The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Per­

ceived Expression
Alf Gabrielsson
The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology (2 ed.)
Edited by Susan Hallam, Ian Cross, and Michael Thaut

Print Publication Date: Jan 2016 Subject: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology

Online Publication Date: Nov 2014 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198722946.013.18

Abstract and Keywords

A comprehensive review of studies on the relationship between musical structure and

perceived emotional expression reveals that any structural factor (tempo, loudness, pitch,
timbre, intervals, mode, melody, rhythm, harmony, etc.) may indicate a number of differ­
ent emotional expressions. Conversely, perceived emotional expression is always a func­
tion of many structural factors which may work in additive or interactive ways. The most
distinct results concern effects of basic variables in human audition (loudness, timbre,
pitch) and motion (tempo/speed), while results concerning the effects of typical musical
variables seem less clear. This chapter includes a review of the relationship between
structural variables and other kinds of perceived expression, such as narratives in pro­
gram music; human character, personality, and identity; motion and dynamic forces; so­
cial conditions and organization; and religious faith and transcendental phenomena.

Keywords: musical structure, emotional expression, absolutism, referentialism, program music, human character,
motion, dynamic forces, social conditions, religious faith

THE relationship between structure and expression in music has been discussed by
philosophers and music theorists ever since antiquity, but empirical research did not start
until about 100 years ago. Most of this research pertains to Western tonal music.

Musical structure is an umbrella term for a host of factors such as tempo, loudness, pitch,
intervals, mode, melody, rhythm, harmony, and various formal aspects (e.g., repetition,
variation, transposition). They are designated by different symbols in the common musi­
cal notation. Most symbols represent categories with allowance for performance variation
within the respective category. Listeners’ perception of expression is thus affected both
by the composed/notated structure and by the actual performance. However, perfor­
mance aspects will not be further discussed here as they are treated elsewhere in this
volume (Part 7).

Listeners’ perception of expression—for instance, to perceive sadness in the music—

should be distinguished from listeners’ own reactions (that is, feeling sad themselves);

Page 1 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

the latter are treated elsewhere (Juslin, Chapter 13, this volume). However, the border
between these two alternatives is sometimes blurred, and the relationship between them
may vary (Evans and Schubert, 2008; Gabrielsson, 2002; Juslin and Laukka, 2004; Kalli­
nen and Ravaja, 2006; Kawakami, Furukawa, Katahira, Kamiyama and Okanoya, 2013,
Konečni, Brown and Wanic, 2008).

Absolutism versus Referentialism

Meyer (1956) made a distinction between absolutism and referentialism (other terms are
formalism vs expressionism, or autonomous vs heteronomous music). Absolutism focuses
(p. 216) on intra-musical relations; music is considered self-contained, referring only to it­

self. Referentialism implies, on the contrary, that music refers to extra-musical phenome­
na such as emotions, events, or characters.

Music critic Eduard Hanslick claimed that music consists of tone sequences which have
no other content than themselves (Hanslick, 1989/1854, p. 162), and composer Igor
Stravinsky held that “if music appears to express something, this is only an
illusion” (cited in Fisk, 1997, pp. 280–281). However, the distinction between absolutism
and referentialism is rather vague. Hanslick and Stravinsky later added several modifica­
tions to their seemingly dogmatic statements, and “absolute meanings and referential
meanings…. can and do coexist in one and the same piece of music” (Meyer, 1956, p. 1).

In the present chapter emphasis will be on perceived expression rather than expression
somehow inherent in the music. The listener may apprehend music as “pure” music (ab­
solutism) or as expression of emotions, characters, events, or whatever, and may very
well alternate, consciously or unconsciously, between different approaches during the
course of a piece. Focus will be on referential meaning, leaving questions about intra-mu­
sical relationships and structural listening to other chapters in this volume (Bigand and
Poulin-Charronnat, Chapter 7 and Schmuckler, Chapter 10); see Clarke (2005) for further
comments on autonomous music and structural listening.

Expression of Emotion
Among referential meanings, expression of emotion is the most common alternative. It
has been discussed for centuries, as in the “doctrine of the affections” (Affektenlehre)
during the Baroque era and during Romanticism with its emphasis on expression of the
subjective and emotional in music. Musicologist Deryck Cooke claimed that music is a
language of emotions (1959, pp. 32–33), and philosopher Susanne Langer argued that
“music can reveal the nature of feelings with a detail and truth that language cannot ap­
proach” (1957, p. 235).

The following is a condensed review of empirical research on emotional expression in mu­

sic. More complete reviews appear in Gabrielsson and Juslin (2003) and Gabrielsson and
Lindström (2010).

Page 2 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Stimuli

Generally, subjects listened to pieces of music or other tonal stimuli and reported per­
ceived expression. Stimuli were usually recordings of selected pieces of music, sometimes
live music (e.g., Hevner, 1935a; Rigg, 1937a), improvised music (e.g., Luck et al., 2008),
or synthesized tone stimuli. Using real music means good ecological validity but limits
conclusions regarding the effects of separate structural factors since they are usually
confounded in musical contexts. An alternative that allows more definite conclusions is to
systematically vary one or more structural factors in short sound sequences (e.g., Far­
bood, 2012, Exp. 1; Granot and Eitan, 2011; Scherer and Oshinsky, 1977); however, the
ecological validity is then limited. A further, commendable alternative is to systematically
vary different structural factors (tempo, mode, form, etc.) in real pieces of music (e.g.,
Hevner, 1935a, 1936, 1937; Juslin, 1997; Kamenetsky, Hill and Trehub, 1997; Karno and
Konečni, 1992; Lindström, (p. 217) 2006; Peretz, Gagnon and Bouchard, 1998; Rigg,
1940a, 1940b; Schellenberg, Krysciak and Campbell, 2000), and thus try to combine the
advantages of the before-mentioned strategies.

