Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T02:54:54.304Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Musical expectancy: The influence of musical structure on emotional response

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Carol L. Krumhansl
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. [email protected]@gmail.comhttp://www.psych.cornell.edu/people/Faculty/clk4.html
Kat R. Agres
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. [email protected]@gmail.comhttp://www.psych.cornell.edu/people/Faculty/clk4.html

Abstract

When examining how emotions are evoked through music, the role of musical expectancy is often surprisingly under-credited. This mechanism, however, is most strongly tied to the actual structure of the music, and thus is important when considering how music elicits emotions. We briefly summarize Leonard Meyer's theoretical framework on musical expectancy and emotion and cite relevant research in the area.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Besson, M. & Faita, F. (1995) An event-related potential (ERP) study of musical expectancy: Comparison of musicians with non-musicians. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 21(6):1278–96.Google Scholar
Bharucha, J. J. & Stoeckig, K. (1986) Reaction time and musical expectancy: Priming of chords. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 12:403–10.Google ScholarPubMed
Blood, A. J. & Zatorre, R. J. (2001) Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98(20):11818–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boltz, M. G. (1993) The generation of temporal and melodic expectancies during musical listening. Perception and Psychophysics 53:585600.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fredrickson, W. E. (1995) A comparison of perceived musical tension and aesthetic response. Psychology of Music 23:8187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janata, P. (1995) ERP measures assay the degree of expectancy violation in harmonic contexts in music. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 7:153–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, M. R. (1990) Learning and the development of expectancies: An interactionist approach. Psychomusicology 9:193228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, M. R., Johnston, H. M. & Puente, J. (2006) Effects of auditory pattern structure on anticipatory and reactive attending. Cognitive Psychology 53:5996.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koelsch, S., Fritz, T., Schulze, K., Alsop, D. & Schlaug, G. (2005) Adults and children processing music: An fMRI study. NeuroImage 25:1068–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koelsch, S., Gunter, T. C., Friederici, A. D. & Schröger, E. S. (2000) Brain indices of music processing: “Nonmusicians” are musical. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12:520–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krumhansl, C. L. (1990) Cognitive foundations of musical pitch. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krumhansl, C. L. (1995) Music psychology and music theory: Problems and prospects. Music Theory Spectrum 17:5380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krumhansl, C. L. (1996) A perceptual analysis of Mozart's Piano Sonata, K. 282: Segmentation, tension, and musical ideas. Music Perception 13:401–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krumhansl, C. L. (1997) An exploratory study of musical emotions and psychophysiology. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 51:336–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krumhansl, C. L. (2005) The cognition of tonality – as we know it today. Journal of New Music Research 33:253–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krumhansl, C. L., Louhivuori, J., Toiviainen, P., Järvinen, T. & Eerola, T. (1999) Melodic expectation in Finnish folk hymns: Convergence of statistical, behavioral, and computational approaches. Music Perception 17:151–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krumhansl, C. L. & Schenck, D. L. (1997) Can dance reflect the structural and expressive qualities of music? A perceptual experiment on Balanchine's choreography of Mozart's Divertimento No. 15. Musicae Scientiae 1:6385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krumhansl, C. L., Toivanen, P., Eerola, T., Toiviainen, P., Järvinen, T. & Louhivuori, J. (2000) Cross-cultural music cognition: Cognitive methodology applied to North Sami yoiks. Cognition 76:1358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lerdahl, F. (2001) Tonal pitch space. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lerdahl, F. & Krumhansl, C. L. (2007) Modeling tonal tension. Music Perception 24:329–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, L. B. (1956) Emotion and meaning in music. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Narmour, E. (1990) The analysis and cognition of basic melodic structures: The Implication-Realization Model. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Narmour, E. (1992) The analysis and cognition of melodic complexity: The implication-realization model. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Nielsen, F. V. (1983) Oplevelse af musikalsk spænding [The experience of musical tension]. Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Schmuckler, M. A. (1989) Expectation in music: Investigation of melodic and harmonic processes. Music Perception 7:109–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sloboda, J. A. (1991) Music structure and emotional response: Some empirical findings. Psychology of Music 19:110–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinbeis, N., Koelsch, S. & Sloboda, J. A. (2006) The role of harmonic expectancy violations in musical emotions: Evidence from subjective, physiological, and neural responses. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 18:1380–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thompson, W. F. & Stainton, M. (1998) Expectancy in Bohemian folk song melodies: Evaluation of implicative principles for implicative and closural intervals. Music Perception 15(3):231–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar