In this experiment, participants (nonmusicians) heard pairs of melodies and had to judge which of the two melodies was happier. Each pair consisted of a single melody presented in two different diatonic modes (Lydian, Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, or Phrygian) with a constant tonic of C; all pairs of modes were used. The results suggest that modes imply increasing happiness as scale-degrees are raised, with the exception of Lydian, which is less happy than Ionian. Overall, the results are best explained by familiarity: Ionian (major mode), the most common mode in both classical and popular music, is the happiest, and happiness declines with increasing distance from Ionian. However, familiarity does not entirely explain our results. Familiarity predicts that Mixolydian would be happier than Lydian (since they are equally similar to Ionian, and Mixolydian is much more common in popular music); but for almost half of our participants, the reverse was true. This suggests that the “sharpness” of a mode also affects its perceived happiness, either due to pitch height or to the position of the scale relative to the tonic on the “line of fifths”; we favor the latter explanation.
The study reported here addressed two questions concerning the applicability to other collectivist cultures of a model developed on the basis of socially defined self-construals and their consequences for subjective wellbeing (Kwan, Bond, & Singelis, 1997). In contrast to the social centrality of the Singaporean Chinese, Islam enjoys centrality in the Malay community. Is subjective well-being in these two cultures attributable to independent or interdependent self-construal? Do parallel paths to subjective wellbeing originate from these two forms of self-construal? Are the respective mediators, self-esteem and relationship harmony, functioning in the same way in these different communities? Two hundred and eighty-six participants (121 Malays, including 49 females and 72 males, and 165 Chinese, including 62 males and 103 females, average age, 18.52) were drawn from three tertiary technical training institutes in Singapore. Independent and interdependent self-construal, Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale (SE), the Relationship Harmony Scale (RH) (Kwan, et al. 1997) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SL) (Diener, Emmons. Larsen, & Griffins, 1985) were administered to test the model. For the Chinese, the best-fit model required a path between the two forms of self-construal, confirming their overlapping nature. For the Malays, a radically different model fits the data: relationship harmony no longer functions as a mediator but as an independent contributor in its own right. These results raise questions about the meaning and consequences of socially defined self-construal in different collectivist cultures, and the path between the self and subjective wellbeing.
In a prior study (Temperley & Tan, 2013), participants rated the “happiness” of melodies in different diatonic modes. A strong pattern was found, with happiness decreasing as scale steps were lowered. We wondered: Does this pattern reflect the familiarity of diatonic modes? The current study examines familiarity directly. In the experiments reported here, college students without formal music training heard a series of melodies, each with a three-measure beginning (“context”) in a diatonic mode and a one-measure ending that was either in the context mode or in a mode that differed from the context by one scale degree. Melodies were constructed using four pairs of modes with the same tonic: Lydian/Ionian, Ionian/Mixolydian, Dorian/Aeolian, and Aeolian/Phrygian. Participants rated how well the ending “fit” the context. Two questions were of interest: (1) Do listeners give higher ratings to some modes (as endings) overall? (2) Do listeners give a higher rating to the ending if its mode matches that of the context? The results show a strong main effect of ending, with Ionian (major) and Aeolian (natural minor) as the most familiar (highly rated) modes. This aligns well with corpus data representing the frequency of different modes in popular music. There was also a significant interaction between ending and context, whereby listeners rated an ending higher if its mode matched the context. Our findings suggest that (1) our earlier “happiness” results cannot be attributed to familiarity alone, and (2) listeners without formal knowledge of diatonic modes are able to internalize diatonic modal frameworks.
Previous research suggests that musicians modulate a predictable set of acoustic cues to convey distinct emotions. The current study focuses on singers, testing the validity of cues previously reported for a wide range of instruments. The study also asks: What effect might a musician’s mindfulness have on their expressive performance? Two groups of highly skilled vocalists recorded performances of a novel melody with four distinct emotions. Prior to the performance task, an experimental group took part in a guided mindfulness induction, while a control group engaged in a self-selected relaxation activity; state mindfulness was assessed immediately after. Recordings were analyzed for tempo, temporal variation, intensity, mean centroid, vibrato rate, vibrato extent, and attack slope; individual notes with particular scale-degree functions were also compared. Results show that the two groups of participants had similar cue usage, although those in the experimental condition had higher mindfulness scores and attributed improvements in focus and awareness to the induction task. Participants as a whole used cues in the predicted directions, and significant differences were found on all acoustical measures, except vibrato rate, as a function of expressed emotion. Results also indicate that participants modified intonation to distinguish between positive and negative emotions.
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