Response Format

Subjects reported perceived expression using:

(a) free phenomenological descriptions (e.g., Huber, 1923; Tagg, 2006) or free choice
of descriptive terms/adjectives (Imberty, 1979)
(b) choice among descriptive terms provided by the investigator (e.g., Gundlach,
1935; Hevner, 1935a; Wedin, 1972a)
(c) combination of free descriptions and choice among descriptive terms (Rigg,
1937a)
(d) ratings of how well selected descriptive terms apply to the music in question
(e.g., Gabrielsson, 1973; Granot and Eitan, 2011; Nielzén and Cesarec, 1982; Tillman
and Bigand, 1996; Wedin, 1969); Collier (2007) used ranking of emotion words
(e) nonverbal methods, for instance, pressing a pair of tongs to indicate perceived
tension (Nielsen 1983, 1987), finger pressure on a sentograph to study expression of
different emotions (Clynes and Nettheim, 1982; Gabrielsson and Lindström, 1995; de
Vries, 1991), graphical shapes to depict tension changes (Farbood, 2012), or
(f) various technical or computerized devices to allow continuous recording of per­
ceived tension (e.g., Farbood, 2012, Exp. 2; Fredrickson, 2000; Fredrickson and Cog­
giola, 2003; Krumhansl, 1996; Luck et al., 2008; Madsen, 1998; Madsen and
Fredrickson, 1993) or various emotions (Krumhansl, 1997; Schubert, 2001, 2004,
2010).

Analysis

Free descriptions were subjected to content analysis. Listeners’ choices among descrip­
tive terms were analyzed regarding the frequency of chosen terms and inter-subject
agreement. Ratings were usually analyzed by multivariate techniques, such as factor
Page 3 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

analysis, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, or correspondence analysis in order

to find a limited number of fundamental dimensions. Although the labels of these dimen­
sions vary somewhat between different studies, they are in general interpretable in accor­
dance with the valence-arousal model of emotion (Russell, 1980; Russell and Feldman
Barrett, 1999). There are also indications of a potency dimension (Kleinen, 1968; cf. Os­
good, Suci and Tannenbaum, 1957), a dimension related to body posture and gestures
(Bigand et al., 2005), and a dimension reflecting stylistic differences between classical
and popular music (Wedin, 1969, 1972b). Further proposals include a distinction between
energy arousal and tension arousal (Ilie and Thompson, 2006; Schimmack and Grob,
2000) and attempts to identify subtle dimensions beyond valence and activation (Collier,
2007).

The relationship between the composed structure and perceived expression was studied
by:

(a) analyzing the musical score in relation to perceived expression (e.g., Gundlach,
1935; Imberty, 1979; Krumhansl, 1996; Nielsen, 1983; Thompson and Robitaille,
1992)
(p. 218) (b) having musical experts judge the selected pieces with regard to structur­

al properties (e.g., Kleinen, 1968; Wedin, 1972b)

(c) using various devices for measuring the acoustical properties of the music (e.g.,
Eerola, Ferrer and Alluri, 2012; Schubert, 2004; Todd, 1994), or
(d) using systematic manipulation of the musical stimuli and note the effects on per­
ceived expression (references given under ‘Stimuli’).

Expression of Emotion: Effects of Separate Mu­

sical Factors
The effects of separate musical factors on perceived emotional expression are amply re­
viewed in Gabrielsson and Lindström (2010, section 14.3, especially table 14.2 which pro­
vides complete references regarding each factor). The following is an abbreviated version
of this review supplemented with references to recent papers or papers not previously
mentioned.

Tempo, Note Density

Among factors affecting emotional expression, tempo—that is, perceived beat/pulse rate
—is usually considered the most decisive.

Fast tempo may be associated with expressions of activity/excitement, happiness/joy/

pleasantness, potency, surprise, flippancy/whimsicality, anger, uneasiness, and fear.

Slow tempo may be associated with expressions of calmness/serenity, peace, sadness, dig­
nity/solemnity, tenderness, longing, boredom, and disgust.

Page 4 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Both fast and slow tempo may thus be associated with many different expressions depen­
dent on presence and level of other structural factors. However, in terms of the valence-
arousal model, fast tempo and accelerando are generally associated with high(er) activa­
tion, slow tempo, and ritardando with low(er) activation; both of them may be associated
with either positive or negative valence. Clear sense of pulse may be associated with
higher activity, less well-defined pulse with pleasantness (Luck et al., 2008).

A related factor is note density, the number of notes per unit of time (e.g., per second).
Tempo and note density may sometimes be additive—fast tempo combined with high note
density results in still higher activation, slow tempo combined with low note density re­
sults in still lower activation—and may sometimes present an ambiguous picture as when
high note density appears in combination with slow tempo (Gabrielsson, 1988). The rela­
tionship between tempo and note density in ratings of speed is further elucidated in Madi­
son and Paulin (2010).

Mode, Key

Major mode may be associated with happiness/joy, minor mode with sadness. Major mode
may also be associated with expressions as graceful, serene, and solemn, minor mode
with expressions as dreamy, dignified, tension, disgust, and anger. (p. 219)

While differences between fast and slow tempo are mainly associated with difference in
activation, differences between major and minor mode are thus mainly associated with
difference in valence, positive or negative. However, major mode is not a necessary condi­
tion for perceived happiness; a piece in minor mode in fast tempo may very well sound
happy (e.g., the Badinerie in J. S. Bach’s Second Suite for Orchestra). Using scales as
stimuli, Collier and Hubbard (2001a) claim that pitch height and direction of pitch move­
ment (contour) may be more important than mode for expression of happiness.

When melodies in different modes (beyond major and minor) were judged with regard to
happiness, the Ionian mode (= major mode) was rated most happy, followed by the
Mixolydian, Lydian, Dorian, Aeolian (= minor mode), and Phrygian modes in that order
(Temperley and Tan, 2013).

The common belief that certain keys are associated with certain moods has no empirical
support (Powell and Dibben, 2005).

Loudness

Loud music may be associated with expressions of intensity/power, excitement, tension,

anger, and joy; soft music with softness, peace, tenderness, sadness, and fear. On the
whole, loud music and crescendo seem associated with high(er) activation and potency;
soft music and diminuendo with low(er) activation and maybe submissiveness.

Page 5 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Large variations of loudness may suggest fear; small variations happiness or activity.
Rapid changes in loudness may be associated with playfulness, pleading, or fear; few or
no changes with sadness, peace, and dignity.

