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Mode and tempo relative contributions to “happy-sad” judgements of equitone music
Cognition and Emotion
Abstract
Judgement of emotion conveyed by music is determined notably by mode (major-minor) and tempo (fast-slow). This suggestion was examined using the same set of equitone melodies, in two experiments. Melodies were presented to nonmusicians who were required to judge whether the melodies sounded "happy" or "sad" on a 10-point scale. In order to assess the specific and relative contributions of mode and tempo to these emotional judgements, the melodies were manipulated so that the only verying characteristic was either the mode or the tempo in two "isolated" conditions. In two further conditions, mode and tempo manipulations were combined so that mode and tempo either converged towards the same emotion (Convergent condition) or suggested opposite emotions (Divergent condition). The results confirm that both mode and tempo determine the "happy-sad" judgements in isolation, with the tempo being more salient, even when tempo salience was adjusted. The findings further support the view that, in music, structural features that are emotionally meaningful are easy to isolate, and that music is an effective and reliable medium to study emotions.
... Their findings are supported by other work; for example, Bakker and Martin (2015) demonstrated an association between "major-happy" and "minor-sad" pairings as evidenced by early neuronal processing speed even among participants with no formal musical training. These results support the understanding that differences between the major mode and minor mode, including the robust association with happiness and sadness, respectively (e.g., Gagnon & Peretz, 2003), has been foundational to Western tonal music, though these valences may differ in other cultures (Lahdelma et al., 2021). ...
... A second possibility for how major and minor seventh chords can convey mixed emotions has to do with the simultaneous presence of major and minor triads within these chords. Although an extensive body of research has found associations between happiness and sadness with major and minor triads, respectively (Crowder, 1984;Gagnon & Peretz, 2003;Gerardi & Gerken, 1995;Peretz, 1998;Scherer & Oshinsky, 1977), it is possible that the perception of a mixed emotion in major and minor seventh chords results from a change in single mode salience, that is, whether these chords might result in listeners hearing both modes and hence perceiving multiple emotions at the same time. Major and minor seventh chords in music theory are typically described as a major or minor triad with an added major seventh or minor seventh (as measured from the root), or as a third stacked on top of a triad (as measured from the fifth) (Benward & Saker, 2003), or as a triad stacked on top of a third. ...
... Second, in both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, the happy and sad ratings of the unmanipulated major and minor seventh chords were opposite to what one would expect from their nominal mode: major seventh chords were rated as both sadder and less happy than minor seventh chords, and minor seventh chords were rated happier and less sad than major seventh chords-a finding that potentially supports the acoustic roughness explanation of mixed emotion in major and minor seventh chords (e.g., Lahdelma & Eerola, 2015). Third, prior literature would suggest that triads in both experiments would have shown an unambiguous effect of mode (Bakker & Martin, 2015;Crowder, 1984Crowder, , 1985Gagnon & Peretz, 2003;Gerardi & Gerken, 1995); in the present study, the expected biases toward happiness and sadness as a whole are not observed in Experiments 1 and 2, where pitch height was a salient cue. In contrast, Experiment 3, which introduced multiple versions of the chords across a wider range of pitch registers, showed the expected biases toward happiness and sadness. ...
Music has long been recognized for evoking emotion from the listener. However, in musical chords, the relationship between mode and emotion, beyond basic associations of “major”–“happy” and “minor”–“sad” in triads, remains poorly understood. The present study investigates how mode contributes to the perception of mixed emotions in major and minor seventh chords, containing a triad from both modes. In Experiment 1, participants identified the emotion they perceived (happy, sad, or bittersweet) in response to a selection of major and minor triads and seventh chords. To observe the effect of changing mode salience, participants heard the same seventh chords whose root or seventh was lowered in volume. In Experiment 2, participants responded to seventh chords with roots or sevenths that were quieted in multiple increments. Experiment 3 expanded the paradigm by asking participants to judge the emotion of each chord on a sliding scale and introduced a second mixed-emotion choice (nostalgic). Overall, participants were more likely to report a seventh chord as bittersweet (Experiments 1 and 2) or happy (Experiments 2) but not sad. The likelihood of a seventh chord being rated as “happy” increased with highlighting the major triad present in a minor seventh chord through quieting the chordal root, but the likelihood of a seventh chord being rated as “sad” increased with lowering the volume of a chordal seventh, regardless of mode. The effect of pitch height on emotional perception is considered, and implications for the general understanding of complex emotional categories are discussed.
