Musical Tension over Time: Listeners’ Physiological Responses to the ‘Retransition’ in Classical Sonata Form

Abstract

The tension–resolution patterns in music play a critical role in evoking listeners’ emotional experiences. We focus on an important tradition of using such patterns for theme recurrence: the retransition in Classical sonata form. A major function of the retransition is to prepare the theme recurrence in the home key. The present study attempts to examine the effects of musical tension at the retransition by combining music analysis with listeners’ physiological-emotional responses. During the first part of the retransition, loud chords with diminished intervals played in a minor mode elevated both the musical tension and listeners’ respiration depth. This tension was released before the beginning of the second part of the retransition, and thereby listeners’ respiration depth decreased. Moreover, listeners’ heightened expectations immediately before the theme recurrence was reflected by the increased heart rate and SCR amplitude. We also observed that listeners’ finger temperature seemed to reflect the changing level of relaxation in the retransition and the rewarding effect of the main theme. Findings are discussed in terms of acoustic communication in humans, ecological acoustics, and musical anticipation. We suggest that physiological measures provide a valuable tool for exploring the temporal dynamics of listeners’ emotional-aesthetic experiences.