Music, Meaning and Emotion

Hannah Jefferies

Name: Hannah Jefferies Main Subject: Classical Flute Research Supervisors: Ines de Avena Braga, Research Question: How can elements and features from psychology and philosophy illustrate what is fundamental to our emotions, in what way can these concepts be represented within and expressed by the flute repertoire, and how can we incorporate and convey these understandings as performers to create music meaningfully and be of beneficence to others? Summary of Results: This research sets out to contrast and evaluate diverse standpoints from psychology and philosophy to discuss firstly how emotions can be defined, whether music creates real emotions in us, and what capacities we possess to be both receptive and conveying of emotion within music. During my discussion, I incorporate examples of excerpts from the flute repertoire, consider the harmonic language used and function of musical structures, and balance this against the resulting emotional response from us. This initial discussion is in support of a questionnaire which I conducted in order to gather results from respondents of their perceived emotional response and valence when presented with differing musical excerpts, both upon an initial and second listening. I aimed to gauge and qualify their reaction to musical traits which have been connected more strongly than others to specific emotional states, and additionally I was interested to find if there was a connection between memory of a piece of music, and emotional valence due to this familiarity. Finally, having demonstrated the emotive strength it is possible for music to hold, I investigate how as artists we can harness and emphasise certain functions of music to create performances which are highly engaging and positively affecting for listeners. Additionally, this research then leads us to an understanding of the impact of integrating the effects of emotion and music, and suggests how this combination can be beneficial and utilised in and for the wider society, namely in the field of music therapy. Biography: I am currently a second year masters student from the UK studying classical flute at the Koninklijk Conservatorium with Jeroen Bron and Dorine Schade, having recently completed my Bachelors degree at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. During my studies I have been very lucky to have had the opportunity to perform as part of ensembles including Asko|Schönberg, New European Ensemble, European Youth Wind Orchestra, and Amadeus Orchestra Academy. Outside of performance, I greatly enjoy being part of outreach and community music; a highlight was working with the Manchester Camerata Orchestra, delivering music therapy to people with Dementia.

Chapter Seven

Memory and Emotion

Both our memory, and our sometimes limited capacity for remembering, can have a strong effect on how we feel and behave, how we perceive time to have passed and how we group events together into stories which we can make sense of. In music, as we have seen from musical expectancy, memory allows us to feel an innate or academic prediction about what will sound next, as we can base this on our memory of previous similar experiences. Similarly to real- life situations, memory can help us tie musical events together to be able to understand the narrative. Therefore, where we are concerned with music being a communicative medium, memory can be accounted for as a very important factor(105).

The “associative network theory” suggests that events which occur to us in life, and thoughts and cognitions which we have become connected to affect states which function as central “nodes”. In instigating and instilling a mood state or emotion, through this, this grants us access to other memories, and past thoughts and thought processes we experienced whilst in this state before. Through this network, affect and emotion becomes the medium by which we can structure and channel cognitions, memory and further learning(106). Further, emotional and affect states can be demonstrated to alter memory functions concurrently with encoding(107), and retrieval(108). Affective states involved in the stimulating and triggering of brain stem systems, can excite, regulate and influence cortical pathways during processing of information, and subsequently have an impact on our personal understandings and consciousness. “Emotion influences the way we see and interpret the world”(109).

All sounds reveal themselves over time, but musical sounds in particular can take an exceptionally long time to evolve, sometimes hours, and therefore our brains need to be adept to handle this and have functions and mechanisms in place which can make sense of this vast array of information. Our working memory; which is the part of our short term memory which concerns itself with processing language and other perceptions, is responsible for ordering, processing and compressing all of the information which it chooses to retain. It processes the music from being an input by which all aspects of it such as melody or rhythm are combined, and converts this into single “units” of melody and rhythm etc through a “series to parallel” process. Interesting to note, is that the same parts and mechanisms for working memory are shared by both language and musical inputs(110).

Studies have suggested that musicians have a more enhanced working memory for language, and this sharing of some resources for processing may point as to a reason why(111,112). Additionally, Sluming found that in a comparison of musicians and non- musicians, musicians generally had an increased amount of grey matter in an area of their frontal cortex which has been associated with such processes of working memory(113). Therefore, it could be suggested that due to the sharing of some processing mechanisms, musical and verbal memory can both seek to strengthen the other; learning music develops the learning of verbal tasks such as: listening to and recalling spoken information, understanding the meaning behind linguistic information, and the ability to verbally analyse.

