Influence of Musical Context on the Perception of Emotional Expression of Music

2013

Factors determining and influencing the perception of emotional expression of music include those related to music itself, to the listener, and to the context. Among the latter there is also music, as we rarely listen to a single piece. A simple experimental study has been carried out into the effect of music listened to immediately beforehand on the perception of the emotional expression of a musical piece. The following variables were involved: type of emotional expression of music conceived in terms of a most basic sad-joyful dimension, initial and final mood of the listeners, their professional musical education vs. lack thereof, age, and gender. The subjects were students of three age …