Engaging the Audience: a Matter beyond Music?

Gustavo Abela Cruz

Despite knowing that music and emotions have a lot to do with each other, sometimes it is hard to articulate which relationship they have. Since the emotional impact seems to be one of the biggest appeals for an audience, do we, the musicians (specifically the performers), pay and draw enough attention to it? After reviewing the relevant literature about the processing of emotions, I came across the philosophical approaches of emotions in and through music by Peter Kivy, Jerrold Levinson, and Stephen Davies, proposals that could serve as inspirations for an audience and for performers. Then, I decided to carry out a series of experimental sessions to test the impact of these three approaches, as well as the performer's role, and components that could also affect a performance, such as set-ups, musical manipulations, or what I have called 'extramusical' items or elements. In addition to my research question “How can a performer affect or manipulate the emotional engagement of an audience?”, I sought to explore another inquiry. Is engaging more with the public nowadays strictly a musical matter?

1. INTRODUCTION.

Every musician who desires to perform needs an audience. Since music has lots of objective parameters (we refer to them usually as the technical ones), the most meaningful element goes beyond rationality: emotion. As a mainly rational human being, it has been hard for me sometimes to focus on this topic as a violinist. Even though I can admit that engaging the audience emotionally has not always been my biggest priority, I often simply could not find the tools to touch the listeners, but it sounds like this topic has become a significant focus for my growth as an artist over the past years. Apart from working on it as a violinist, I thought it would be helpful (and also fascinating) to focus my research on it as well. As I am already working on my playing trying to apply the most effective mechanisms in order to play more engaging music, in this research I will further explore the listener’s role.

Despite being pretty rational, I already accepted, of course, that emotions go beyond technique, in a way that could seem even illogical to a person like me. Both the playing and listening of music caused me truly moving moments through my life, in environments that I can describe as 'neutral'. In other words, it was not the context of the audition/performance that brought me to those emotions, but just the music.

"Music is the shorthand for emotion"

Leo Tolstoy

I already had some interest in scientific questions, which provided me with information about how emotions work in our minds and how our brain processes music. However, several years ago, while doing my Bachelor studies in Barcelona, I came across a specific point of view: the philosophical approach to emotions in music (a rather rational approach to it, I must admit). It was precisely this that unquestionably captivated me into the subject.

I could read and study an article by Peter Kivy, in which he tries to answer one of the deepest questions about music: what of music provokes emotions in us? In other words, why does music touch us? In his writing, Kivy offers a proposal and shows his rejections and agreements with the positions of two colleagues: Stephen Davies and Jerrold Levinson. There was actually an entertaining interaction between the three, and that made me think it could be interesting to take up all three approaches.

Nevertheless, my aim was not to sum up these ideas, but also to incorporate this study into more artistic research, from my vision as a performer. So, how about testing the listeners’ emotional approach to music taking these theories as a starting point? Then I can learn which paths are the best to empathize with the audience.

Here comes the second case I wanted to experiment with. Of course, if we talk about musical engagement, a lot of responsibility is owned by the performer (I have finally honestly assumed it), but I also think that each listener could take (more) part in it. I sense that, in a (sometimes stressful) full of stimuli world, participating in such a demanding (mental and emotionally talking) activity as music requires much predisposition to be concentrated and connected to it, at the same time music lacks this intense amount of different stimuli. Without going any further, in the current musical paradigm, interdisciplinary projects are much more present than before. That is why I believe that if we still want to keep a ‘pure’ musical activity, we have to increase the audience's engagement somehow. Just asking for a better concentration does not seem to be the best plan. The artist(s) can experiment with subtleness in order to achieve the objective. So, how can a performer manipulate or affect the emotional engagement of an audience?

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Introduction.

2. A quick review about emotions.

a) Definitions. What is an emotion?

b) Particularities about emotions.

c) Types of emotions.

d) Theories of emotions.

3. How does the brain process music?

b) And emotions?

4. Music and emotions philosophy.

a) Jerrold Levinson.

b) Stephen Davies.