Timbre/Spectrum

Tones with many higher harmonics may suggest potency, anger, disgust, fear, activity, or
surprise, thus usually high activation. Tones with few, low harmonics may be associated
with pleasantness, boredom, happiness. or sadness, and tones with suppressed higher
harmonics may suggest tenderness and sadness, thus usually low(er) activation.

Parts of these findings recur in a comprehensive study by Eerola et al. (2012). Listeners
were able to make consistent judgments of valence and energy arousal in isolated short
instrument sounds differing with regard to spectral, temporal, and spectro-temporal at­
tributes. Energetic sounds tend to have sharp attacks and a dominant proportion of ener­
gy in the high-frequency region, while positively valenced sounds have slower attack,
long decay. and contain more energy at lower frequencies.

Pitch

High pitch may be associated with expressions as happy, graceful, serene, dreamy, excit­
ing, surprise, potency, anger, fear, and activity. Low pitch may suggest sadness, dignity/
solemnity, vigor, excitement, boredom, and pleasantness. Large pitch variation may be as­
sociated (p. 220) with happiness, pleasantness, activity, or surprise; small pitch variation
with disgust, anger, fear, or boredom.

Intervals

For melodic (successive) intervals some results indicate that large intervals sound more
powerful than small ones, the octave is perceived as positive and strong and the minor
second as the most sad interval. For harmonic (simultaneous) intervals, results concern­
ing consonance and dissonance are similar to corresponding results under “Harmony.”

Melody

Melodic Range
Wide melodic range may be associated with joy, whimsicality, uneasiness, and fear; nar­
row range with expressions as sad, dignified, sentimental, tranquil, delicate, and tri­
umphant.

Melodic Direction (Pitch Contour)

Ascending melody may be associated with dignity, serenity, tension, happiness, fear, sur­
prise, anger, and potency. Descending melody may be associated with expressions such as
exciting, graceful, vigorous, sadness, boredom, and pleasantness.

Page 6 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Melodic Motion
Stepwise motion may suggest dullness, intervallic leaps excitement; stepwise motion
leading to melodic leaps may suggest peacefulness (Thompson and Robitaille, 1992). Ac­
tivity (sense of instability and motion) may be conveyed by a greater occurrence of minor
seconds, tritones, and intervals larger than the octave. Potency (vigor and power) may be
expressed by a greater occurrence of unisons and octaves (Costa, Fine and Ricci Bitti,
2004).

Harmony

Simple, consonant harmony may be associated with expressions as happy/gay, relaxed,

graceful, serene, dreamy, dignified, serious, and majestic; complex and dissonant harmo­
ny with expression of excitement, tension, vigor, anger, sadness, and unpleasantness.

Tonality

Melodies composed to sound joyful, dull, and peaceful were tonal, while angry melodies
could be atonal. Sad and angry melodies used chromatic harmony (Thompson and Ro­
bitaille, 1992). (p. 221)

Rhythm

Regular/smooth rhythm may be perceived to express happiness, dignity, majesty, and

peacefulness; irregular/complex rhythm may express amusement, uneasiness, and anger;
varied rhythm may express joy. Firm rhythm may be associated with expressions of sad­
ness, dignity, and vigor; flowing/fluent rhythm with expressions such as happy/gay, grace­
ful, dreamy, and serene.

Articulation

Staccato may be associated with gaiety, energy, activity, fear, and anger; legato with sad­
ness, tenderness, solemnity, longing, and softness.

Pauses

Perception of rests is dependent on musical context. Silences (rests) following tonal clo­
sure were identified more quickly and perceived as less tense than silences following mu­
sic lacking such closure (Margulis, 2007).

Musical Form

High complexity (melodic/harmonic/rhythmic) is associated with tension or sadness, low

complexity with relaxation, joy, or peace. High complexity combined with low dynamism
may express melancholy and depression, high complexity combined with high dynamism
may express anxiety and aggressiveness. Low complexity and average dynamism may be
associated with positive emotions. Repetition, condensation, sequential development, and
Page 7 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

pauses may mean increased tension. Disruption of global form (changing the order of sec­
tions/movements in a musical work) may have little effect on (unknowing) listeners’ per­
ception of expression or general evaluation.

Expression as Function of Many Factors

As seen above, each structural factor may influence many different expressions. This
means, conversely, that each expression may depend on many different structural factors
as displayed in the extensive table 26.2 in Gabrielsson and Juslin (2003). This table pro­
vides a systematic exposition of how different expressions—happiness/joy/gaiety, sadness/
gloom, tension, potency, activity/energy/excitement, relaxation/calm/softness/peace,
solemnity/dignity, anger, fear, tenderness/love, boredom, disgust, and surprise—are af­
fected by different structural features. To take but one example, perceived tension may
be related to dissonance, high sound level, pitch height, ascending melody, meter, in­
creased note density, harmonic complexity, rhythmic complexity, melodic expectation, and
formal properties (p. 222) such as repetition, condensation, and sequential development.
Farbood (2012) has developed a comprehensive temporal model of how perceived tension
varies as a function of many of these variables.

Expression of Emotion: Summary and Implica­

tions
The above review shows a complex picture. It seems that any structural factor may indi­
cate a number of different emotional expressions. Results seem most clear-cut regarding
effects of tempo/speed, loudness, and timbre/spectrum: an increase in any of them results
in higher activation, a decrease in lower activation (by increase in timbre is meant rela­
tively more higher harmonics). Tempo and loudness, in particular, seem to reign over
most other factors, and generally the activation dimension seems more salient and easier
to judge than the valence dimension. The effects of pitch height seem more ambiguous
than those of loudness or tempo; for instance, while the effects of fast tempo and/or high
loudness are associated with high activation, high pitch may be associated with both high
and low activation.

The most distinct results thus concern effects of basic variables in human audition (loud­
ness, timbre, pitch) and motion (tempo/speed)—variables that often are considered “sec­
ondary” by music theorists as noted in Coutinho and Cangelosi (2009), Farbood (2012),
and Granot and Eitan (2011). Coutinho and Cangelosi (2011) claim that a set of six psy­
choacoustic features—loudness, pitch level, pitch contour, tempo, texture, and sharpness
—can predict a significant part of perceived emotion (as well as of induced emotion).

