent or perception were the mean interval and the mean span. There were,
however, some observable patterns relating larger intervals and spans to happy
melodies, and the mean interval and span were correlated with each other. The lack
of significance between these structural features and the mean rating may suggest
that these are invariant structural features of tonal melodies that do not contribute
significantly to the portrayal of emotions.
This study has provided a detailed account of how well individual structural
features found in melody contribute to the depiction of emotion. Other music and
emotion studies account for differences within individual primary musical

33 cf. Kastner and Crowder, “Perceptions of the Major/Minor Distinction.”
34 cf. Hunter et al, “Feelings and Perceptions.”
44
parameters, but they do not investigate the detailed structural features analyzed
above.35 A detailed analysis of the structural features within melody provides those
interested in the portrayal of emotion in music with a more refined view of the
relationships between emotion and melody. From these results, we can also
investigate how melodies can be adapted and manipulated to portray different
emotions. This information would be particularly interesting for composers and
arrangers. Performers must also have an understanding of the structural features
and how they relate to the portrayal of emotions to realize their musical goals.
While performers do not have the freedom that composers do to incorporate certain
structural features, they do have the ability to manipulate tempo, and thus note
density. A performer may opt to change the tempo throughout certain sections of a
piece in order to control the portrayal of emotion and carry the listener through a
specific emotional journey in the music.
Finally, it is important to note that the perceptual data explored above were
obtained with expressionless MIDI files. The expression of a human performance
would undoubtedly enhance the portrayal of emotion in these melodies, and thus
the above findings might be viewed as especially robust. Yet the use of
computerized sounds controlled for the effects of performance expression, allowing
this study to focus solely on the inherent structural features of the melodies.

35 See Gabrielsson, “Musical Structure and Perceived Emotions,” and Alf Gabrielsson
and Patrik N. Juslin, “Emotional Expression in Music,” in Handbook of Affective
Sciences, ed. Richard Davidson, Klaus R. Scherer, and H. Hill Goldsmith (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2003).
45
Chapter V
Future Research
In the larger area of music and emotion, this study provides a basis from
which to investigate other prominent parameters of music, hopefully culminating in
larger studies on ways music and emotion are linked. To examine more closely how
these structural features contribute to the portrayal of emotions, these findings
should be replicated and expanded. First and perhaps most obviously, a perceptual
test of these melodies should be given to groups of non-‐musicians. Testing non-‐
musicians would provide further evidence as to which structural features help
portray each emotion and that the present results are not merely the artifact of
formal music training.
In addition to correlating mean happy and sad ratings to structural features,
statistical analyses could be done relating each individual emotion to structural
features and to other emotions. A larger number of melodies could possibly
generate stronger correlations between structural features and emotion ratings, as
well as uncovering stronger effects of structural features themselves.
To make stronger correlations between mode and note density, the melodies
could be manipulated following the methodology from Hunter, Schellenberg, and
Schimmack. Excerpts in their study were altered to be played in both the major and
minor modes, and at a slow and a fast tempo (the fast tempo being exactly twice as
fast as the slow tempo). Manipulating each melody in this fashion would provide
46
detailed results on the relative strength of mode and note density in the perception
of emotion.
By providing a treble clef on the composer’s sheets, this study controlled
somewhat for variance in range. Allowing composers to choose the clef, and thus the
range, certainly would have allowed for additional opportunities for emotional
content. Further manipulations of these melodies into different ranges would be an
additional method to study more precisely emotional content in melodies. The
instrumentation of the melodies could also be altered in order to study the effect of
timbre. In particular, the melodies that contained longer note values might benefit
from a change in timbre to prevent an unmusical decay on those notes. A change to
an instrument that sustains note values could provide the listeners with
continuously sounding melodies, possibly making some of the melodies more
idiomatic.
47
Bibliography
Arnheim, Rudolf. “Perceptual Dynamics in Musical Expression.” The Musical

Quarterly 70, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 295-‐309.

Brower, Candace. “A Cognitive theory of Musical Meaning.” Journal of Music Theory
44, no. 2 (Autumn 2000): 323-‐379.

Collier, William and Timothy Hubbard. “Musical Scales and Evaluations of Happiness
and Awkwardness: Effects of Pitch, Direction, and Scale Mode.” The American
Journal of Psychology 113, no. 3 (Autumn 2001): 355-‐375.

