Aesthetic Experience in Music: Correlations in Listener Interpretations
Abstract:
Most people experience music in some form throughout their lives, to varying degrees of understanding. Music is vital as a form of culture, expression and aesthetic experience in the composer, performer, and listener. An understanding of the ability for listeners to derive deeper images, stories, and emotions from non-lyrical music is paramount to revealing the true influential nature of music. Modernist composers may utilize unique compositional techniques in order to add color to their music, in some cases making it complex and more obscure to the casual listener. Listeners must be able to connect the music with their own emotional experiences in order to derive aesthetic value from the experience. All of these components make up the way a piece of music is interpreted and incorporated into society. The inspired composer should be able to provoke unique aesthetic emotions within their audiences, regardless of if the audience’s interpretation is similar to the composer’s. This paper studies the correlations and connections between complex compositional techniques within orchestral music and listeners’ perceived aesthetic emotions through analysis of listener responses to several selected symphonic pieces. Participants in the study were given seven piano concertos by 20th-century composers and asked to verbally recall what emotions, images, and narratives that the music evoked in their minds. The data showed clear correlations: interpretive ability was supported by prior musical training, while it was inhibited by contemporary musical complexity. Other parallels could be found through analysis of the specific transcriptions.
Most people experience music in some form throughout their lives, to varying degrees of understanding. Music is vital as a form of culture, expression and aesthetic experience in the composer, performer, and listener. An understanding of the ability for listeners to derive deeper images, stories, and emotions from non-lyrical music is paramount to revealing the true influential nature of music. Modernist composers may utilize unique compositional techniques in order to add color to their music, in some cases making it complex and more obscure to the casual listener. Listeners must be able to connect the music with their own emotional experiences in order to derive aesthetic value from the experience. All of these components make up the way a piece of music is interpreted and incorporated into society. The inspired composer should be able to provoke unique aesthetic emotions within their audiences, regardless of if the audience’s interpretation is similar to the composer’s. This paper studies the correlations and connections between complex compositional techniques within orchestral music and listeners’ perceived aesthetic emotions through analysis of listener responses to several selected symphonic pieces. Participants in the study were given seven piano concertos by 20th-century composers and asked to verbally recall what emotions, images, and narratives that the music evoked in their minds. The data showed clear correlations: interpretive ability was supported by prior musical training, while it was inhibited by contemporary musical complexity. Other parallels could be found through analysis of the specific transcriptions.
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