With regard to more typical “musical” variables results are less clear, or there is less re­
search available. The typical major-happy and minor-sad associations may be overruled
by interaction with tempo (as exemplified under “Mode”) and do not appear until the age
of 6–8 years; see further on children’s perception of musical emotion in Trehub (Chapter

Page 8 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

24, this volume) and in Trehub, Hannon, and Schachner (2010). There are still only tenta­
tive results regarding perceived expression of different intervals, and their effects may be
modulated by differences in tempo, loudness, and other factors (Gabrielsson and Lind­
ström, 2010, p. 393). There is further little research on perceived expression of different
kinds of melodic and rhythmic progression and practically none regarding harmonic pro­
gression. Aspects of musical form are frequently discussed in relation to structural listen­
ing, but their influence on perceived expression is little investigated.

Perceived expression is never determined by a single factor but is a function of many fac­
tors which may work in additive or interactive ways. Several studies identify interactions
post hoc; for instance, intensity × pitch height and pitch height × tempo interactions re­
garding valence (Ilie and Thompson, 2006), scale direction × tempo regarding happiness
(Collier and Hubbard 2001b), triple interaction rhythm × contour × melodic progression
in ratings of happiness (Lindström, 2006), and various interactions involving dynamics,
pitch register, pitch contour, and tempo in judgments of tension (Granot and Eitan, 2011).
However, there are only a few studies planned to study the presence (or not) of specific
interactions (e.g., Langner and Goebl, 2003; Makris and Mullet, 2003; Schellenberg et al.,
2000; Webster and Weir, 2005). (p. 223)

Most studies have utilized music with the “same” expression throughout, whereas an es­
sential part of music’s appeal lies in variation of emotional expression. Many of the most
intense expressions are related to (sudden or gradual) changes in, say, loudness (e.g.,
crescendo, diminuendo), tempo (accelerando, ritardando), timbre, pitch level, rhythm,
melodic and harmonic progression, or in various combinations of these factors. There­
fore, an important topic for continued research is refinement of techniques for continu­
ous recording of expression; see especially Schubert (2001, 2004, 2010, 2013), and also
Farbood (2012), Luck et al. (2008), and Vines, Nuzzo, and Levitin, (2005). Free phenome­
nological descriptions may be used as a complement. However, certain subtleties in musi­
cal expression may never be captured in a strict scientific manner, nor be adequately ver­
balized; they may only be accessible in direct experience.

On the other hand, some results indicate that listeners are able to perceive the “correct”
expression even in excerpts lasting only 1 second or less (Bigand, Vieillard, Madurell,
Marozeau and Dacquet 2005; Filipic, Tillmann and Bigand, 2010; Krumhansl, 2010;
Peretz et al., 1998), and perceive similar emotion in imagined music as in sounded music
(Lucas, Schubert and Halpern, 2010). It also seems that, on the whole, perceived emo­
tional expression is not, or only marginally, influenced by differences in gender or musical
experience (e.g., Bigand et al., 2005; Bigand and Poulin-Charronnat, 2006; Fredrickson,
2000; Kallinen, 2005; Makris and Mullet, 2003; Robazza, Macaluso and D’Urso, 1994;
Wedin, 1969); however, musicians and nonmusicians may differ somewhat in judgments
of tension (Farbood, 2012; Granot and Eitan, 2011), and women may find music more
emotionally expressive than men (e.g., Kamenetsky et al., 1997).

In electro-acoustic music, as well as in much modern art music, concepts as tonality,

melody, harmony, tempo (pulse rate), and rhythm have no or only limited relevance. Such

Page 9 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

music thus counts on—to a still higher degree than tonal music—basic variables in human
audition (loudness, timbre, pitch) and the distribution of the sound events in time (e.g.,
speed, note density).

Other Referential Meanings

Beyond emotions, music may also be perceived to express, reflect, or represent many oth­
er phenomena. (For discussion about definitions of expression, representation, or depic­
tion, see Davies (1994) and Scruton (1997).

Program Music

Program music flourished during Romanticism, as in works by Berlioz, Liszt, and Richard
Strauss. However, composers were aware of music’s limited possibilities to represent ob­
jects and events and rather referred to the feelings associated with the program (Benes­
tad, 1978, p. 233).

Listeners who do not know the program are as a rule unable to provide a “correct” de­
scription of the intended events or situations but are better at perceiving the intended
emotional expression (e.g., Brown, 1981; Rigg, 1937b). However, Osborne’s (1989)
subjects seemed to (p. 224) capture several aspects of the representations and expres­
sions in Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony.

One may also speak of program music in another sense: programs made up of the listen­
ers themselves. Listeners may perceive a narrative in music they listen to (“this music is
about ….”). Delis, Fleer, and Kerr (1978) argued that listeners construct a story in relation
to the music in order to better remember it.

Human Character, Personality, Identity

In ancient Greece it was believed that music reflected human character and that these ex­
pressions would be imitated by the listener. Plato and Aristotle therefore gave advice con­
cerning which modes, instruments, and rhythms ought to be used in education.

Clynes (1987, 1995) hypothesized that composers’ character and “presence” are reflected
in unique patterns of timing and dynamics (composers’ “inner pulse”). Empirical tests re­
garding the existence of such patterns have provided mixed results (Clynes, 1995; Repp,
1990; Thompson, 1989).

Tagg (2006) found striking differences between music perceived as “male” or “female.” In
comparison with male tunes, female tunes were slower, more legato, had longer phrases,
no repeated notes, static bass line, rare offbeats/syncopation, no brass or percussion, and
the tonal idiom was classical/romantic compared to rock and jazz in male tunes. A “male
vs female” factor, as well as some other human characteristics, was also observed in an
exploratory study by Watt and Ash (1998). They claimed that music is assigned attribu­
tions that normally would be assigned to a person and went on to speculate that “music
Page 10 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

creates a virtual person” (p. 49). In fact, many subjects perceive the music to reflect their
own personality, how they think and feel; this provides a strong confirmation of their own
identity (Gabrielsson, 2011; Gabrielsson and Lindström Wik, 2003).