Downey, June E. “A Musical Experiment.” The American Journal of Psychology 9, no. 1
(Oct. 1897): 63-‐69.

Ekman, Paul. “An Argument for Basic Emotions.” Cognition and Emotion 6 (3/4
1992): 169-‐200.

Gabrielsson, Alf. “The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived
Expression.” In The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology, edited by Susan
Hallam, Ian Cross, and Michael Thaut, 141-‐150. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2009.

Gabrielsson, Alf and Patrik N. Juslin. “Emotional Expression in Music.” In Handbook
of Affective Sciences. Edited by Richard Davidson, Klaus R. Scherer, and H. Hill
Goldsmith, 457-‐480. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Gilman, Benjamin Ives. “Report on an Experimental Test of Musical Expressiveness
(Continued).” The American Journal of Psychology 5, no. 1 (Oct. 1892): 42-‐73.

Hevner, Kate. “Experimental Studies of the Elements of Expression in Music.” The
American Journal of Psychology 48, no. 2 (April 1936): 246-‐268.

Hoffmann, E. T. A. E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Musical Writings. Edited by David Charleton.
Translated by Martyn Clarke. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Hunter, Patrick G., E. Glenn Schellenberg, and Ulrich Schimmack. “Feelings and
Perceptions of Happiness and Sadness Induced by Music: Similarities,
Differences, and Mixed Emotions.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the
Arts 4, no. 1 (2010): 47-‐56.

Huron, David. “The Melodic Arch in Western Folksongs.” Computing in Musicology
10 (1996): 3-‐23.
———. Sweet Anticipation. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2006.
48
International Music Score Library Project. “Seikilos Epitaph (Ancient Greek).” Last
modified Oct. 30, 2009.
http://imslp.org/wiki/Seikilos_Epitaph_(Ancient_Greek).

Juslin, Patrik N. “Emotional Responses to Music.” In The Oxford Handbook of Music
Psychology, edited by Susan Hallam, Ian Cross, and Michael Thaut, 131-‐140.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Juslin, Patrik N. and Petri Laukka. “Expression, Perception, and Induction of Musical
Emotion: A Review and a Questionnaire Study of Everyday Listening.” Journal
of New Music Research 33, no. 3 (2004): 217-‐238.

Juslin, Patrik N., Simon Liljestrom, Daniel Vastfjall, and Lard-‐Olov Lundqvist. “How
does Music Evoke Emotions?” In Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory,
Research, and Applications, Edited by Patrik N. Juslin and John Sloboda, 605-‐
644. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Kastner, Marianna Pinochot and Robert G. Crowder. “Perception of the Major/Minor
Distinction: IV. Emotional Connotations in Young Children.” Music Perception
8, no. 2 (Winter 1990): 189-‐201.

Nemett, Barry. “Two-‐Dimensional Materials and Techniques.” In Images, Objects, and
Ideas: Viewing the Visual Arts. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College
Publishers, 1992.

Sloboda, John. “Empirical Studies of Emotional Response to Music.” In Cognitive
Bases of Musical Communication, edited by Mari Riess Jones and Susan
Holleran, 33-‐46. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Society, 1992.

Thompson, William Forde and Brent Robitaille. “Can Composers Express Emotions
through Music?” Empirical Studies of the Arts 10, no. 1 (1992): 79-‐89.

Wagner, Richard. Wagner on Music and Drama: A Compendium of Richard Wagner’s
Prose Works. Translated by H. Ashton Ellis. Selected and arranged with an
introduction by Albert Goldman and Evert Sprinchorn. New York: E. P.
Dutton & Co., Inc., 1964.

Wells, Alan and Ernest A. Hakanen. “The Emotional Use of Popular Music by
Adolescents.” Journalism Quarterly 68, no. 3 (Fall 1991): 445-‐454.

