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Living apart together: a relationship between music psychology and music
therapy
Annemiek Vink
This article was originally printed in Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 10(2),
pp. 144-158. The article is republished here with the kind permission from the
author.
Introduction
`Ladies and Gentlemen, my respected and beloved music friends! Musica animae
levamen, music is medicine for our souls.' These are the opening lines of the
book `Die musikalische Hausapotheke/The musical home medicine cabinet' written
by the German musicologist Christopher Rueger (1991). In this work, Rueger
describes a variety of musical recipes to cure an equally impressive variety of
disorders. If we take a closer look into his laboratory, we can read that
listening to Beethoven's Symphony No.2 helps to cope with feelings of
depression and doubt. The popular Goldberg Variations of Bach will decrease
sleeping disorders.
If it could only be so simple. For many lay people, these descriptions are
their idea of what music therapy is all about. Many people have read about the
`Mozart Effect' and a music therapist is often pictured in non-medical journals
as being an equivalent of `a healthcare deejay'. There are, however, many
disciplines involved in the study of the effects of music on the listener. It
is the music psychologist who looks at effects of music in the general
listener, e.g. what emotions can be induced by music in the listener? Cognitive
theory studies how music is perceived and how cognitive schemata are activated
when listening to music. How does our brain react to music? The music therapist
uses music as a therapeutic medium with a variety of different client
populations in yet another discipline.
For a layperson, these fields seem logically intertwined. Music induces
emotions and this works therapeutically as various cognitions and feelings
become activated, of course. In practice, there is still little collaboration
between these fields of expertise. In fact, music researchers studying
cognitive aspects and brain activity even state that it is far too early to be
able to describe precisely how a healthy person reacts to music, both
physically and psychologically. Before this knowledge is gathered, it is far
too early to state that music is therapeutic, let alone to be considered as
`medicine' as Rueger described. How will we ever be able to develop cogent
theories from neurological research if we can't even agree on which halves of
the brain processes various aspects of music experience (Kaufmann & Frisina,
1992)? Music therapists state on the other hand, that music cannot be
considered as medicine as it is not merely the music from which the client
benefits. Other factors contribute to the therapeutic effect as well, such as
the group interaction, the interaction with the music and the therapeutic
alliance. What are current research insights from the field of music psychology
and can they be applied in music therapy, in an arts relationship?
To examine the mutual aspects of these disciplines, the focus in this review
will be on the question how music is related to the experience of emotion.
Everyone recognizes the ancient old idea that music affects man. But how? This
question has turned out be an enormous difficult task to answer scientifically.
Top og page
Theoretical orientations of musical emotions
Music psychology research shows us that non-knowledgeable listeners respond
emotionally to music as do music performers, both during playing and during
listening to music. But how can these experiences be described? Is it accurate
to state that `musical emotions' are experienced? Researchers discuss if it is
legitimate to state that feelings experienced in relation to music are actual
emotional states.
In general psychology, emotions are currently described as specific
process-oriented response behaviours. To clarify the word process-oriented, an
emotion is always directed at something, whether it be a particular
circumstance or a person etc. Specific attributes within the emotion appraisal
process are the personal involvement with the stimulus, the cognitive appraisal
of the stimulus and a behavioural change towards the stimulus (Frijda, 1988).
The presence of these characteristics and the degree to which they are
represented in a person depend on the type of emotion experienced.
The concept of a `musical emotion' is difficult to define according to general
emotion theories. A variety of different emotional responses and experiences
can be found under the header of `emotion'. Although we can often read about
the concept of `musical emotion' in the literature, regretfully how a `music
induced emotion' can be defined is not clarified. Also the term `emotion' in
the context of music listening is open for debate.
Often, emotions can be classified in order of their (biological) functions. A
classical example is the experience of fear in this context. The cognitive
appraisal that a certain situation is threatening leads to a behavioural
change, e.g. fleeing or avoiding the situation. In a musical context there are
no apparent biological functions. Although, everywhere on the world, music is
played and listened to, we cannot state that we cannot live without the
presence of music. As such, the intensity of an emotion experienced is
difficult to explain in a musical context to directly result from music
(Dowling and Harwood, 1986).
In everyday life, emotions are induced by concrete circumstances within a
realistic setting, which we often cannot control, such as being involved in a
car accident. This `real life' influence is often found lacking in a musical
context. Although music can be frightening and threatening, there is always the
sense of control, for instance by turning the music off. The use of the verb
`emotion' is often therefore not acknowledgeable in a musical context. In
recent music psychology literature we can see a clear shift in descriptions
used to refer to musical experiences. In most of the research focussing on
musical emotional responses, the focus has actually been on specific
characteristics of an emotion: such as appraisal and arousal components. In
some cases it is possible, according to Sloboda (1991), that music can induce
intense emotions, but he states it is more accurate to describe `musical
emotions' as mood states, experiences and feelings that are influenced by music
listening. Music functions as a catalyst or stimulus for the experience of
emotions, a characteristic often witnessed and used in music therapy practice.