Music may reflect and be used to express not only personal but also social, cultural, and
gender identity (e.g., Dibben, 2002; Folkestad, 2002; Martin, 2006; Ruud, 1997; Tarrant,
North and Hargreaves, 2002). Immigrants are eager to preserve their own music in the
new country, and teenagers may use certain music to mark their belonging to youth cul­
ture in general or to a particular group of people.

Motion, Dynamic Forces

It is generally agreed that we may perceive motion in music. However, there is much dis­
cussion about whether it refers to real motion, self-motion, virtual motion, or is entirely
metaphorical. For discussions and overviews, see Bharucha Curtis and Paroo (2006, sec­
tion 4), Clarke (2005), Eitan and Granot (2006), Jackendoff and Lerdahl (2006, section
4.3), and Shove and Repp (1995); see also Gjerdingen (1994) for a neural network model
of apparent motion in music.

In music theory it is common to speak of tonal/harmonic motion in the sense that unsta­
ble tones/chords “move” to (resolve to) stable tones/chords, typically in connection with
perception of tension and release (e.g., Lerdahl and Krumhansl, 2007). The concept of
tension is thus related to structural listening but may also mediate emotional expression
(Nielsen, 1983). (p. 225)

Musicologist Ernst Kurth (1930) thought of music as a play of dynamic forces, gravitation­
al forces between tones and chords, attracting or repelling each other; melody is per­
ceived as a streaming force filled with kinetic energy. Larson and VanHandel (2005)
defined three musical forces—musical gravity, musical magnetism, musical inertia—and
operationalized them as short melodic patterns which were judged by listeners with re­
gard to experienced “strength” of the presented pattern completions. Results indicated
that listeners’ judgments were influenced by musical inertia and musical gravity. These
ideas are further elaborated and discussed in relation to other approaches in Larson
(2012).

While the above examples are mainly concerned with structural (intra-musical) listening,
certain designations in scores (e.g., accelerando, ritardando, alla marcia, grazioso) refer
to motion in a more concrete sense, and listeners find it natural to use motion labels as
bouncing, dancing, flowing, rocking, swinging, and so on in descriptions of music
(Gabrielsson, 1973, 1988; Madison, 2006). Tempo, articulation, and rhythm patterns seem
obvious candidates underlying such motion characters (cf. “galloping rhythm,” “fluent
rhythm,” “uneven rhythm,” etc.), but there is still little systematic research on what fac­
tors in musical structure affect perceived motion. Eitan and Granot (2006) asked subjects
to describe imagined motion of a visualized person when listening to brief melodic figures
varying in dynamics, pitch contour, pitch intervals, attack rate, motivic pace, and articula­
tion. The manipulations affected several variables in the listeners’ motion imagery, such
Page 11 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

as lateral and vertical direction, distance change, speed change, and energy level of mo­
tion; generally, the cognitive mapping of music into space and motion looked complex and
multifaceted. Basic auditory parameters, such as loudness and pitch contour, were
strongly associated with various aspects of motion, while melodic interval (a typical musi­
cal parameter) had least influence on motion imagery. A follow-up study (Eitan and Tubul,
2010) showed that several music–motion associations were common for children and
adults; however, children relate sound and motion primarily through changes in loudness.
Eitan and Rotschild (2011) showed that tones, differing in timbre, pitch, and loudness,
could be described in tactile terms, such as sharp–blunt, smooth–rough, soft–hard, light–
heavy, warm–cold, and wet–dry; for instance, higher pitches were rated as sharper,
rougher, harder, lighter, colder, and drier than lower pitches.

It is also generally agreed that there is a close link between motion and emotion: “Motion
is heard in music, and that motion presents emotion characteristics” (Davies, 1994, p.
229), “musical affect arises in large part from its relation to physical patterns of posture
and gesture” (Jackendoff and Lerdahl, 2006, p. 65). Jackendoff and Lerdahl point out that
many terms used for description of emotional expression are also used to describe ges­
tures and postures and discuss possible underlying factors in musical structure and per­
formance. (One may add that it is sometimes felt more natural and easier to describe mu­
sic in terms of motion rather than emotion.) Here, then, is a domain awaiting pertinent
empirical research.

Social Conditions and Organization

Philosopher Theodor W. Adorno speculated that music’s formal properties may reflect or­
ganization and forces of society; for instance, tensions in society would be reflected in
rupture of musical form (Benestad, 1978, p. 329). While Adorno never sought empirical
evidence, Lomax’s (1968) large-scale investigation of folk song styles in 233 cultures
throughout (p. 226) the world provides many examples of how music can reflect economic
and social conditions and attitudes; for comments, see Dowling and Harwood (1986, p.
226).

Religious Faith, Transcendental Phenomena

Music as expression of religious faith is a worldwide phenomenon. In Western music his­

tory, examples range from simple community singing to masterpieces such as J. S. Bach’s
passions, Handel’s oratories, or masses by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer regarded music as an expression of the Will, a never-

ending striving toward existence that can never be quite fulfilled and therefore causes
human suffering, and Friedrich Nietzsche viewed music as expression of Dionysian char­
acter and the will to life and power; see further in Benestad (1978) and Budd (1985).

Page 12 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Further Comments on Structure

There is only scattered research on structural variables connected with the referential
meanings treated in this section. However, since many of them—program music, motion,
character, identity, religious faith—also have obvious emotional connotations, it is reason­
able to expect that the structural variables underlying emotional expression are largely
pertinent to them as well.

Finally, we should not forget that many people enjoy music simply for its expression of
beauty. However, there seem to be no empirical investigations in music psychology direct­
ly focusing on structural factors underlying perceived beauty in music.

References
Benestad, F. (1978). Musik och tanke. Huvudlinjer i musikestetikens historia från antiken
till vår egen tid [Music and thought. Main lines in the history of musical aesthetics from
antiquity to our time]. Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren.

Bharucha, J.J., Curtis, M. and Paroo, K. (2006). Varieties of musical experience. Cognition,
100, 131–172.

Bigand, E. and Poulin-Charronnat, B. (2006). Are we experienced listeners? A review of

the musical capacities that do not depend on formal musical training. Cognition, 100,
100–130.

Bigand, E., Vieillard, S., Madurell, F., Marozeau, J. and Dacquet, A (2005). Multidimen­
sional scaling of emotional responses to music: the effect of musical expertise and of the
duration of the excerpts. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 1113–1139.

