From everyday emotions to aesthetic emotions: Towards a unified theory of musical emotions

Abstract

The sound of music may arouse profound emotions in listeners. But such experiences seem to involve a 'paradox', namely that music--an abstract form of art, which appears removed from our concerns in everyday life--can arouse emotions - biologically evolved reactions related to human survival. How are these (seemingly) non-commensurable phenomena linked together? Key is to understand the processes through which sounds are imbued with meaning. It can be argued that the survival of our ancient ancestors depended on their ability to detect patterns in sounds, derive meaning from them, and adjust their behavior accordingly. Such an ecological perspective on sound and emotion forms the basis of a recent multi-level framework that aims to explain emotional responses to music in terms of a large set of psychological mechanisms. The goal of this review is to offer an updated and expanded version of the framework that can explain both 'everyday emotions' and 'aesthetic emotions'. The revised framework--referred to as BRECVEMA--includes eight mechanisms: Brain Stem Reflex, Rhythmic Entrainment, Evaluative Conditioning, Contagion, Visual Imagery, Episodic Memory, Musical Expectancy, and Aesthetic Judgment. In this review, it is argued that all of the above mechanisms may be directed at information that occurs in a 'musical event' (i.e., a specific constellation of music, listener, and context). Of particular significance is the addition of a mechanism corresponding to aesthetic judgments of the music, to better account for typical 'appreciation emotions' such as admiration and awe. Relationships between aesthetic judgments and other mechanisms are reviewed based on the revised framework. It is suggested that the framework may contribute to a long-needed reconciliation between previous approaches that have conceptualized music listeners' responses in terms of either 'everyday emotions' or 'aesthetic emotions'.

From Sound to Significance: Exploring the Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Reactions to Music

“…These states, which may be conceptualized as both 'everyday emotions' (e.g., sadness) and 'aesthetic emotions' (e.g., awe) (Juslin, 2013), represent the findings that a theory of music and emotion must be able to explain.…”

“…Sloboda and Juslin (2001) and Scherer and Zentner (2001) discussed some of the above mechanisms, but did not attempt to formulate an integrated framework featuring a set of hypotheses that could guide researchers in the field. The most comprehensive attempt to describe a set of mechanisms was begun in the mid 2000s and resulted in the BRECVEMA framework (Juslin, 2004(Juslin, , 2005(Juslin, , 2013Juslin, Liljeström, Västfjäll, & Lundqvist, 2010). 3 The BRECVEMA framework takes as point of departure an evolutionary perspective.…”

“…Proceeding from this assumption, it is theorized that there are several emotion mechanisms implemented by a number of more or less distinct 'brain networks' which developed gradually and in a particular order during evolution -from simple reflexes to complex judgments. Each mechanism is responsive in its own unique way to specific configurations of information in the music, the listener, and the situation, referred to jointly as 'the musical event' (Juslin, 2013). Eight mechanisms are currently featured in the framework:…”

“…Indeed, the intense emotions that music arouses helps to explain why people spend more money on music than on prescription drugs (Huron, 2001). Accordingly, an account of the attraction music holds for most people must at least in part be an account of emotions.Emotions belong the broad field of 'affect', which also includes moods, preferences and personality traits (see Keltner, Oatley, & Jenkins, 2006, Chapter 1 Sloboda, 1992;Wells & Hakanen, 1991;Zentner, Grandjean, & Scherer, 2008).These states, which may be conceptualized as both 'everyday emotions' (e.g., sadness) and 'aesthetic emotions' (e.g., awe) (Juslin, 2013), represent the findings that a theory of music and emotion must be able to explain.Still, it needs to be acknowledged that we often hear music, without actually feeling any emotion at all -at least not one aroused by the music. According to some estimates, the music arouses emotions in only about 55 -65% of the episodes, and there seem to be large individual differences in overall prevalence (Juslin & Laukka, 2004;.…”

Commentary on "Aesthetic Experience Explained by the Affect-Space Framework" by E. Schubert, A. C. North, & D. J. Hargreaves

“…If this is somehow true for the recent proposal by Juslin (Juslin, 2013) (as the authors indeed notify in the "Implications" section of the paper), according to which aesthetic judgment is one of the mechanisms of inducing emotions by music listening, it is not the case for many other proposals in music or visual domains (Brattico, Bogert, et al, 2013;Jacobsen, 2014;Leder, Belke, Oeberst, & Augustin, 2004;Reybrouck & Brattico, 2015).…”