The concept of `musical emotion' has many conceptual difficulties. Sloboda and
Juslin (2001) describe how emotion theories such as Frijda's (1988) are
beneficial to the study of musical emotions. They state that music
psychologists generally are reluctant to turn to emotion psychology for
theoretical guidance. On the other hand, they hold that it is interesting to
note that psychologists themselves do acknowledge that art may evoke strong
emotional response, but few scientists seem to have considered this problem
worthy of study. Sloboda and Juslin (2001) state it is significant that one of
the most influential analysis of music and emotion to date, namely that of
Meyer (1956) is based on a theory of emotion.
According to Meyer (1956) there are certain elements within the music, such as
a change of melodic line or rhythm, that create expectations about the future
development of the music. The expectation the listener has about the further
course of musical events is a determinant for the experience of `musical
emotions'. Music arouses expectations, which may or not be directly and
immediately satisfied. He states: ...The greater the build-up of suspense of
tension, the greater the emotional release upon resolution...(Meyer, 1956,
p.28). The music arouses tendencies and this fulfils the conditions according
to the arousal of affect. The role of emotion in this process is complex. The
primary dimension on which emotion is experienced is in terms of a build-up of
tension and release of tension, both within the music and in the listener. The
more elaborate the build-up of tension to a certain climax, the more intense
emotions will be experienced. When resolution follows, relaxation follows.
An important implication of Meyer's theory is that any conscious insight in
this process reduces the emotional effect of music. This implicates that a
`naive' listener without much music theoretical knowledge has a predominant
affective response towards music whereas a trained listener reacts mostly
cognitively while listening to music (Jansma& de Vries, 1995).
Within the music psychology research literature, Mandler's (1984) and Berlyne's
(1971) cognitive theories of emotion are occasionally referred to. Mandler
holds arousal as a prerequisite for the experience of emotion, but sees arousal
in essence as of minor importance. Mandler attaches the more value to the
cognitive appraisal of bodily experiences. Emotions, in line with Meyer (1956),
are caused by interruptions of expectations about future events. The
interruption, depending on the personal involvement, causes arousal for which
an explanation is sought. Information processing is important for the
experience of emotions. The experience of arousal is a result of a `mis-match'
between existing knowledge structures and the integration of new information.
This thought `matches' Meyer's idea, who states that as a result of unexpected
musical changes, arousal is experienced. According to Mandler, negative
emotions will be the result of an extreme mismatch between musical information
and existent musical schemata. Accordingly, positive emotions are experienced
when musical information matches existing cognitive schemata.
A comparable emotion theory is from Berlyne (1971). He hypothesized that when
we listen to music, we take into account factors such as the complexity,
familiarity and novelty of the music. The degree to which the music sounds
familiar determines if the music is experienced as pleasurable or
uncomfortable. The hedonic value is low when the music is entirely new to the
listener, and progresses with increasing familiarity and will decrease again
when the music is totally known. This process can be described with a reversed
U-curve. According to Berlyne the experience of arousal is an important factor
in the experience of emotion, equal to Mandler. But he goes further, he states
that it is the listener's intention to experience arousal while listening to
music. Musical preference is based on the preference to maintain the level of
preferred arousal constant. The more complex the music, the more arousal will
be experienced. The listener seeks activation, but to a certain extent. When
the maximum is achieved he will avoid further activation. In a listener with
more elaborate music knowledge structures, arousal will be less when listening
to complex music. As such, a trained listener, will both according to Berlyne
and Mandler, hold a greater preference for complex music than a naive listener
as the threshold for experiencing arousal is higher. Fischer (1981)
demonstrated that subjects who had taken amphetamine, a drug which causes
arousal, preferred the more complex music. There are many experiments that
backup the ideas of Berlyne. Subjects prefer melodies that are intermediate in
the number of different pitches used and which have intermediate levels of
complexity (Weinberger, 1998). Weinberger values Berlyne's theory of importance
to therapy as it may explain why the same music can produce different emotions
in the same person at different times, a known difficulty complicating
research. He also states that the findings may be of help with further direct
investigations of the brain substrates of music and emotion. A basic
understanding of these relationships should also benefit future uses of music
therapeutically.
