Minor mode cuing: Do composers signal minor mode sooner than major mode?

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-122
Author(s):  
Olivia Ladinig ◽  
David Huron
Keyword(s):  
Minor Mode ◽  
Major Mode

Emotion-Related Responses to Audio News with Rising versus Falling Background Tone Sequences

2003 ◽  
Vol 7 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 85-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Kallinen ◽  
Niklas Ravaja
Keyword(s):  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Cardiac Activity ◽  
Tone Sequence ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
Valence And Arousal ◽  
Listening Task ◽  
Addition Level

We examined the emotional effects of (a) a rising versus a falling chromatic tone sequence in the background of audio news and (b) foreground versus background diatonic and chromatic tone sequences. In experiment one, 26 participants rated audio news messages with rising and falling chromatic background tone sequences on the valence and arousal dimensions. Cardiac activity, electrodermal activity (EDA), and facial muscle activity were also recorded continuously. In experiment two, 24 participants rated six plain tone sequences ( i.e., rising and falling chromatic, major, and minor) and six news messages with the aforementioned tone sequences mixed in the background on the valence and arousal dimensions. In experiment 1, both self-reported arousal and physiological arousal as measured by EDA were higher during the news with a rising-tone sequence compared to those with a falling-tone sequence. In experiment 2, rising-tone sequences prompted both higher arousal and pleasantness ratings. However, the responses were moderated by the type of listening task: foreground listening prompted responses related to musical connotations ( i.e., major tone sequences were rated as most pleasant and minor as most unpleasant), whereas background listening prompted responses dependent on the emotional congruence between the news messages and tone sequences ( i.e., the minor mode versions were rated as most pleasant and the major mode versions as most unpleasant). In addition, level of education-, music listening frequency-, and age-related differences in the responses were found and are discussed.

Effects of Background Music on Anxiety, Satisfaction with Communication, and Productivity

1993 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah J. Blood ◽  
Stephen J. Ferriss
Keyword(s):  
Background Music ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Subjective Measures ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
Sad Music

Previous research on music's influence has often been nonconclusive, partly because subjective measures have been used for testing opposite conditions such as sedative versus stimulative music or happy versus sad music. Here, background music's influence upon 104 conversants was explored by manipulating the presence of music, and when present, by the more objectively assessed structural elements of mode and speed. Conversations taking place in the presence of background music were rated as more satisfying. Major mode music elicited higher ratings of satisfaction with communication than minor mode. Modality and speed interacted, illustrating the importance of not confounding music's structural elements when testing opposite conditions in studies of the effects of music. While background music did not affect productivity relative to no music, those hearing background music achieved greater productivity when music was in the major mode.

scholarly journals Music-to-Color Associations of Single-Line Piano Melodies in Non-synesthetes

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 157-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen E. Palmer ◽  
Thomas A. Langlois ◽  
Karen B. Schloss
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Orchestral Music ◽  
Single Line ◽  
Pitch Height ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
Emotional Dimensions ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Highly Correlated

Prior research has shown that non-synesthetes’ color associations to classical orchestral music are strongly mediated by emotion. The present study examines similar cross-modal music-to-color associations for much better controlled musical stimuli: 64 single-line piano melodies that were generated from four basic melodies by Mozart, whose global musical parameters were manipulated in tempo (slow/fast), note-density (sparse/dense), mode (major/minor) and pitch-height (low/high). Participants first chose the three colors (from 37) that they judged to be most consistent with (and, later, the three that were most inconsistent with) the music they were hearing. They later rated each melody and each color for the strength of its association along four emotional dimensions:happy/sad,agitated/calm,angry/not-angryandstrong/weak. The cross-modal choices showed that faster music in the major mode was associated with lighter, more saturated, yellower (warmer) colors than slower music in the minor mode. These results replicate and extend those of Palmeret al.(2013,Proc. Natl Acad. Sci.110, 8836–8841) with more precisely controlled musical stimuli. Further results replicated strong evidence for emotional mediation of these cross-modal associations, in that the emotional ratings of the melodies were very highly correlated with the emotional associations of the colors chosen as going best/worst with the melodies ( forhappy/sad,strong/weak,angry/not-angryandagitated/calm, respectively). The results are discussed in terms of common emotional associations forming a cross-modal bridge between highly disparate sensory inputs.

scholarly journals Are Stopped Strings Preferred in Sad Music?

