The effect of context and audio-visual modality on emotions elicited by a musical performance.

Eduardo Coutinho,Klaus R Scherer

doi:10.1177/0305735616670496

Eduardo Coutinho, Klaus R Scherer

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735616670496

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Abstract

In this work, we compared emotions induced by the same performance of Schubert Lieder during a live concert and in a laboratory viewing/listening setting to determine the extent to which laboratory research on affective reactions to music approximates real listening conditions in dedicated performances. We measured emotions experienced by volunteer members of an audience that attended a Lieder recital in a church (Context 1) and emotional reactions to an audio-video-recording of the same performance in a university lecture hall (Context 2). Three groups of participants were exposed to three presentation versions in Context 2: (1) an audio-visual recording, (2) an audio-only recording, and (3) a video-only recording. Participants achieved statistically higher levels of emotional convergence in the live performance than in the laboratory context, and the experience of particular emotions was determined by complex interactions between auditory and visual cues in the performance. This study demonstrates the contribution of the performance setting and the performers’ appearance and nonverbal expression to emotion induction by music, encouraging further systematic research into the factors involved.

Highlights

In this work, we compared emotions induced by the same performance of Schubert Lieder during a live concert and in a laboratory viewing/listening setting to determine the extent to which laboratory research on affective reactions to music approximates real listening conditions in dedicated performances
The authors elaborated on the implications of three main groups of factors related to the listening context to the process of emotion induction—performance, listener, and contextual factors—that may, directly or indirectly, have an influence on the emotions produced by music in a particular listener or group of listeners
We focused on measuring the emotions experienced by volunteer members of an audience that attended a live music performance of a Lieder recital in a church setting (Context 1)

Summary

Introduction

We compared emotions induced by the same performance of Schubert Lieder during a live concert and in a laboratory viewing/listening setting to determine the extent to which laboratory research on affective reactions to music approximates real listening conditions in dedicated performances. Stable dispositions include individual differences in age (e.g., motivational and selective neuropsychological decline; see, for instance, Vieillard, Didierjean, & Maquestiaux, 2012) and gender (e.g., Nater, Abbruzzese, Krebs, & Ehlert, 2006); in memory (including learned associations and conditioning; see Jäncke, 2008); and in inference dispositions based on personality (e.g., Rusting & Larsen, 1997), socio-cultural factors (e.g., Basabe et al, 2000; Egermann et al, 2011), prior experiences (e.g., Bigand & Poulin-Charronnat, 2006), among other things Transient listener states such as motivational state, concentration, or mood may affect emotional inference from music (cf Cantor & Zillmann, 1973). The specific nature of the listening situation, that is, whether it happens in the context of a particular event, such as a wedding, a funeral, or a celebration, may involve different goals and attitudes and even the adoption of specific behaviours and may interplay with our emotional engagement with the music

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