The theories described above, are often referred to in describing the emotional
impact of music. In general it is stated that Meyer's (1956) theory is
comprehensive but problematic to test empirically and there are no research
studies known which have directly tested Meyer' s assumptions in relation to
musical emotions. Meyer himself acknowledged this problem by doubting the
possibilities to test the existence of `musical emotions' in a scientifically
controlled manner. Sloboda (1985) states in this context, that many researchers
have the tendency to come up with their own theorizing about the effect of
music, with the result that feedback for the development of a general
theoretical framework explaining the effects is lacking. This can also be seen
in music therapy research, many music therapists have studied or described if
their own practice has any effect. The research studies are as such often very
different in therapeutic orientation and difficult to compare related to client
populations.
Top og page
Musical expression of emotion
Are there certain elements in music, which may invoke musical experiences in
the listener? Going back in the literature, we will find the impressive line of
studies that Hevner conducted. Hevner (1935, 1936, 1937) is one of the first
researchers who systematically studied which musical parameters are related to
the experience of emotion. She adapted various short existing piano pieces and
played them for the subjects, both the original version and an adapted version.
In the adapted version, she constantly only manipulated one musical element,
such as the mode (major or minor), the harmony (simple-complex), rhythm
(steady-fluent), tempo (fast-slow) and the melody line (increasing-
decreasing). Other musical parameters were held as constant as possible. After
playing, she asked the subjects to indicate on the `Hevner's adjective circle',
which emotion verb best described the emotional content of the piece. Tempo and
mode had the strongest impact on the listener, when describing the experienced
emotion in the music. Piano music played fast in major was described as
cheerful and in contrast the slow piece in minor as dreamful and sensitive.
After Hevner, it has been repeatedly shown that various musical elements, with
a particular mode and tempo, are expressive of emotion in music. Based on
research studies such as these, it has been easily deduced that music induces
emotion in the listener. This conclusion is however not warranted. The work of
Hevner demonstrates which emotions are experienced in the music and not
necessarily refer to the emotions experienced in the listener. Maybe so, but
often it has not been the focus of research. On the basis of attribution based
research, it can only be stated how musical elements are expressive of emotion
and how the emotional content of the piece is valued.
A continuing problem that occurs in research such as Hevner's, is that she
chose musical parameters that are representative for the music in general.
Music often induces reactions and emotional responses in very specific moments
in the music, such as by sudden changes in tempo or a climax of musical theme,
as we will read later from Sloboda (1991). Statements about the tempo of a
musical piece are merely descriptive of one characteristic of emotional
expression of the music or the musical experience in the listener (Jansma & de
Vries, 1995).
According to Desain and Honing (in Jansma &de Vries; 1995) false is also the
expectation that musical parameters can be manipulated in a totally independent
manner. They mention as an example, the manipulation of tempo. A piece cannot
be simply played twice as fast. Also temporal relations between the notes
accordingly need to be adjusted in order to let the music still sound natural.
Still, with great consistency, it has been shown that musical characteristics,
such as the mode, rhythm and tempo, are perceived by the listener to be
expressive of emotion (for an overview of this topic see Gabrielson &
Lindstrom; 2001).
In most of the music psychology research studies, only classical music is
studied. In the music therapy literature we can read that listener's
preferences range from heavy metal to classical music. Also in the context
where musical emotions with children are studied, mostly classical music has
been used as test material. The generalisability of the results, when only
studying classical music, is therefore small. Still, there are reasons why
researchers prefer classical music, as classical music is mostIy not
accompanied by sung lyrics, which is the case for most of the popular music
repertoire. For the earlier researchers, there were also interesting ethical
reasons. Wing (1968) described that while developing his musical ability test:
"Jazz music was not included, as this would be unlikely to yield examples of
really good harmony, would be likely to prejudice the authorities against the
test, and would waste the children's time if they were listening to poor music"
(Wing, 1968, p.37).
In more contemporary research studies, also popular music, jazz or religious
music has been included. This is an important development for music psychology
findings to be generalised to music therapy practice.
Regardless of the above-mentioned methodological problems, it is the common
research outcome that listeners in general can describe with great accuracy
which emotional expression is communicated. But of interest also for music
therapy is whether these findings can be related to the experience in the
listener. Which emotions or reactions are exactly induced in the listener
through music? Various research studies have tried to answer this question with
a variety of physiological and cognitive listening tests.
Top og page
Physiological studies involving musical emotions.
Both Berlyne (1971), Mandler (1984) as Meyer (1956) see arousal as an important
factor in emotional experiences while listening to music. A typical example of
physical experiences reported when listening to music is the experience of
thrills. Goldstein (1980) illustrated that thrills were experienced by 96% of
the subjects.
Already in the 18th century an effort was made to study the effect of music in
relation to physiological changes. One of the most known researches of that
time is from G try, who published in 1741 about the influence of music on the
frequency of heart rate (in Dainow, 1977).