Brown, R (1981). Music and language. In Documentary report of the Ann Arbor sympo­
sium. National symposium on the applications of psychology to the teaching and learning
of music (pp. 233–265). Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference.

Budd, M. (1985). Music and the emotions: The philosophical theories. Routledge, London.

Clarke, E.F. (2005). Ways of listening: An ecological approach to the perception of musical
meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Clynes, M. (1987). What can a musician learn about music performance from newly dis­
covered microstructure principles (PM and PAS)? In A. Gabrielsson (Ed.), Action and per­
ception (p. 227) in rhythm and music (pp. 201–233). Stockholm: Publications issued by the
Royal Swedish Academy of Music, No. 55.

Clynes, M. (1995). Microstructural musical linguistics: composers’ pulses are liked most
by the best musicians. Cognition, 55, 269–310.

Page 13 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Clynes, M. and Nettheim, N. (1982).The living quality of music. Neurobiologic patterns of

communicating feeling. In M. Clynes (Ed.), Music, mind, and brain: The neuropsychology
of music (pp. 47–82). New York: Plenum Press.

Collier, G.L. (2007). Beyond valence and activity in the emotional connotations of music.
Psychology of Music, 35, 110–131.

Collier, G.L. and Hubbard, T.L. (2001a). Musical scales and evaluations of happiness and
awkwardness: effects of pitch, direction, and scale mode. American Journal of Psychology,
114, 355–375.

Collier, G.L. and Hubbard, T.L. (2001b). Judgements of happiness, brightness, speed and
tempo change of auditory stimuli varying in pitch and tempo. Psychomusicology, 17, 36–
55.

Cooke, D. (1959). The language of music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Costa, M., Fine, P. and Ricci Bitti, P.E. (2004). Interval distribution, mode, and tonal
strength of melodies as predictors of perceived emotion. Music Perception, 22, 1–14.

Coutinho, E. and Cangelosi, A. (2009). The use of spatio-temporal connectionist models in

psychological studies of musical emotions. Music Perception, 27(1), 1–15.

Coutinho, E. and Cangelosi, A. (2011). Musical emotions: predicting second-by second

subjective feelings of emotion from low-level psychoacoustic features and physiological
measurements. Emotion, 11(4), 921–937.

Davies, S. (1994). Musical meaning and expression. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Delis, D., Fleer, J. and Kerr, P. (1978). Memory for music. Perception and Psychophysics,
23, 215–218.

De Vries, B. (1991). Assessment of the affective response to music with Clynes’s sento­
graph. Psychology of Music, 19, 46–64.

Dibben, N. (2002). Gender identity and music. In R.A.R. MacDonald, D.J. Hargreaves and
D. Miell (Eds.), Musical identities (pp. 117–133). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dowling, W.J. and Harwood, D.L. (1986). Music cognition. Orlando FL: Academic Press.

Eerola, T., Ferrer, R. and Alluri, V. (2012). Timbre and affect dimensions: evidence from
affect and similarity ratings and acoustic correlates of isolated instrument sounds. Music
Perception, 30(1), 49–70.

Eitan, Z. and Granot, R.Y. (2006). How music moves: musical parameters and listeners’
images of motion. Music Perception, 23, 221–247.

Eitan, Z. and Rothschild, I. (2011). How music touches: musical parameters and listeners’
audio-tactile metaphorical mappings. Psychology of Music, 39(4), 449–467.

Page 14 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Eitan, Z. and Tubul, N. (2010). Musical parameters and children’s images of motion. Mu­
sicae Scientiae (Special issue), 2010, 89–111.

Evans, P. and Schubert, E. (2008). Relationships between expressed and felt emotions in
music. Musicae Scientiae, 12(1), 75–99.

Farbood, M.M. (2012). A parametric, temporal model of musical tension. Music Percep­
tion, 29(4), 387–428.

Filipic, S., Tillmann, B. and Bigand, E. (2010). Judging familiarity and emotion from very
brief musical excerpts. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17(3), 335–341.

Fisk, J. (Ed.). (1997). Composers on music. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.

Folkestad, G. (2002). National identity and music. In R.A.R. MacDonald, D.J. Hargreaves
and D. Miell (Eds.), Musical identities (pp. 151–162). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(p. 228)

Fredrickson, W.E. (2000). Perception of tension in music: musicians versus nonmusicians.

Journal of Music Therapy, 37(1), 40–50.

Fredrickson, W.E. and Coggiola, J.C. (2003). A comparison of music majors’ and nonma­
jors’ perceptions of tension for two selections of jazz music. Journal of Research in Music
Education, 51, 259–270.

Gabrielsson, A. (1973). Adjective ratings and dimension analysis of auditory rhythm pat­
terns. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 14, 244–260.

Gabrielsson, A. (1988). Timing in music performance and its relations to music experi­
ence. In J.A. Sloboda (Ed.), Generative processes in music: The psychology of perfor­
mance, improvisation, and composition (pp. 27–51). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Gabrielsson, A. (2002). Emotion perceived and emotion felt: same or different? Musicae
Scientiae (Special Issue 2001–2002: Current Trends in the Study of Music and Emotion),
123–147.

Gabrielsson, A. (2011). Strong experiences with music: Music is much more than just mu­
sic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gabrielsson, A. and Juslin, P.N. (2003). Emotional expression in music. In R.J. Davidson,
K.R. Scherer and H.H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 503–534).
New York: Oxford University Press.

Gabrielsson, A. and Lindström, E. (1995). Emotional expression in synthesizer and sento­

graph performance. Psychomusicology, 14, 94–116.

Gabrielsson, A. and Lindström, E. (2010). The role of structure in the musical expression
of emotions. In P.N. Juslin and J.A. Sloboda (Eds.), Handbook of music and emotion: Theo­
ry, research and applications (pp. 367–400). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Page 15 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Gabrielsson, A. and Lindström Wik, S. (2003). Strong experiences related to music: a de­
scriptive system. Musicae Scientiae, 7, 157–217.

Gjerdingen, R.O. (1994). Apparent motion in music? Music Perception, 11, 335–370.

Granot, R.Y. and Eitan, Z. (2011). Musical tension and the interaction of dynamic auditory
parameters. Music Perception, 28(3), 219–245.

