Correspondence Between Vocal and Musical Emotion

Often music is consisted not only by sounds made from musical instruments, but also by voice and verbal messages. The structure of the voice, or as Roland Barthes describes it ‘the grain of voice’ is the element in a certain piece of music which is responsible for creating the emotions when listening. The grain and the lyrics make the signified and carry out the message. The vocal part of music is formed of words, text, which communicate and make the representation and expression of what it is sung - talked about. According to Barthes the emotive modes of the voice and the changes of the tones from low to high is what delivers the final message and makes us feel the music. (Barthes, R. 1977 [1972]).

Utilizing the groundwork proposed by this essay, we can expand to research other texts in which music seems to function as a form of communication. In doing so, we can study the similarities and differences between the mechanism as a way to arrive at a larger claim about the role of nonverbal communication amongst humans. With this new claim, we can begin to understand to recognize other forms of communication that may not appear as readily accessible and challenging, in order to ensure that we do not neglect the music of emotion another person may be performing in their own

Without the human intention, perception, and interpretation of sound, then the existence of music would be imaginary. Music includes talking words in a way that the person creates a sound that is made with the intention of being music (Deutsch, Diana 10-13, Justus & Timothy., 33-40). Besides, people can perceive silence and sound and put them together so as to call the outcome music. In Bakan’s fourth proposition, he identifies the approach as the Human Intention and Perception (HIP) approach (Resnicow, Joel E., 10-22). In other words, the proposition tries to suggest that music is inseparable from the makers; or more specifically the people who perceive and experience it. Bakan gives numerous examples to show that music is a product of human intention and perception. This paper conducts research and gives appropriate examples to show that music is only identified as music if the person is making it has the intention for their words to be music.

Music and language share a commonality; the same way phrases are structured in music, can be seen when thoughts are structured in sentences of different languages. Music plays a role in memory, auditory attention, and different structures of language, such as the syntax and phonemes, which can improve on reading and writing skills. Bidelman et al. has shown that when it comes to music and language, speech pitch processing can differ between musicians and non-musicians, where there are evidence that music can show sensitivity to the pitch sound toward musicians. It can also depend on musicians who speak foreign languages, which will focus on the influence of domain-specific experience on the encoding of pitch. It can also depend on musical expertise. Rochette et al. has used musical lessons on deaf children to test if musical education plays a factor on them, since other studies have shown that music being able to use auditory perception, auditory cognition, and phonetic discrimination. The results showed that those who were trained acquired the skills more than those who weren’t and is an excellent strategy for increasing linguistic processing. On the emotional side, Ma and Thompson wanted to show that acoustic environments, such as sounds from human actions, animal calls, etc. can change human emotions. The hypothesis of music and speech being closely related brought the idea of the “musical protolanguage hypothesis,” that songlike communication was used in courtship and

Attempts to define “emotion” have proved to be rather difficult. Instead of searching for a comprehensive definition, Gross (2011) describes the three core features of emotions. First, emotions occur when an individual decides that a situation is relevant to his or her goals. Second, emotions are multi-faceted, and involve both subjective and physiological experiences, as well as behaviors. The third feature involves the authoritative nature of emotions. They have the powerful ability to interrupt ongoing processes, assert their priority over other activities, and force their way into awareness. For example, some traditions describe emotions as “disorganized interruptions of mental activity” (Salovey & Mayer, 1989). Emotions are such an

Christakis and Fowler suggest that emotions most likely began in early human evolutionary stages to promote the bonding of mother and child; later expanding to other family members, then non family members. The ability to read moods and pass them onto each other could have aided early humans in their everyday activities, due to the lack of fully developed verbal communication. It is also stated, emotions travel faster than words. It is faster to read an individual’s face to understand their emotions than it is to wait for the verbal communication that comes along with it; which leads into what the authors call Emotional

Some argue that music is special due to its status as a universal language. Their argument is indeed rather convincing: there is not a single known culture that does not have some form of music as part of its cultural identity. As a vocalist, who is capable of juxtaposing music with text, this communication-based argument holds even more significance. Perhaps the rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic aspects of music add extra dimensions to the realm of oral communication that either work in harmony (pun intended) with the text or even as a standalone component that may or may not imply an underlying textual message. However, I find this literary and cultural interpretation of the meaning of music and its importance to be, at the very least, incomplete. If I appreciate music due to its communicative powers, then why do I prefer singing over simply talking? Singing is harder than simply reciting a passage. Why would I be happy to take the burden of adding additional dimensions to my oral communication? What is so innately special about the added dimensions

In this paper I will be exploring the communication that is experienced when listening to instrumental music. This will cover the intrapersonal and intercultural connection that the music communicates. The paper will discuss both of these points by focusing on 4 different cultures and show the differences in the music styles by showing what emotions the music is communicating by way of instrument, voice, tone and tempo. While many cultures use all forms of music to communicate their beliefs and emotion I could only pick a few to explore. These 4 cultures were chosen for the reasons of being a few of the earliest cultures to express themselves emotionally primarily through instrumental music. In my reading of the Emotional Effect of

The enriching experience of listening to live music has been a pleasurable pastime for many individuals since the creation of music itself. The ability for musicians to provoke profound emotions in others is a form of social communication that is unmatched by any other type of human connection which allowed music to retain its popularity throughout history. Without an artistic mode of expression for humans to communicate what can’t be directly spoken, life becomes dull and devoid of emotion where the only clear method left of expression is through verbal and linguistic communication. Music, in general, acts as a unifying intermediate where both the historical tales of the era coincide with the rhythmic stylings of the composers to evoke compelling

Fayard, J. V., Roberts, B. W., Robins, R. W., & Watson, D. (2012). Uncovering the Affective

If music reveals emotions, it is not a normal emotion like any other (Stecker 273). The expression in music can be considered a traditionalized phenomenon (Stecker 273). There are common questions about

There is a long history of the study of emotions. Since the time of William James , psychology generally agreed upon the theoretical and empirical idea of emotion. Generally speaking, it has been accepted on the common sense idea that people have emotional experiences deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationship with others. An emotion can be described as any strong commotion of the feelings sensed by experiencing pleasure, grief, hope, fear, etc. They are central to human life, as they allow us to exist. Nonetheless, emotional responses are both physiological and psychological; however, to convey a connection between distrust and stereotyping, I will focus on the particular emotion of

Analyzing research methods used for uncovering basic emotions applied to the Cannon-Bard emotion theory and Drive reduction arousal theory. The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion is a stimulating event takes place, emotional, and physiological changes occur (Changing Minds, 2010). A person may feel muscular tension as well as sweating to the situation. A research method associated with the Cannon-Bard emotion theory would be the evolution theory. This method is an idea where emotion aids species survival (Decker, 2010). An example: A person is hiking through the woods approaches a snake. The appearance of the snake evokes fear, which in return causes the emotional experience. Fear produces behavior and emotion to run, muscular tension, or possibly cry. The emotion evoked by the predator or event causes the survival. The Drive reduction arousal theory is an approach to motivation that assumes behavior arises. Arousal is the source of emotions. Second, arousal is the impetus for attending to

Thesis: Music is a unique form of sound powerful enough to manipulate mood, feelings, and cognition.

Chapter 3 explores the concept of universally shared basic emotions, an idea that was first advanced as a theory by Charles Darwin. Paul Ekman and Jakk Panksepp studied the concept of