Often referred to in the music therapy literature, is the relation between
music and physical changes in the clients. Smeijsters (1995) formulated the
analogues process model, in which he described that musical characteristics can
be perceived in the client's pathology and vice versa. In many research
studies, it has been tried to establish if there is a relationship between for
instance musical rhythm and physical rhythm, following Pythagoras idea that
musical vibrations can bring about healing physical changes. The average beat
rate in music equals almost exactly the average heartbeat, with 72 to 80 beats
per minute. The precise relationship between musical rhythm and heartbeat is
still unclear, although support can be found that the heartbeat follows musical
rhythm. Stimulating music increases the heart rate and sedative music reduces
the heart rate. Each type of music increases the heart rate. This increase is
higher when listening to stimulating music than to sedative music.
A problem that occurs when measuring the heart rate is to establ itish that is
also the measurement of the intended emotional change. An illustrative example
was provided by Harrer (1977) who compared the heart rate of the famous
conductor Herbert von Karajan while he was directing Leonora Overture No.3, to
his heart rate while flying a sports aircraft. During flight-time, the heart
rate peaked at 115 beats per minute while during conducting a maximum was
achieved of 150 beats per minute. The maximum increase of pulse frequency,
telemetrically recorded from Herbert von Karajan while conducting the Leonora
Overture No.3, was obtained during those passages with the greatest emotional
impact upon the conductor. These were the same passages that he singled out in
subsequent conversations as being the ones he found most profoundly touching.
At these moments the pulse rate increased for a short while, to twice the level
of the initial value. When the tape was played back to him and a further pulse
measurement was made, the same peaks were found. Changes however were much
greater while he was conducting.
Next to changes in heart rate, changes in breathing can be perceived as a
result of intense emotional experiences. The frequency of breathing and heart
rate are normally to a certain extent co-dependent. An increase of muscle
activity together with active breathing increases the hearth rate, as can be
seen for instance during hyperventilation (Frijda, 1988). Ries (1969) found
clear correlations between the respiration amplitude and the emotional response
towards music. The relationship between the breathing amplitude and the
subject's affective responses were highly correlated indicating that the more a
subject reported liking the selection, the deeper his breathing became.
Research studies involving respiration measurement are often not easy to
interpret (Harrer, 1977). The main reason is that often only one characteristic
of respiration is measured, such as the frequency or the amplitude. In general,
it is stated that the frequency of breathing increases when listening to
preferred music and that the breathing becomes deeper. The foremost problem
however is that there are too many individual differences to be perceived in
respect to irregularities of breathing and the depth of breathing, for instance
as an result of extraneous factors such as smoking.
Many factors can influence physiological measurements. The amount of coffee a
subject has drunken before the registration is for instance an influence in
heart rate measurements. Often the amount of variables for which should be
controlled for is too large to establish a reliable representative conclusion.
Also is it an ancient old idea that each type of emotion is characterized by a
specific pattern in physiological changes (Rim et al., 1990). People/clients
who are for instance fearful do not respond equally on physiological measures
and we cannot estimate from a certain measurement that someone is experiencing
`moderate happiness'. Also it is possible that people may well feel angry or
sad without demonstrating any physiological changes. Stavenga (1979) compares
the difference between mentally handicapped and normal adults in this context.
Both can display the same physiological changes, while experiencing them
entirely differently in a psychological manner. To return to Frijda (1988), the
experience of arousal should not be seen as a key feature of an emotional
experience. Still, it is interesting to see if this is also the case for
musical experiences, as so many hold that arousal is indeed a key feature in
the appraisal of music listening. Bever (1988) states that the perception of
musical structures always arouses in relation to the appraisal of the aesthetic
value of the music.
Physiological measurements are extremely popular though. Often music psychology
and music therapy research outcomes are seen as too abstract, and defined
clinical measurements are seen as a solution to communicate research to other
healthcare professionals. Often we see a combination of approaches in
modern-day research, the qualitative method to assess the individual
experiences combined with physiological measurements. Through qualitative
research these individual differences in experience can be more easily
assessed.
With the arrival of new methods it is hoped that more insight will be gained in
the future how musical structures are perceived and how emotional responses are
related for instance to brain processes. According to Peretz (2001) musical
emotions appear isolable in the human brain. She states that current evidence
is pointing to the existence of a specific neural arrangement for certain
musical emotions. One of the intriguing new findings is that subjects exhibit
greater left frontal activity to music expressing joy and happiness (Schmidt &
Trainor, 2001 in Peretz, 2001) and greater relative right frontal EEG activity
to music expressing fear and sadness. Currently with new measurements such as
functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is studied in more detail which
brain activity can be perceived when subjects are listening to music. But also
physicians here state that there is a long way to go before accurately music
perception can be measured.