... One commonly studied cue to emotion is speed, or tempo. For instance, Gagnon and Peretz (2003) found that tempo was the more reliable predictor of valence compared with mode, as rated on a happy/sad scale, and Eerola et al. (2013) also showed tempo, and to a lesser extent, timbre, were used reliably by people to classify a tune into one of four emotions, including happy and sad. (Here we note that our concern here is with the emotion perceived in, not felt from music. ...
... Timbre produced larger effects on response times than mode but both cues contributed to the response time difference. The results are largely consistent with past studies that have established that mode and timbre contribute to the expression of emotional valence in music (Gagnon & Peretz, 2003;Hailstone Fig. 1 Means and 95% confidence intervals of the response times relative to CN across mode and timbre et al., 2009). As timbre is present from the onset of the first note of the melody, that could account for its greater influence, as in that sense it functions as a valence prime. ...
... Here we observed differences in valence ratings of melodies between musicians and nonmusicians but the groups did not differ in the two indirect tasks. While musical experience differences are sometimes found in selfreport measures relating to mode (Castro & Lima, 2014), differences are not evident in all studies (e.g., Bigand et al., 2005;Gagnon & Peretz, 2003). Studies utilizing automatic processing indices such as in ERP components have, however, produced clear experience differences in processing of mode between musicians and non-musicians in some indices such as the late positive component, particularly to minor mode (Centanni et al., 2020), or decreased gamma and theta band activity in the right posterior regions for musicians (Jenni et al., 2017). ...
The emotional properties of music are influenced by a host of factors, such as timbre, mode, harmony, and tempo. In this paper, we consider how two of these factors, mode (major vs. minor) and timbre interact to influence ratings of perceived valence, reaction time, and recognition memory. More specifically, we considered the notion of congruence —that is, we used a set of melodies that crossed modes typically perceived as happy and sad (i.e., major and minor) in Western cultures with instruments typically perceived as happy and sad (i.e., marimba and viola). In a reaction-time experiment, participants were asked to classify melodies as happy or sad as quickly as possible. There was a clear congruency effect—that is, when the mode and timbre were congruent (major/marimba or minor/viola), reaction times were shorter than when the mode and timbre were incongruent (major/viola or minor/marimba). In Experiment 2, participants first rated the melodies for valence, before completing a recognition task. Melodies that were initially presented in incongruent conditions in the rating task were subsequently recognized better in the recognition task. The recognition advantage for melodies presented in incongruent conditions is discussed in the context of desirable difficulty.
... The literature suggests that tempo is one of the most important determinants of human response to music [28]. Gagnon and Peretz [29] found that tempo influences emotional judgment, and Kampfe et al. [20] found that tempo is strongly correlated with arousal and has a clear effect on behavior. Fast music has been shown to raise listeners' self-reported arousal levels [8,30,31]. ...
... It has been found that the music's tempo influences the mood of the patrons [39,47], and that fast-tempo music is more likely to induce a positive mood [29,48]. Moreover, previous research shows that a positive or negative mood will increase helping behavior relative to a neutral mood [49,50]. ...
Influences from external factors can affect decision-makers, preventing them from making decisions in a fully rational manner. Music may serve as one such influential factor in this context. Music is part of our daily lives, and we are exposed to music in numerous places. We designed a field experiment to study the influence of background music on patrons’ behavior in restaurants. Specifically, we examine the effect of the music’s tempo (slow or fast) on time spent in the restaurant, the bill amount, and the tip size. The results show that patrons in the slow tempo group spent the most time in the restaurant, those in the control group followed next, and the patrons in the fast tempo group were the quickest to leave. However, there are no differences between the groups in bill size. The tips in the fast tempo group were higher than in the control group when controlling for several independent variables. The findings have practical implications for restaurant owners and managers. In busy periods, the restaurant can use fast-tempo music to increase the turnover of tables, because then tables become available for new diners more quickly, contributing more to the restaurant’s income compared to tables that occupy the space for a longer duration.
... On the other hand, musical stimuli with mixed emotional cues, for example, a major key with a slow tempo or a minor key with a fast tempo, have been argued to result in ambiguity caused by the trigger of both pleasant and unpleasant emotions (Hunter et al., 2008(Hunter et al., , 2010. Of the two cues, tempo may play a larger role than mode, as has been demonstrated using both complex (Hevner, 1937) and controlled (Gagnon & Peretz, 2003) melody stimuli. ...
... Atonal music's ambiguity (i.e., low key clarity and low predictability; Mencke et al., 2019Mencke et al., , 2022 may be related to accounts for why atonal and heavily dissonant styles of music have often been used to represent unpleasantness (e.g., Blood et al., 1999) and "unpleasant and reportedly 'fearsome' emotions" (Flores-Gutiérrez et al., 2007). Some studies, though, such as by Gagnon and Peretz (2003), have utilized atonality to represent emotional neutrality (see also Daynes, 2011]). 5 There are reasons to believe that musical cues, such as tempo and mode, may have specific links with the sublime and the beautiful. ...