Zetner, Marcel, Didier Grandjean, and Klaus R. Scherer. “Emotions Evoked by the
Sound of Music: Characterization, Classification, and Measurement.” Emotion
8, no. 4 (2008): 494-‐521.
49
Appendix A

Melodies

Happy 1

Happy 2

Happy 3

Happy 4

Happy 5

50
Happy 6

Happy 7

Happy 8

Happy 9

Happy 10

51
Sad 1

Sad 2

Sad 3

Sad 4

Sad 5

Sad 6

52
Sad 7

Sad 8

Sad 9

Sad 10
53
Appendix B

IRB Exemption Letter

54
Appendix C

T-Tests
55
Appendix D

Correlations Within All Melodies
56
Appendix E

Correlations by Condition

Valence -‐1 refers to sad melodies and 1 refers to happy melodies.
57

04 - The Power of Music - The Composition and Perception of Emotion in Melody PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

04 - The Power of Music - The Composition and Perception of Emotion in Melody PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Power of Music:

© Copyright 2011, Megan Trenck.

reach higher in order to fulfill my dreams.

Table of Contents

List of Tables............................................................................................................................ vi

List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... vii

II. Experiment 1 ....................................................................................................................... 8

Results and Discussion ................................................................................................... 9

Emotion/Mode Correlation .................................................................................... 9

Post-­Skip Reversal and Regression to the Mean ...........................................20

III. Experiment 2 ....................................................................................................................24

Results 1: Happiness and Sadness ............................................................................26

Results 2: Other Emotions ...........................................................................................33

Structural Features and Positive Emotions.....................................................38

Structural Features and Negative Emotions ...................................................40

IV. Conclusion .........................................................................................................................44

B. IRB Exemption Letter.........................................................................................54

D. Correlations Within All Melodies ..................................................................56

E. Correlations by Condition.................................................................................57

To investigate some specifics of what makes emotions attributable to

project, such as melodic span, and melodic contour.

portrayed the intended emotions. Forty-­‐nine undergraduate music majors rated

List of Tables

1. Frequencies of First-­Order Intervals, with Size Groupings................................11

2. Mean Interval by Melody and Condition...................................................................12

3. Minor Second Distribution ............................................................................................13

4. Frequencies of Melodic Spans by Size and Groupings..........................................16

5. Note Density by Melody..................................................................................................17

6. Frequencies of Post-­Skip Reversal and Regression to Mean .............................22

8. Perception Ratings for Happy Melodies ...................................................................33

9. Comparison Order of Happy Melodies ......................................................................34

10. Perception Ratings for Sad Melodies.......................................................................36

11. Comparison Order of Sad Melodies .........................................................................37

List of Figures

1. Melodic Spans Outlined ..................................................................................................14

2. Mean Melodic Arch by Condition.................................................................................19

4. Melody with Bracketed Confirmations and Violations of Post-­Skip

9. Sad 10 ...................................................................................................................................41

English), last modified Oct. 30, 2009,

characteristics and tendencies relative to emotional expression. Specific individual

From a similar premise, Richard Wagner writes:

Martyn Clarke. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 156.

horizontal rather than the vertical aspect of music.”10

giving in to gravity and as a passive letting-­‐go.11

Quarterly 70, no. 3 (Summer 1984).

instead of valence in emotional expression.

In “The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression”

emotional effect of different musical parameters. Gabrielsson concludes that

sadness, the long-­‐established correlation holds true.15

structural features and specific emotions.

oppositional emotions to highlight these structural differences.

Twenty upper-­‐level undergraduate and graduate music students at Texas

Hakanen, (1991); and Zetner et al, (2008).

of primary instrument/vocal types.

portrayed the intended emotion (see Appendix A for all melodies).

Results and Discussion

associations of mode and emotion.19

Table 1 shows the numbers and percentages of first-­‐order intervals

Theory 44, no. 2 (Autumn 2000).

Table 1: Frequencies of First-­Order Intervals, with Size Groupings

Interval in Happy Happy Sad Sad

emotions and smaller intervals convey negative emotions.20

with these labels below.

Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to the Mean ...........................................20

portrayed the intended emotions. Forty-‐nine undergraduate music majors rated

1. Frequencies of First-Order Intervals, with Size Groupings................................11

6. Frequencies of Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to Mean .............................22

4. Melody with Bracketed Confirmations and Violations of Post-Skip

giving in to gravity and as a passive letting-‐go.11

sadness, the long-‐established correlation holds true.15

Twenty upper-‐level undergraduate and graduate music students at Texas

Table 1 shows the numbers and percentages of first-‐order intervals

Table 1: Frequencies of First-Order Intervals, with Size Groupings

Post-Skip Reversal and Regression to the Mean