To conclude, music does bring about physiological changes although it is not
yet clear how these changes are related to musical characteristics. Clear
outcomes in this context are of value for music therapy. If music produces
physiological and psychological effects in healthy persons as listeners, then
it may be assumed that people with known diseases respond in specific ways
(Aldridge, 1996). If music is known to influence a physiological parameter such
as the heart rate or blood pressure then Aldridge argues music can be used
therapeutically for patients who have problems with heart disease and
hypertension. These are interrelations from which both disciplines can benefit.
Top og page
Cognitive emotional studies of music appraisal
In line with the popular tradition in psychology, currently cognitive processes
are studied, both in normal healthy adults and in diverse client populations. A
variety of different cognitive tests have been used to gain more insight in the
actual experience of the listener, whether he is a healthy adult, a routine
listener, or a music therapy client. Still, this line of research is in its
infancy. Most of the music psychology research studies make use of validated
instruments from psychology studies. There are many logical arguments for this
choice in terms of the representation of the study, the decrease in costs etc.
But generally, these lists consist of emotion terms that are difficult to
interpret in the context of music. Waterman (1992, in Jansma en de Vries, 1995)
used a well-established list from Ortony, Clore and Collins (1988) to let
subjects score which emotions they had experienced in response to music. This
question is very aspecific, because there are many different ways how one can
respond to music: as a product, admiration for the performance etc. Also it is
unclear what is meant with `experienced in response to music'. There is a clear
distinction between emotions experienced when playing music or listening to
music, which is generally ignored in research. In table 1, the responses can be
seen from some of the first year music therapy students at the Conservatory
Enschede in the Netherlands, to the question how they experience the described
emotions both during listening and playing music.
Table 1: The experience of emotions on the Ortony, Clore and Collins scale
(1988) by music therapy students experienced when listening to music and
performing music. |View table in full size|
As can be seen, most of the subjects experienced joy while listening to music.
It is however difficult to understand whether this outcome was the direct
result of the music listening, e.g. music induced emotion, or invoked through
musical associations and attribution processes. Also, joy experienced during
play has very different origins then joy experienced when listening to music.
Jansma & de Vries (1995) give us another complicated interpretation with this
scale. How should we understand the study outcome that many of the subjects
have experienced hope or disappointment while listening to music? What do these
results mean? Are they directly caused through the music, regardless of the
style? Or are they the result of a lucky or disappointing expenditure in the
cd-store. Emotions such as reproach are typically not experienced in a musical
context.
Waterman (1992) demonstrates that most adult listeners have a variety of
musical responses towards music and that a variety of extrinsic factors
influence these responses. Meyer (1956) states it would be interesting to learn
more how listeners, whether client or healthy adults, experience emotions
directly from musical characteristics or through musical associations, the well
known `Darling, they are playing our song' idea. To repeat Meyer's assumptions,
he held it to be difficult to experimentally relate the effect of music to
induced emotions in the listener. From the few experimentally controlled
research studies it can be stated that some emotions are more easily induced
than others and that effects are mostly found on the dimension of relaxation/
tension and happiness/sadness (Clark & Teasdale, 1985). It remains unclear
however, how musical parameters are related to these effects and open for
debate is whether such outcomes could be of value for music therapy.
Typical for most of the emotion checklists is that fixed categories have been
used. Problematic here is that people have a tendency to polarise their
opinions on certain emotion traits, regardless of the emotion object. A method,
which more freely gives room to the variety of emotional responses, is the free
response technique. This method has been used on few occasions by music
psychology
researchers in the context of music appraisal. Sloboda (1992) asked adults to
recall any memories from the first ten years of their lives that involved music
in any way. It was not asked specifically whether there was an emotional
association with the music, just what musical experiences one recalled from
childhood. From the free descriptions, it was determined that in 39% of the
cases emotion was indeed a classifying characteristic. Also on adult age,
emotion was an important factor in the free descriptions of music experiences.
Sloboda (1992) let 67 regular music listeners describe in their own words, the
nature of their most valued emotional experience to
music. Two dominant themes emerged in the spontaneous descriptions. First,
people tended to use music as a `change agent' to alter their mood state
(n-41). This was reported through statements such as `music relaxes me, when I
am tense and anxious' and `music motivates and inspires me to be a better
person'. Secondly, people reported that music was used as a method of catharsis
to promote the intensification or release of already existent emotions (n-34).
Example statements included `music releases emotions'
and `music helps me discover what I am actually feeling'. Sloboda states that
the common factor to all examples was that music does not create emotion, but
rather it allows a person access to the experience of emotions that are already
`on the agenda'. A statement, all music therapists will recognize.