Gundlach, R.H. (1935). Factors determining the characterization of musical phrases.

American Journal of Psychology, 47, 624–644.

Hanslick, E. (1989). Vom musikalisch Schönen. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. (Original
work published 1854.)

Hevner, K. (1935a). The affective character of the major and minor modes in music. Amer­
ican Journal of Psychology, 47, 103–118.

Hevner, K. (1936). Experimental studies of the elements of expression in music. American

Journal of Psychology, 48, 246–268.

Hevner, K. (1937). The affective value of pitch and tempo in music. American Journal of
Psychology, 49, 621–630.

Huber, K. (1923). Der Ausdruck musikalischer Elementarmotive [Expression in elemen­

tary musical motives]. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth.

Ilie, G. and Thompson, W.F. (2006). A comparison of acoustic cues in music and speech for
three dimensions of affect. Music Perception, 23, 319–329.

Imberty, M. (1979). Entendre la musique. Paris: Dunod.

Jackendoff, R. and Lerdahl, F. (2006). The capacity for music: what is it, and what’s spe­
cial about it? Cognition, 100, 33–72.

Juslin, P.N. (1997). Perceived emotional expression in synthesized performances of a short

melody: capturing the listener’s judgment policy. Musicae Scientiae, 1, 225–256. (p. 229)

Juslin, P.N. and Laukka, P. (2004). Expression, perception, and induction of musical emo­
tions: a review and a questionnaire study of everyday listening. Journal of New Music Re­
search, 33, 217–238.

Kallinen, K. (2005). Emotional ratings of music excerpts in the western art music reper­
toire and their self-organization in the Kohonen neural network. Psychology of Music, 33,
373–393.

Kallinen, K. and Ravaja, N. (2006). Emotion perceived and emotion felt: same and differ­
ent. Musicae Scientiae, 10(2), 191–213.

Page 16 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Kamenetsky, S.B., Hill, D.S. and Trehub, S.E. (1997). Effect of tempo and dynamics on the
perception of emotion in music. Psychology of Music, 25, 149–160.

Karno, M. and Konečni, V.J. (1992). The effects of structural interventions in the first
movement of Mozart’s Symphony in G minor K. 550 on aesthetic preference. Music Per­
ception, 10, 63–72.

Kawakami, A., Furukawa, K., Katahira, K., Kamiyama, K. and Okanoya, K. (2013). Rela­
tions between musical structures and perceived and felt emotions. Music Perception,
30(4), 407–417.

Kleinen, G. (1968). Experimentelle Studien zum musikalischen Ausdruck [Experimental

studies on musical expression]. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg.

Konečni, V.J., Brown, A. and Wanic, R.A (2008). Comparative effects of music and recalled
life-events on emotional state. Psychology of Music, 36(3), 289–308.

Krumhansl, C.L. (1996). A perceptual analysis of Mozart’s Piano Sonata K. 282: segmen­
tation, tension, and musical ideas. Music Perception, 13, 401–432.

Krumhansl, C.L. (1997). An exploratory study of musical emotions and psychophysiology.

Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 51, 336–352.

Krumhansl, C.L. (2010). Plink: ‘thin slices’ of music. Music Perception, 27(5), 337–354.

Kurth, E. (1947). Musikpsychologie. Bern: Verlag Krompholz. (Original work published

1930.)

Langer, S.K. (1957). Philosophy in a new key (3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universi­
ty Press.

Langner, J. and Goebl, W. (2003). Visualizing expressive performance in tempo-loudness

space. Computer Music Journal, 27(4), 69–83.

Larson, S. (2012). Musical forces: Motion, metaphor and meaning in music. Bloomington,
IN: Indiana University Press.

Larson, S. and VanHandel, L. (2005). Measuring musical forces. Music Perception, 23,
119–136.

Lerdahl, F. and Krumhansl, C.L. (2007). Modeling musical tension. Music Perception, 24,
329–366.

Lindström, E. (2006). Impact of melodic organization on perceived structure and emotion­

al expression in music. Musicae Scientiae, 10, 85–117.

Lomax, A. (1968). Folk song style and culture. Washington, DC: American Association for
the Advancement of Science.

Page 17 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Lucas, B.J., Schubert, E. and Halpern, A.R. (2010). Perception of emotion in sounded and
imagined music. Music Perception, 27(5), 399–412.

Luck, G., Toivianinen, P., Erkkilä, J., Lartillot, O., Riikilä, K., Mäkelä, A., … Värri, J. (2008).
Modelling the relationships between emotional responses to, and musical content of, mu­
sic therapy improvisations. Psychology of Music, 36(1), 25–45.

Madison, G. (2006). Experiencing groove induced by music: consistency and phenomenol­

ogy. Music Perception, 24, 201–208.

Madison, G. and Paulin, J. (2010). Ratings of speed in real music as a function of both
original and manipulated beat tempo. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
128(5), 3032–3040. (p. 230)

Madsen, C.K. (1998). Emotion versus tension in Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 as measured
by the two-dimensional continuous response digital interface. Journal of Research in Mu­
sic Education, 46, 546–554.

Madsen, C.K. and Fredrickson, W.E. (1993). The experience of musical tension: a replica­
tion of Nielsen’s research using the continuous response digital interface. Journal of Mu­
sic Therapy, 30, 46–63.

Makris, I. and Mullet, E. (2003). Judging the pleasantness of contour-rhythm-pitch-timbre

musical combinations. American Journal of Psychology, 116, 581–611.

Margulis, E.H. (2007). Silences in music are musical not silent: an exploratory study of
context effects on the experience of musical pauses. Music Perception, 24, 485–506.

Martin, P.J. (2006). Music, identity, and social control. In S. Brown and U. Volgsten (Eds.),
Music and manipulation: On the social uses and social control of music (pp. 57–73). New
York: Berghahn Books.

Meyer, L.B. (1956). Emotion and meaning in music. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press.

Nielsen, F.V. (1983). Oplevelse av musikalsk spœnding [Experience of musical tension].

Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag. (Includes summary in English.)