Following, Koelsch conducted a study in which particular words were either spoken alongside pieces of music which had certain distinctive features, or were preceded by a sentence. It was found that the features within the music improved the speed and accuracy of recollection of words, (which were associated with the feeling the music gave) to a much greater extent than those words which followed other words(114).

In comparison with semantic memory, the information stored in musical memory is more abstract, and this is also reflected in studies of brain lesions associated with musical memory. These studies have shown that perceptual memory systems utilised by musical memory are found in the auditory cortex, and in inferior frontal and inferior temporal regions which are vital in recognition of melodies. It is this which allows for recognition of a musical piece even when there are changes in instruments playing, dynamics, speed or pitch and key(115). Additionally, The limbic system has been shown to be stimulated by music, as this area of the brain is connected with the processing of emotions and having control over memory, and therefore, strong emotions have been closely connected to hearing music due to them sharing this processing centre(116).

A recent study conducted by Janata analysed emotions and memories which are elicited due to hearing music which the individual remembered from their past. Excerpts from pop songs were played to each participant, and from questionnaires which were completed during the experiment, it was found that 30% of these songs instigated autobiographical memories due to episodic memory, and additionally these memories triggered mostly positive emotions associated with the time in the person’s life which the song was associated with(117).

The results from this study are in line with other studies in the field which express that we are better able to remember events which are positively valenced(118); if we like and find an experience enjoyable, then this and other information associated with this event will be stored more securely within our long- term memory, due to the associations of different stimuli, in combination with the emotions enhancing the memory.

If music has a strong influence on our emotions and cognitions due to overlapping functions in the brain, and also due memories are strengthened during encoding by positive valence and also multiple sets of stimuli, this suggests that music which has autobiographical associations for an individual could improve cognitive functioning after medical events such as a stroke. Särkämö conducted this study, and findings showed that semantic memory and ability for attention were significantly enhanced in patients who had been exposed to musical listening of their favourite music everyday, than the control group. Additionally, these same patients had increased mood and had stronger abilities for concentration. Studies such as this provide us with the evidence that music supports our cognitive abilities through our emotions, and this can even be physically healing to us in the event of illness(119). The health benefits of music is a topic which I will return to later, as there is much to be discussed in this area.

Additionally, music which we associate with specific events or times in our lives becomes very closely tied with our autobiographical memory, and therefore our view of ourselves and personal identity(120). This could also be linked to studies which note that music listening encourages blood flow to the brain, in particular areas of the brain which have been linked to emotion regulation(121). Therefore, even passive listening to regularly has enormous benefits for us emotionally, physically, and psychologically.

As discussed earlier, one of music’s unique qualities is its’ ability to instil within us a vast range of strong and extremely differing emotions in quick succession. This is possible for us to experience due to the functions within the music that are encoded emotionally, and the way in which the music carries us through the transitions from passage to passage, and emotion to emotion(122). It is possible that over time throughout a musical work that emotions become compounded, for instance where a melodic line is introduced initially within a piece we will experience a primary emotional response to this based on our initial judgement from elements encoded in the music. Over time, and particularly if the work is long, composers often reintroduce thematic material in different ways through augmentation, reduction, inversion or retrograde for example. Each time the melody is reintroduced there will be different associations made towards it as we become more aware of the emotional storyline. A once happy melody for example can become bittersweet over time as we hear it returning in different contexts, and we associate a sense of loss or longing from it.

105- Willimek, Willimek, 2013

106- Thaut, de L’Etoile, 1993

107- Ruiz- Caballero, Gonzalez, 1994

108- Burke, Matthews, 1992

109- Derryberry, Rothbart, 1994

110- Schendel, Palmer, 2007

111- Chan, Cheung, 1998

112- Chan, Cheung, 2003

113- Sluming, 2007

114- Koelsch, 2004

115- Kohlmetz, 2003

116- Blood, 2001

117- Janata, 2007

118- Buchanan, 2007

119- Särkämö, 2008

120- Eschrich, 2008

121- Blood, 2001

122- Zbikiwski, 2010

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