A positive factor of such open-ended studies is that it can be studied if one
refers to emotion when describing musical experiences and if these emotions are
experienced directly in response to music. A disadvantage of such retrospective
studies is the question of how reliable these descriptions of childhood
experiences are. It can be assumed that regardless of the subject one describes
of ones childhood, emotional descriptions will be given. If someone were to
describe riding a bicycle in childhood years for instance, these terms were
also likely to be found, simply because we evaluate all sorts of stimuli with
affective responses. The question is again if they are actually emotional
experiences directly invoked through music which are measured?
Researching emotional experiences directly related to music is complex, as has
been demonstrated above. In the context of music listening, the effect seems to
be related to earlier associations that are different for us all. In the
studies described above it is clear that association processes are present,
although it has not been the study focus. From many music therapy studies
involving the effects of Guided Imagery and Music, these associational
processes have been well demonstrated and documented.
Also in relation to specific musical characteristics, there are still many more
layers than only structural characteristics with which the emotional response
is associated, such as admiration for the performance. One single music piece
can invoke a large variety of emotional responses: one of the powers of music,
but a headache for the researcher.
Many researchers have tried to identify a single emotion in the listener when
he is listening to music, such as sadness or joy. Emotional experience in the
context of music is an interesting but difficult process to study. Music cannot
simply make someone sad or happy. There are many other responses thinkable,
which may occur at the same time. Exactly for these reasons, Meyer (1956) was
sceptical about the possibility to ever identify clear relations between the
music listened to and the responses invoked in the listener. He held it
impossible that a listener can specify what elements in the music invoke for
instance thrills. Sloboda (1991) studied this claim and argues that trained
professionals can describe what elements and on what time they induce a
response. The subjects all first described which physical changes they had
experienced when listening to music. 90% of the respondents reported to have
experienced thrills, 88% indicated to have laughed and 85% reported to have
cried while listening to music. The listeners turned out to be very capable in
stating which musical selections induced the responses and even more specific
during which moments in the music. The specific fragments were related to the
published scores and classified to the musical features they contained. Twenty
passages related to the response crying which contained features such as
melodic appoggiaturas and melodic or harmonic sequences. Shivers were related
most frequently with new or unprepared harmony. These findings correspond with
Meyer's (1956) and Mandler's (1984) expectations. The specific moments in the
music were all associated with sudden, unexpected musical changes.
From this study we may conclude that there are indeed musical elements that can
be described in association with the emotional experience. Still, the
experiences have been described in retrospect. The physiological changes
reported in this study, may bear no resemblance to the actual emotions
experienced at the time when one was listening to the music, as Rime, Phillipot
and Cisamolo (1990) found when comparing the emotions subjects recalled and
experienced in everyday life.
Only on few occasions, musical responses were studied when subjects were
actually playing or listening to music. Waterman (1996) compared differences in
emotional responding to music between trained and untrained listeners. He
derived 14 fragments from Sloboda's (1991) study, which were found to induce
emotional responding. Fragments selected were jazz, pop and classical music.
When listening to the music, the listener could activate a switch-button, when
something in the music caused something to happen to him.
The outcome measure was the number of responses per bar of music. This was the
task for the naive listener. The professional musicians performed the same
pieces with also an inventive responsemode, which they could press to indicate
reactions experienced. Waterman found that subjects could reliably indicate
that the music moved them and did not find differences between the two groups
in the degree that they were able to indicate events within musical extracts to
be emotionally loaded. This was apparent when the music was known or unknown
and to a lesser degree when the musical genre was found pleasing or
displeasing.
Methodological problems are numerous in these sorts of approaches. Emotions are
often of short duration and when they are studied in an experimental setting it
can be questioned in what way they were influenced by task demands, such as in
Waterman's study, pressing a button. The experimental setting holds an entirely
different atmosphere to the couch at home. The described questionnaires can be
validated to a certain extent by testing them in different populations and in
different circumstances. Still, it is problematic that people have the tendency
to select basic emotions to describe their experiences and they are less
capable to describe the nuances (Frijda, 1988). According to Frijda, these
questionnaires do not help us to gain any insight in how complex emotions can
be understood, such as experienced when listening to music. What does one
exactly experience when indicating that someone is happy or sad? Aldridge
(1996) warns for the quantitative approach in music research. He holds that we
should be careful not to organize nature according to concepts imposed on it
and demonstrates the need for a more phenomenological, holistic understanding
of musical experiences through qualitative research.