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 261 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Huron ◽  
Caitlyn Trevor
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Open String ◽  
String Instruments ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
Open Strings ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
Sad Music

String instruments may be played either with open strings (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a hard wooden nut) or with stopped strings (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a performer's finger pressed against the fingerboard). Compared with open strings, stopped strings permit the use of vibrato and exhibit a darker timbre. Inspired by research on the timbre of sad speech, we test whether there is a tendency to use stopped strings in nominally sad music. Specifically, we compare the proportion of potentially open-to-stopped strings in a sample of slow, minor-mode movements with matched major-mode movements. By way of illustration, a preliminary analysis of Samuel Barber's famous Adagio from his Opus 11 string quartet shows that the selected key (B-flat minor) provides the optimum key for minimizing open string tones. However, examination of a broader controlled sample of quartet movements by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven failed to exhibit the conjectured relationship. Instead, major-mode movements were found to avoid possible open strings more than slow minor-mode movements.

Wordless Sounds

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Winner
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
Emotions In Music

Philosophers have worried that music cannot be sad or happy. Only sentient creatures can have emotions. However, empirical studies show that people do perceive emotions in music, including music from unfamiliar traditions. The question then becomes how music conveys emotion. Research shows that structural features in music mirror how emotions are conveyed by prosodic features of speech. When we are sad we speak slowly, softly, and in a low register; and when music is slow and soft and low, we perceive it as sad. Other emotional properties (like the link between the minor mode and sadness, the major mode and happiness) may be learned, but this matter remains in dispute. The research provides no support for the claim that music does not express emotions. The conventional wisdom that music is the language of the emotions holds up very well.

Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Tonality?

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-260
Author(s):  
Balazs Mikusi
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Tonal Structure ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
A Chain ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Two Sides

Several of Mendelssohn's minor-mode songs, duets, and choral songs feature a peculiar tonal move: a sudden shift takes us to the relative major (without a "modulation" proper), but the opening minor key soon returns equally abruptly (via its V). Closer examination of these pieces suggests that the composer used the major-mode excursus as a topos, whose associations include the ideas of farewell, wandering, and distance (the latter both in the geographical and chronological sense, in accordance with the shift's quasi-modal--thus equally exotic and archaic--character). I suggest that this topos may have influenced the tonal structure of at least three large-scale Mendelssohn compositions, all of which are closely related to the same exotic and historical ideas. In the Hebrides Overture the relationship between the primary B minor and the secondary D major is (for a sonata-form movement) exceptionally equal: rather than acting as sharply contrasting tonal areas, they almost appear as two sides of the same key. The first-act finale of the unfinished opera, Die Lorelei, elaborates the original topos in another way: the E-minor-G-major kernel is extended in both directions, resulting in a chain of third-related keys, which eventually takes us back to the opening E level (now turned into major). In the light of this example, the (less complete) third-layered tonal structure of the "Scottish" Symphony may also be understood as growing out from the same miniature song topos.

The Use of Large Corpora to Train a New Type of Key-Finding Algorithm

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Albrecht ◽  
Daniel Shanahan
Keyword(s):  
Euclidean Distance ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Statistical Properties ◽  
The Other ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
New Type ◽  
Better Than

