One way music is thought to convey emotion is by mimicking acoustic features of affective human vocalizations [Juslin and Laukka (2003). Psychol. Bull. 129(5), 770–814]. Regarding fear, it has been informally noted that music for scary scenes in films frequently exhibits a “scream-like” character. Here, this proposition is formally tested. This paper reports acoustic analyses for four categories of audio stimuli: screams, non-screaming vocalizations, scream-like music, and non-scream-like music. Valence and arousal ratings were also collected. Results support the hypothesis that a key feature of human screams (roughness) is imitated by scream-like music and could potentially signal danger through both music and the voice.

Two studies are reported testing the conjecture that certain musical sounds or musical works may emulate the punctuated sound (ha-ha-ha) of human laughter. In the first study, 25 participants were instructed to adjust the tempo and duty cycle (articulation) of simple tone sequences to produce the most laughter-like sound. The adjusted tempos were consistent across participants but slower than measures of actual human laughter. The adjusted duty cycles were comparable to those evident in human laughter. In the second study, comedic-related musical compositions (including humoresques, badineries, and Scherzos) were compared with similar-tempo works by the same composers. It is shown that humoresques contain more staccato passages. However, these detached articulations are not more likely to be isochronous as might be expected if emulating human laughter. Overall, the results provide mixed evidence consistent with the idea that composers emulate laughter when composing certain kinds of humorous passages.

A study was carried out to determine the effect of the amplitude of performer movement on judgments of performance quality. The movements of eight live solo performances were captured (two each for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello). For each original recording, three stick figure animations were created: one with augmented performance motion, one with the original motion, and one with diminished motion. The three animations were combined into single dynamic videos that allowed participants to continuously adjust the range of motion in the animation via a slider—from diminished through original to augmented motion. Participants were instructed to adjust the overall amount of performance motion to create the best musical performance. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants elected to significantly augment the motions of the performers.

String instruments may be played either with open strings (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a hard wooden nut) or with stopped strings (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a performer's finger pressed against the fingerboard). Compared with open strings, stopped strings permit the use of vibrato and exhibit a darker timbre. Inspired by research on the timbre of sad speech, we test whether there is a tendency to use stopped strings in nominally sad music. Specifically, we compare the proportion of potentially open-to-stopped strings in a sample of slow, minormode movements with matched major-mode movements. By way of illustration, a preliminary analysis of Samuel Barber's famous Adagio from his Opus 11 string quartet shows that the selected key (B-flat minor) provides the optimum key for minimizing open string tones. However, examination of a broader controlled sample of quartet movements by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven failed to exhibit the conjectured relationship. Instead, major-mode movements were found to avoid possible open strings more than slow minor-mode movements.

Fear is a frequently studied emotion category in music and emotion research. However, research in music theory suggests that music can convey finer-grained subtypes of fear, such as terror and anxiety. Previous research on musically expressed emotions has neglected to investigate subtypes of fearful emotions. This study seeks to fill this gap in the literature. To that end, 99 participants rated the emotional impression of short excerpts of horror film music predicted to convey terror and anxiety, respectively. Then, the excerpts that most effectively conveyed these target emotions were analyzed descriptively and acoustically to demonstrate the sonic differences between musically conveyed terror and anxiety. The results support the hypothesis that music conveys terror and anxiety with markedly different musical structures and acoustic features. Terrifying music has a brighter, rougher, harsher timbre, is musically denser, and may be faster and louder than anxious music. Anxious music has a greater degree of loudness variability. Both types of fearful music tend towards minor modalities and are rhythmically unpredictable. These findings further support the application of emotional granularity in music and emotion research.