Standard questionnaires are difficult to use in a musical setting. Bartel's
(1992) CART-M test (Cognitive-Affective Response Test) has been especially
developed to measure musical responding. In this questionnaire there has also
been made a distinction between different ways of responding: cognitively or
affectively. Sloboda (1985) refers to humour, to clarify the influence of
cognitive and affective stages in musical responding. We can only laugh about a
joke when we have heard all of it. The cognitive stage is a necessary
prerequisite for the affective phase to occur. Affective responses may or may
not occur, someone may equally well have understood the joke but for some
reasons could not laugh about it. With music something similar happens. When
someone listens to music, he always makes a mental representation of the music
and affect may or may not occur. Both within music and in emotion, these
cognitive and affective phases can be distinguished. In the CART-M they are
called a formal-intellectual dimension and an emotional-expressive dimension.
With a semantic differential test it was studied if emotional responses were
different among subjects when listening to different music styles. The
responses to classical music were more cognitive than towards jazz and country
music. This study implicates that more musical repertoires should be included
than only classical music. Also it was demonstrated that the more familiar the
music was, the more affective the response became. Also the amount of musical
training is a determinant in the response. The subjects with music theoretical
knowledge predominantly responded cognitively to the music and untrained
listeners affectively. These findings again correspond to the theories of Meyer
(1956), Mandler (1984 and Berlyne (1971).
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Music psychology meets Music therapy
Although the topic of music and emotion is central to both music psychology and
music therapy, research findings from the respective fields are not commonly
shared. Only some articles written on the topic of music therapy relate to how
music therapy and music psychology could benefit from one and another.
Generally, in music psychology groups of healthy people are compared to each
other, e.g. groups who have received formal music education and groups who have
not. What would be interesting to know next is how do healthy people differ in
this context to certain client populations, to understand more about musical
emotions.
Music psychologists could for one benefit from music therapy studies in this
area. By now it is more or less clear that people respond emotionally to music
but interesting to know next what are the variations between different
subjects. Smith (1989) studied for instance the listening preferences in
subjects ranging from 18 to 89 in preferred loudness levels, a typical music
psychology topic of relevance to music therapy practice.
A task for music therapists could be to study further how musical preferences
are related to a variety of client populations. How do demented elderly for
instance perceive music and emotions from a music psychological view. It would
be an enrichment of the literature to compare these to music therapy findings.
As music psychology generally focuses on healthy adults, it could be beneficial
to music psychology research to study preferences and emotions in a therapeutic
context with client populations such as the elderly and comatose people.
In this last section, some researchers will be highlighted which have
incorporated music psychology findings in their music therapeutic research.
Bunt (1995) is one of the few authors who mentions the common grounds between
music psychology and music therapy in understanding musical development. For
developing therapeutic goals and finding ways to attune to the child, it is
important to know the capacities of children per se in understanding and
perceiving music. When are children able to sing spontaneously? What musical
qualities children adhere to when they have emotional experiences? Terwogt and
Grinsven (1991) demonstrated that young children are able to recognize basic
emotions in classical music. Here the music therapist can also benefit from
general psychological findings. Children at the age of four are better in
expressing these emotions than recognizing them (Field and Walden, 1982). At
later ages children are more able to differentiate between the variety in
positive and negative emotions (Manstead, 1993).
Most of the descriptions resemble the trend to music psychology: how is emotion
perceived/experienced when one listens to music. In practice already in
receptive music therapy, instruments such as derivates of the Hevner's
adjective circle are used, to let the person become adapted to the therapy and
to gather emotional connotations which the person has with the music for
assessment purposes. Regretfully, these instruments are often not described in
the clinical literature nor has their use and effect been documented. Meyer
(2001) describes how often it is not the patterning of the music per se that
evokes emotion, but the connotations that it has for different listeners.
This idea has been described in various music therapy studies. Smeijsters,
Wijzenbeek and van Nieuwenhuijzen (1995) hypothesized that in the life of
depressive patients, several values are very important (e.g., chaos, authority,
death, religion). It was studied in an explorative study if specific musical
excerpts can evoke these connotations. Depressive clients (n-44) listened
during two sessions to 16 selected musical fragments (such as Bach (2 min),
Symphony no. 2 E flat major, Part 1: Allegro di molto). Patients were asked to
select, from a list of 14 values, those values (such as violence, family and
relaxation) that came to mind as they listened to each excerpt. Results showed
that the fragments indeed evoked the values but they found no one-to-one
relationship. The authors underline the complexity of interpreting these
results. In general, most studies are complicated by the fact that there are so
many antecedents and responses that interact, which are difficult to measure.
General emotions terms are thus likely to yield results, but often the nature
of the response is unclear. Research is needed which is more directed at
understanding the process of how emotions develop in music than the end-state
`static' experience.
