At the interface between sensation and emotion : perceived qualities of single chords
The focus of this dissertation is to investigate the perception of single chords,
both in terms of perceived emotions and psychoacoustic qualities. Previous
empirical research on harmony perception has mainly been concerned with
horizontal aspects of harmony: studies focusing on vertical harmony perception
have been rare. The current work aims to fill some of the still evident gaps
between musicology, music psychology, and psychoacoustics with regard to
single chord perception by combining both empirical and theoretical
approaches.
The work comprises three publications, based on two large-scale empirical
experiments conducted with the aim of drawing the attention of both expert
and inexpert listeners to have a substantial, heterogeneous, and international
participant pool. The applied chord stimuli spanned common triads and tetrads
with inversions, and also more rare chord sonorities in the form of pentads and
hexachords. Altogether two distinct timbres were used, piano and strings. The
stimuli were analyzed in terms of psychoacoustic properties, including e.g.,
roughness, harmonicity, and sharpness to further account for the obtained
results.
The results suggest significant differences in emotion perception across
different chord types. The inversions and register contributed to the evaluations
significantly, non-musicians distinguishing between triadic inversions similarly
to musicians. Mildly dissonant chords were more preferred than consonant
chords, regardless of musical sophistication or music preferences. Certain
chords, especially the major seventh chord played on the strings, conveyed the
emotion of nostalgia/longing effectively. New theoretical models are suggested
based on the results and psychoacoustic data to explain the capacity of certain
chords to convey complex emotions, and the perception of
consonance/dissonance in single chords.
...
Publisher
University of JyväskyläISBN
978-951-39-7067-3ISSN Search the Publication Forum
1459-4331Keywords
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- Väitöskirjat [3589]
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