Thoughts in concert : A multi-method approach to investigate the effect of performers’ focus of attention

Does it matter what a performer feels or thinks about while performing? To investigate the effect of performers’ focus of attention on their performances we asked eight violinists to play the same musical phrase in response to three different instructions. The first instruction was to focus on the technical aspects of playing. The second instruction was to give an expressive performance. Following a sadness-inducing mood induction task, the third instruction was to play while focusing on felt emotions. High quality audio and three-dimensional motion-capture recordings were made of all performances. Subsequently, thirty individuals rated how much they liked each performance, how skilled they…

Performers’ experienced emotions in the construction of expressive musical performance: An exploratory investigation

Does a performer feel sad when s/he performs a sad piece of music, or does s/he perform sadness? Not much is known about the relationship between felt and performed emotions in performing musicians. Some studies emphasize the importance of feeling the emotions; others underline the idea of planned expressiveness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between a performer’s experienced emotions and the construction of a musically expressive performance. Eight music students (mean age: 20.9, SD: 1.13) completed an introductory, semi-structured interview; a monitoring period during which they filled out an Individual Playing Diary; and an in-depth, semi-structured inter…

Moved through music: The effect of experienced emotions on performers’ movement characteristics

Do performers who feel sad move differently compared to those who express sadness? Although performers’ expressive movements have been widely studied, little is known about how performers’ experienced emotions affect such movements. To investigate this, we made 72 motion-capture recordings of eight violinists playing a melodic phrase in response to three different instructions. The first instruction was to focus on the technical aspects of playing. The second instruction was to give an expressive performance. Before the third instruction, performers were subjected to a mood induction task. Following this, performers played while focusing on their experienced emotions. After each playing co…

Perception of emotional content in musical performances by 3–7-year- old children

The emotional content expressed through musical performance has become a widely-discussed topic in music psychology during the past two decades. However, empirical evidence regarding children’s abilities in interpreting the emotional content of a musical performance is sparse. We investigated 3–7-year-old children’s abilities to interpret the emotional content expressed through performance features in music. Short musical pieces previously rated as inexpressive of emotion were recorded by three musicians with five emotional expressions (happy, sad, fearful, angry and neutral) and played to 3–7-year-old children ( N = 94), adult non-musicians ( N = 83), and adult musicians ( N = 118) who ma…

Performers' emotions in expressive performance : sound, movement, and perception

The Sound of Emotion

What is the effect of performers’ experienced emotions on the auditory characteristics of their performances? By asking performers to play a music phrase in response to three different instructions we attempted to answer this question. Performers were instructed to do the following: 1) play while focusing on the technical aspects of their playing; 2) give an expressive performance; and 3) focus on their experienced emotions, prior to which they were subjected to a sadness-inducing mood induction task. Performers were interviewed after each playing condition. We analyzed the tempo, articulation, dynamics, timbre, and vibrato of the performances obtained as well as the interview data. A focus…

The Sound of Sadness : The Effect of Performers' Emotions on Audience Ratings

Very few studies have investigated the effect of performers’ felt emotions on the audience perception of their performances. Does it matter what a performer feels or thinks about when performing? To investigate this, we asked four violinists to play the same musical phrase in response to three different instructions. The first in-struction was to focus on the technical aspects of their playing. The second instruction was to give an expres-sive performance. Following a sadness-inducing mood induction task, the third instruction was to play while focusing on their felt emotions. High quality audio and motion-capture recordings were made of all perfor-mances. Subsequently, motion-capture anima…

Emotions in Concert : Performers' Experienced Emotions on Stage

Music is often said to be expressive of emotions. Surprisingly, not much is known about the role of performers’ emotions while performing. Do musicians feel the musical emotions when expressing them? Or has expressive playing nothing to do with the emotional experiences of the performer? To investigate performers’ perspectives on the role of emotions in performance, we conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with nineteen musicians teaching or studying at a European conservatoire. In the interviews, musicians were first asked to de-scribe a recent performance experience in as much detail as possible, then to make a visual representation of their experiences on stage, and finally, to answe…