A method which is typically based on music psychological findings is Guided
Imagery and Music developed by Helen Bonnny. The method is based on the
assumption that the most appropriate music can be selected for healing
purposes. The client listens to the music in a relaxed state and shares the
experiences with the therapist. The music is selected for specific themes such
as `positive affect'. Erdonmez Grocke (1999) has written extensively on the
application of GIM, also in reference to a variety of client populations. Bonny
states (1986) about the assumptions of GIM that research on the music-assisted
imagery process (GIM) demonstrated that personal music preferences were not
usually applicable for healing when used in therapeutic settings. This
statement is one of debate for music therapy for which the music psychological
findings are interesting. Others have demonstrated that music should be
selected carefully in line with personal preferences. Gerdner (2000)
demonstrated in her study the effects between listening to standard relaxation
music compared to individualized music in its effect to reduce agitation in
demented elderly. Both types of interventions were clearly more effective
compared to baseline measurements. In all aspects, carefully selected music
based on the person's preference and personal background was far more effective
than standard relaxation music. Perhaps it could be hypothesized that when
music meets collectively shared connotations such as presented in GIM, emotions
can be invoked although with different associations. This would be interesting
to research further.
In most of the research -both in music therapy and music psychology- is chosen
for the option that people listen to music. Not many researchers have addressed
the topic of the experience of emotions while performing or in music therapy
while improvising. The processes present here are difficult to grasp with
scientific hands. Bunt and Pavlicevic (2001) describe aspects of generating and
receiving of emotions through music in the realms of clinical improvisation.
They studied an outcome of music psychological research in a music therapeutic
context. In the music psychology literature, specific instruments are seen as
being more suitable than others to convey a particular emotion. Gabrielson and
Juslin (1996) instructed nine professional musicians to sing or play -on
violin, flute or electrical guitar- particular emotional expressions such as
happiness, sadness and anger as well as without expression. In general, the
listener easily understood which emotional expression was played or sung. The
researchers concluded that the effect is influenced by the type of musical
instrument or whether one sings an emotional expression.
Bunt and Pavlicevic (2001) studied how therapists judged short improvisations
on emotional intentions such as happiness, sadness, tenderness, anger and fear.
Two groups of music therapists were included. The first group consisted of
music therapy trainees and the second group of music therapy researchers and
teachers. Members of each group were asked to improvise freely on one of the
described emotions, after which the improvisation was rated in terms of the
presence for each emotional state. The listening music therapists were able to
describe more or less accurately the intended emotions. Problematic is the
case, as it is in music psychological research that it is likely that no
singular emotion is solely present but when someone is playing anger, sadness
is also experienced in the music, which contributes to the variety in scores.
This is one of the major topics, which should further future research: what are
the interrelations between the variety of musical parameters related to the
variety present in musical responding.
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Coda
Far-reaching conclusions cannot be made about the relationship and the
direction of the relationship between music and emotion. There are still too
many methodological and theoretical problems to be able to clearly describe
this relation, both in music psychology and music therapy. Ruud (2001)
describes that one should think that the music therapist would be the first to
know why music is so effective in music therapy. How difficult it is to
describe this and to demonstrate this scientifically has been shown in this
paper. As there are so many aspects still unknown, possibly a strong partner
can assist in finding new answers: both for music psychology and for music
therapy.
In this article some findings of music psychology and music therapy research
studies were discussed which share the same topic: music and emotion. The paper
is certainly full of blanks, as this is a topic that deserves a book (series:),
but possibly it stimulates discussion to fill in the blanks.
Still, the fields of music psychology and music therapy are relatively young
and it is only since recent dates that the relation between emotion and music
is researched more thoroughly. Sloboda and Juslin (2001) state that after a
period of neglect, because of the listed methodological problems, the topic of
music and emotion is again at the forefront of music psychology. They
illustrate this with the sudden increase in music and emotion papers at various
conferences.
According to Sloboda (1985) it is important to integrate existing knowledge
from a variety of disciplines to be able to further theoretical development. He
also mentions aptly the tendency that researchers want to come up with a theory
of their own. Mostly this complicates integrating findings. Luckily, more and
more people build their ideas upon already existing knowledge. Ansdell (2001)
sums some of the recent trends in musicology which he sees as of importance for
music therapy such as the study of music as a process as well as a structure.
The latest European Music Therapy conference in Naples in 2001 included
musicology presentations that demonstrated the interrelations between
disciplines. Possibly, on the next music therapy conferences also music
psychologists will be present. It is important to focus on these
interrelations, as current research is so often divided in separate
specializations. Often a musicology approach is to focus on musical elements
and to ignore psychological characteristics and vice versa the therapist often
attaches less value to musicological aspects.
Currently, the impression on conferences and from the literature is that music
therapy and music psychology are two entirely different fields, which they of
course are. But in each relationship, it is their differences that attract and
which should be elaborated more, such as the question how music and emotions
are related. I hold that the two partners in this young relationship can
benefit a great deal from their `living apart together' relationship.
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