The separate aesthetic responses of sublimity and beauty have been distinguished by philosophers (e.g., Burke, 1759/2008) and explored in recent psychological studies using visual images (e.g., Hur et al., 2022). In these works, sublimity, an experience involving astonishment or grandeur, has been contrasted with beauty, which is often associated with prettiness or cuteness. However, empirical studies of sublimity and beauty in music are rare, as are aesthetic responses to stimuli of mixed visual and musical components. The present article examines two questions. Firstly, what are the musical factors that predict sublimity and beauty in musical stimuli? Specifically, what are the contributions of style (Bach vs. Chopin vs. Schoenberg), mode type (major key vs. minor key vs. atonal), and tempo (slow vs. fast)? Secondly, what are the contributions of the visual and musical components in predicting the sublimity and beauty of mixed visual–musical stimuli? For music, mode type was the predominant predictor, with sublimity predicted by the minor key, and beauty by the major key. In the evaluation of mixed visual–musical stimuli, the influence of the sublimity and beauty of the visual component was up to three times as strong as that of the musical component. There was also judgment-type selectivity; the sublimity levels of visual–musical stimuli were predicted by the sublimity levels of the visual and musical components, but not by the beauty levels of the visual and musical components (and vice versa). While sublimity and beauty may be related aesthetic experiences, the present results demonstrate that sublimity and beauty may also operate through different mechanisms.
... Research in music cognition has investigated how different structural dimensions of music influence behavior, affect and cognition. Much research on the influence of music on consumer behavior concentrates on how music affects individual mood states and/or arousal (Anwar et al., 2020;Gagnon & Peretz, 2003;Husain et al., 2002;Pantoja & Borges, 2021;Uhm et al., 2022). Music mode and music tempo as basic structural elements are less context-dependent than more ''subjective'' dimensions frequently encountered in research, for instance, genre or country-specific music like German or French folk music (Areni & Kim, 1993;Damen et al., 2021;Jacob et al., 2009;North et al., 1999). ...
Individuals inevitably make inferences concerning size when they consider an object presented without cues to its actual size. Recent studies show that structural differences in background music can influence consumers’ perceptions of product attributes through cross-modal correspondence. We introduce a new structural element of music, the “music event rate.” To this end, we make a distinction between the absolute density (notes per time unit) and the relative density (notes per measure or music event rate) and propose an influence of the latter on consumers’ perceptions of product size. Our study employs a 2 (notes per measure: four vs. eight) × 2 (music tempo: slow vs. fast) × 2 (music mode: major vs. minor) between-subject experimental design. Dependent variables are participants’ size estimates of three different food items (pictures of burger, pizza, wine bottle) presented online. The results show that the number of notes per measure has an influence on consumers’ size perception of food items insofar as a higher event rate or number of notes per measure in a music stimulus leads consumers to infer a smaller product size, whereas a lower number of notes per measure leads consumers to perceive products as larger. This cross-modal effects of the music event rate on product size perception represent a previously unexplored influence on consumer behavior.
... Asocjacyjny charakter kompozycji muzycznych analizowany jest przede wszystkim na przykładzie muzyki instrumentalnej, która, jak pokazują badania, może wywoływać u słuchaczy skojarzenia wizualne, przywoływać doświadczenia z przeszłości i być nośnikiem emocji, co w znaczącym stopniu wynika ze strukturalnych cech utworu, takich jak np.: tonacja lub tempo (zob. m.in.: Gagnon, Peretz, 2003, Gilman, 1892, Juslin, Västfjäll, 2008. ...
The article aims to present the results of two laboratory experiments dedicated to determining whether patriotic lyrics in the background music in audio-visual image spots affect the perception of patriotism of a politician. The research used spots by A. Duda and D. Tusk, whose image is well-established. The results indicate that in case of A. Duda the presence of patriotic lyrics in the music, or lack thereof, did not impact the perceived characteristics of the promoted politician. D. Tusk’s spot, however, when accompanied by patriotic lyrics, showed a lower increase in the perceived intensity of the characteristic in question compared to the ad in which only the instrumental background was used. The findings show that, in certain cases, the influence of the lyrics consists in suggesting the criteria of evaluation rather than transferring the connotations, which does not necessarily improve the image of the promoted politician.