Computational models of key estimation have struggled to emulate the accuracy levels of human listeners, especially with pieces in the minor mode. The current study proposes a new key-finding algorithm, which utilizes Euclidean distance, rather than correlation, and is trained on the statistical properties of a large musical sample. A model was trained on a dataset of 490 pieces encoded into the Humdrum “kern” format, in which the key was known. This model was tested on a reserve dataset of 492 pieces, and was found to have a significantly higher overall accuracy than previous models. In addition, we determined separate accuracy ratings for major mode and minor mode works for the existing key-finding models and report that most existing models provide greater accuracy for major mode rather than minor mode works. The proposed key-finding algorithm performs more accurately on minor mode works than all of the other models tested, although it does not perform significantly better than the models created by Aarden (2003), Bellman (2005), or Sapp (2011). Finally, an algorithm that combines the Aarden-Essen model (2003) and the proposed algorithm is suggested, and results in significantly more accurate key assessments than all of the other extant models.

scholarly journals The Harmonic Minor Scale Provides an Optimum Way of Reducing Average Melodic Interval Size, Consistent with Sad Affect Cues

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Huron ◽  
Matthew Davis
Keyword(s):  
Speech Prosody ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
The Third ◽  
Interval Size ◽  
Small Pitch ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
Major Scale ◽  
Sad Music ◽  
Pitch Movement ◽  
Mode A

Small pitch movement is known to characterize sadness in speech prosody. Small melodic interval sizes have also been observed in nominally sad music––at least in the case of Western music. Starting with melodies in the major mode, a study is reported which examines the effect of different scale modifications on the average interval size. Compared with all other possible scale modifications, lowering the third and sixth scale tones from the major scale is shown to provide an optimum or near optimum way of reducing the average melodic interval size for a large diverse sample of major-mode melodies. The results are consistent with the view that Western melodic organization and the major-minor polarity are co-adapted, and that the structure of the minor mode contributes to the evoking, expressing or representation of sadness for listeners enculturated to the major scale.

Ratings of Suitability of Probe Tones as Tonics after Random Orderings of Notes of the Diatonic Scale

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. West ◽  
Roz Fryer
Keyword(s):  
Minor Mode ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
Time Order ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
Diatonic Scale

Playing an ascending or descending diatonic scale establishes a "tonal hierarchy" in which the major-mode tonic is judged by listeners as being in a tonal sense more stable than other notes (Krumhansl, 1983). This article describes a study in which listeners were asked to rate probe tones for suitability as tonics after presentation of a variety of "random" orderings of all seven notes of a given scale. The results indicate that even musically trained listeners do not differentiate the major-mode tonic as uniquely suitable as the tonal center. In fact the major-mode tonic, the mediant, the dominant, and the subdominant were considered equally suitable as tonics and together were given higher ratings than other notes from the scale, including what would be the tonic for the natural minor mode. Nonmusicians showed the same profile of responses as musicians. The results indicate that the time-order of notes is important to the perception of tonal hierarchy.

scholarly journals Mode Processing Influenced by Music Training and Language Experience–An ERP Study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuqing Zhao ◽  
Ben Godde
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Global Field Power ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Minor Mode ◽  
Major Mode ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
Acoustic Processing ◽  
Auditory Erps

Major and minor modes are closely linked to the emotional properties of music. Previous research on the late positive components (LPC) of auditory event-related potentials (ERP) suggests that the minor mode is perceived as a lower-pitched deviant from the major mode. In this study, we compared the behavioral and ERP results of 30 musicians and 29 non-musicians who are either tone- or intonation-language speakers on a mode processing task. Musicians and intonation-language speakers responded with higher accuracy on the mode classification task than their counterparts. Musicians showed an enhanced N1/P2 complex in auditory ERPs, indicating increased sensitivity to pitch. A global field power analysis revealed that intonation-language-speaking musicians had a robust and long-lasting LPC in response to critical notes in both modes, whereas musicians who spoke a tone-language had an attenuated LPC response. Non-musicians didn’t have a robust LPC for either mode. Our overall results contradict the theory that major-mode music is perceived as the default mode based on previous musical experience. ERP differences between tone- and intonation-language speakers during mode processing reflect transfer of training effects between musical and language experience, possibly resulting from auditory perceptual learning for common acoustic processing in the two domains. The current findings support a psychophysical instead of enculturational explanation for mode processing.

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