Nielsen, F.V. (1987). Musical “tension” and related concepts. In T.A. Sebeok and J. Umik­
er-Sebeok (Eds.), The semiotic web ’86: An international yearbook (pp. 491–513). Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter.

Nielzén, S. and Cesarec, Z. (1982). Emotional experience of music as a function of musi­

cal structure. Psychology of Music, 10, 7–17.

Osborne, J.W. (1989). A phenomenological investigation of the musical representation of

extra-musical ideas. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 20, 151–175.

Page 18 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Osgood, C.E., Suci, G.J. and Tannenbaum, P.H. (1957). The measurement of meaning. Ur­
bana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Peretz, I., Gagnon, L. and Bouchard, B. (1998). Music and emotion: perceptual determi­
nants, immediacy, and isolation after brain damage. Cognition, 68, 111–141.

Powell, J. and Dibben, N. (2005). Key-mood association: a self perpetuating myth. Musicae
Scientiae, 9, 289–311.

Repp, B.H. (1990). Further perceptual evaluations of pulse microstructure in computer

performances of classical piano music. Music Perception, 8, 1–33.

Rigg, M.G. (1937a). Musical expression: an investigation of the theories of Erich Sorantin.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 21, 442–455.

Rigg, M.G. (1937b). An experiment to determine how accurately college students can in­
terpret the intended meanings of musical compositions. Journal of Experimental Psycholo­
gy, 21, 223–229.

Rigg, M.G. (1940a). The effect of register and tonality upon musical mood. Journal of Mu­
sicology, 2, 49–61.

Rigg, M.G. (1940b). Speed as a determiner of musical mood. Journal of Experimental Psy­
chology, 27, 566–571.

Robazza, C., Macaluso, C. and D’Urso, V. (1994). Emotional reactions to music by gender,
age, and expertise. Perceptual and Motor skills, 79, 939–944.

Russell, J.A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psy­
chology, 39, 1161–1178.

Russell, J.A. and Feldman Barrett, L. (1999). Core affect, prototypical emotional episodes,
and other things called emotion: dissecting the elephant. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 76, 805–819. (p. 231)

Ruud, E. (1997). Musikk og identitet [Music and identity]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Schellenberg, E.G., Krysciak, A.M. and Campbell, R.J. (2000). Perceiving emotion in
melody: Interactive effects of pitch and rhythm. Music Perception, 18, 155–171.

Scherer, K.R. and Oshinsky, J.S. (1977). Cue utilization in emotion attribution from audito­
ry stimuli. Motivation and Emotion, 1, 331–346.

Schimmack, U. and Grob, A. (2000). Dimensional models of core affect: a quantitative

comparison by means of structural equation modeling. European Journal of Personality,
14, 325–345.

Page 19 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Schubert, E. (2001). Continuous measurement of self-report emotional response to music.

In P.N. Juslin and J.A. Sloboda (Eds.), Music and emotion: Theory and research (pp. 393–
414). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schubert, E. (2004). Modeling perceived emotion with continuous musical features. Mu­
sic Perception, 21, 561–585.

Schubert, E. (2010). Continuous self-report methods. In P.N. Juslin and J.A. Sloboda
(Eds.), Handbook of music and emotion: Theory, research and applications (pp. 223–253).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schubert, E. (2013). Reliability issues regarding the beginning, middle and end of contin­
uous emotion ratings to music. Psychology of Music, 41(3), 350–371.

Scruton, R. (1997). The aesthetics of music. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shove, P. and Repp, B.H. (1995). Musical motion and performance: theoretical and empir­
ical perspectives. In J. Rink (Ed.), The practice of performance: Studies in musical inter­
pretation (pp. 55–83). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tagg, P. (2006). Music, moving images, semiotics, and the democratic right to know. In S.
Brown and U. Volgsten (Eds.), Music and manipulation: On the social uses and social con­
trol of music (pp. 163–186). New York: Berghahn Books.

Tarrant, M., North, A.C. and Hargreaves, D.J. (2002). Youth identity and music. In R.A.R.
MacDonald, D.J. Hargreaves and D. Miell (Eds.), Musical identities (pp. 134–150). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

Temperley, D. and Tan, D. (2013). Emotional connotations of diatonic modes. Music Per­
ception, 30(3), 237–257.

Thompson, W.F. (1989). Composer-specific aspects of musical performance: an evaluation

of Clynes’s theory of pulse for performances of Mozart and Beethoven. Music Perception,
7, 15–42.

Thompson, W.F. and Robitaille, B. (1992). Can composers express emotions through mu­
sic? Empirical Studies of the Arts, 10, 79–89.

Tillman, B. and Bigand, E. (1996). Does formal musical structure affect perception of mu­
sical expressiveness? Psychology of Music, 24, 1–17.

Todd, N. (1994). The auditory “primal sketch”: a multiscale model of rhythmic grouping.
Journal of New Music Research, 23, 25–70.

Trehub, S.E., Hannon, H.E. and Schachner, A. (2010). Perspectives on music and affect in
the early years. In P.N. Juslin and J.A. Sloboda (Eds.), Handbook of music and emotion:
Theory, research and applications (pp. 645–668). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Page 20 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020

The Relationship between Musical Structure and Perceived Expression

Vines, B.W., Nuzzo, R.L. and Levitin, D.J. (2005). Analyzing temporal dynamics in music:
differential calculus, physics, and functional data analysis techniques. Music Perception,
23, 137–152.

Watt, R.J. and Ash, R.L. (1998). A psychological investigation of meaning in music. Musi­
cae Scientiae, 2, 33–53. (p. 232)

Webster, G.D. and Weir, C.G. (2005). Emotional responses to music: interactive effects of
mode, texture, and tempo. Motivation and Emotion, 29, 19–39.

Wedin, L. (1969). Dimension analysis of emotional expression in music. Swedish Journal of

Musicology, 51, 119–140.

Wedin, L. (1972a). Multidimensional scaling of emotional expression in music. Swedish

Journal of Musicology, 54, 1–17.

Wedin, L. (1972b). A multidimensional study of perceptual-emotional qualities in music.

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 13, 241–257.

Alf Gabrielsson

Alf Gabrielsson is professor emeritus in psychology at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Page 21 of 21

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights
Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in
Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

Subscriber: University of Melbourne; date: 09 August 2020