Music tempo affects listeners’ mental state, especially arousal levels. However, several studies have demonstrated that the effect of music tempo on arousal while listening to music can be modulated by individual differences, such as the pace of mental activity, that is, spontaneous motor tempo (SMT). Thus, SMT is a candidate factor that affects the relationship between music tempo and arousal. Here, we conducted a psychological experiment to investigate how SMT modulates the effect of music tempo on listeners’ arousal levels. First, the participants were required to tap their finger at their preferred tempo to identify the SMT of each participant. Next, the participants listened to music and then rated their arousal levels on a nine-point scale. A linear mixed model analysis revealed a significant effect of the interaction between music tempo and preferred tapping tempo on arousal levels. This finding indicates that SMT modulated the effect of music tempo on arousal levels while listening to music; the faster the SMT of a listener, the greater the impact of music tempo on arousal levels.
We explored the ability of older (60-80 years old) and younger (18-23 years old) musicians and nonmusicians to judge the similarity of transposed melodies varying on rhythm, mode, and/or contour (Experiment 1) and to discriminate among melodies differing only in rhythm, mode, or contour (Experiment 2). Similarity ratings did not vary greatly among groups, with tunes differing only by mode being rated as most similar. In the same/different discrimination task, musicians performed better than nonmusicians, but we found no age differences. We also found that discrimination of major from minor tunes was difficult for everyone, even for musicians. Mode is apparently a subtle dimension in music, despite its deliberate use in composition and despite people's ability to label minor as "sad" and major as "happy."
“Music is our oldest form of expression, older than language or art; it begins with the voice, and with our overwhelming need to reach out to others. In fact music is man far more than words, for words are abstract symbols which convey factual meaning. Music touches our feelings more deeply than words and makes us respond with our whole being.”
A basic issue about musical emotions concerns whether music elicits emotional responses in listeners (the 'emotivist' position) or simply expresses emotions that listeners recognize in the music (the 'cognitivist' position). To address this, psychophysiological measures were recorded while listeners heard two excerpts chosen to represent each of three emotions: sad, fear, and happy. The measures covered a fairly wide spectrum of cardiac, vascular, electrodermal, and respiratory functions. Other subjects indicated dynamic changes in emotions they experienced while listening to the music on one of four scales: sad, fear, happy, and tension. Both physiological and emotion judgments were made on a second-by-second basis. The physiological measures all showed a significant effect of music compared to the pre-music interval. A number of analyses, including correlations between physiology and emotion judgments, found significant differences among the excerpts. The sad excerpts produced the largest changes in heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance and temperature. The fear excerpts produced the largest changes in blood transit time and amplitude. The happy excerpts produced the largest changes in the measures of respiration. These emotion-specific physiological changes only partially replicated those found for non-musical emotions. The physiological effects of music observed generally support the emotivist view of musical emotions.
Thirty-eight children between ages 3 and 12 listened to 12 short musical passages derived from a counterbalanced 2 × 2 arrangement of (1) major versus minor modes and (2) harmonized versus simple melodic realizations of these modes. For each passage, they pointed to one of four schematic faces chosen to symbolize happy, sad, angry, and contented facial expressions. The main result was that all children, even the youngest, showed a reliable positive-major/negative-minor connotation, thus conforming to the conventional stereotype. The possible contributions of native and experiential factors to this behavior are discussed.
Music science typically and naturally focuses on experts' perceptual, cognitive, and aesthetic responses to music. Novices receive far less empirical and theoretical attention. This asymmetry could eventually constrain or limit the discipline. To illustrate this point, existing data are used to compare the performance of experts and novices in a variety of music paradigms. Experts are sensitive to music's tonal materials (e.g., octaves, intervals) and their listening preferences and evaluative standards reflect this sensitivity. In contrast, novices are often less sensitive to music's tonal materials, and their listening preferences and evaluative standards reflect this insensitivity. A music science that included novices more fully would be more comprehensive and better prepared to address basic questions about music's evolution and its universal structure.
Nine professional musicians were instructed to perform short melodies using various instruments - the violin, electric guitar, flute, and singing voice - so as to communicate specific emotional characters to listeners. The performances were first validated by having listeners rating the emotional expression and then analysed with regard to their physical characteristics, e.g. tempo, dynamics, timing, and spectrum. The main findings were that (a) the performer's expressive intention had a marked effect on all analysed variables; (b) the performers showed many similarities as well as individual differences in emotion encoding; (c) listeners were generally successful in decoding the intended expression; and (d) some emotional characters seemed easier to communicate than others. The reported results imply that we are unlikely to find performance rules independent of instrument, musical style, performer, or listener.