Variations in musical presentations and their effects on perceived emotions

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Psychology - General, University of Fribourg (Departement für Psychologie), language: English, abstract: The current paper investigates the influence that variations in musical presentations have on
perceived emotions. Especially variations of tempo, dynamics, interval distributions, mode and
tonal strength are taken into consideration. Two empirical studies will be discussed to explore the
question. The first study examines the influence of interval distribution, mode and tonal strength
on perceived emotions. The findings of this study support the idea that the expression of a
particular emotion is associated with a distinct pattern of interval occurrences. Study two
investigates the influence of variations of tempo and dynamics on perceived emotions. The
findings of study two show that variations in dynamics have an effect on the expressiveness of
emotions. Hence, the results of these two studies give an insight on which components of musical
presentations influence the perceived emotions of the listener.