Musical nuances and emotional response

Prior Reading

1. The Holy Grail of Music
2. Swars and emotional response

Question

For musical phrases that differ in only nuances, is there a clear correlation in the resultant emotional response?

Answer

If we keep the notes of a musical phrase the same, we have the following degrees of freedom, or nuances

• Tempo 
• Volume 
• Timbre or Texture 
• Pitch 

First Insight

The same compositions rendered by different artists, or even the same artist at different points in time can be significantly different in the emotional response they elicit. Nuances clearly have a say in the matter. This is a case of "How you sing it" vs. "What you sing".

Second Insight

Different volume stresses on notes or words create different effects. Softer notes usually express sadness while volume-stressed notes usually express upbeat emotions.

Third Insight

Tempo seems to have a clear correlation to emotional response. Lower tempos, both overall and over subsets of a phrase express softer emotions like melancholy. Higher tempos, both overall and over subsets of a phrase, express upbeat emotions like cheerfulness, etc.

Fourth Insight

Pitch does not seem to make as big of a difference. A female voice vs. a male voice singing the same song in the same way may differ only in intensity of the emotion. A higher pitch voice usually has more energy due to the high frequency. The difference is very small though, in my opinion.

Fifth Insight

Timbre or the Texture of the sound can affect the brain differently. Different instruments, different vocal qualities can create different effects for the same piece of music. Correlating exact changes to emotional response is difficult though. Cues from spoken communication can guide initial thought.