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Subjectivity, Emotion, and Meaning

in Music Perception

Annekatrin KesslerDepartment of Musicology, University of Graz, Austria (8-point)

[email protected] http://www.uni-graz.at/muwi/kessler.html

Klaus PuhlDepartment of Philosophy, University of Innsbruck, Austria

[email protected]://www.uibk.ac.at/c/c6/c602/puhl.html

In: R. Parncutt, A. Kessler & F. Zimmer (Eds.)Proceedings of the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology (CIM04)

Graz/Austria, 15-18 April, 2004 http://gewi.uni-graz.at/~cim04/

Background in music psychology.Emotion and meaning in music can in general be studied in two different ways.On the one hand, empirical aesthetics (e.g. Berlyne 1971) tries to explain responses to music such as pleasure,preference, or physiological responses (e.g. arousal) by analysing informational properties of the music (complexity,

structure, tempo, mode etc.). On the other hand, researchers investigate the function of music and its emotionalqualities in everyday life (e.g. Sloboda 2001). Both quantitative and qualitative methods in music psychology try togenerate meaning and emotion in music at the expense of actual, individual experience. Some approaches (e.g.Imberty 1979, 1981), however, try to link musical structures, musical expressivity and psychoanalytical concepts.

Background in music philosophy. Phenomenology and postmodern philosophy criticise traditional psychologysconstruction of a subject as a closed entity. This concept was deconstructed by e.g. Nietzsche, Heidegger and Derrida,who argued that the separation of any phenomenon from the observer as rational/conscious entity (Kant, Descartes) isa metaphysic construction. Ecos concept of openness of art and a postmodern concept of subjectivity give rise to anew way of describing music perception in which semiosis (motion of meaning) plays a major role (cf. Monelle 1992).

Aims. Criticising psychological methods from a philosophical/postmodern point of view, we aim to explore theimplications of a description of meaning and emotion in music as subjective/contingent qualities. Ecos concept ofopenness of art (in particular the differences between his 1stand 2nd categories) will be investigated empirically bycombining psychoanalytic, semiotic and traditional music-psychological methods.

Method. 6 postgraduate students of musicology were asked to listen to and later discuss the Confutatis of theRequiem by W. A. Mozart (Eco's 1st category of openness; questionnaire 1 and interview 1) and Six by John Cage(Eco's 2ndcategory of openness; questionnaire 2 and interview 2). Questionnaires 1 and 2 investigated similarities anddifferences between participants concerning the perception of meaning and emotion within the two pieces. Interviews 1and 2 were unstructured and based on the participants' former (written) statements; here, participants reflected upontheir own statements and related their musical experiences to their personal history.

Results.The participants' statements were consistent with a concept of music perception as inextricably connected tothe conscious and unconscious experiences of the present and the past (contingencies) of each person. Musicalexperience can be regarded as an interaction among cultural meaning, subject position/identity, and subjectivecontingencies.

Conclusions. Meaning and emotion in music can only be described objectively by ignoring the subjectivecontingencies (cf. Rorty 1989) that enable musical experience. The subjective experience corresponding to Ecos ideaof openness in art can be investigated using methods derived from psychoanalysis and postmodern analysis. Anempirical method that allows participants to explore personal associations and respects individual differences is

necessary if music is to be understood as a cultural phenomenon.

This qualitative study is based, on the onehand, on a broad concept of thesubject/person and, on the other hand, on anopen(see below) or deconstructed concept ofthe musical work. Those concepts are relatedto each other by definition and haveimplications for methods of investigatingmusic perception, especially the structures of

meaning and emotion within musicperception. Perception may be regarded as aprocess of communication between theperceived object and the perceiving subjectthat always takes place in a certain cultural,social, and historical context.


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CIM04 - Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology - Proceedings

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The concept of the subject

How can the subject in music perception bedefined or characterised? What implicationsdoes the concept of the perceiving subject

have on the concept of the work of music,and vice versa?

Phenomenological psychology

Phenomenological psychology (cf. Herzog1992) and critical psychology (cf. Hollway1949) have criticised the concept of thesubject within quantitative psychology. Basedon the philosophy of Edmund Husserl, whoaimed to delimit the fields of research ofnatural sciences from human sciencesaccording to the concept of the person

(Husserl 1952), it is claimed that humanexperience and meaning are inherentlyqualitative and should thus be investigatedqualitatively. The constitution of eachphenomenon is dependent on concretestructures of meaning (cultural andindividual). Perception always takes placefrom certain cultural and subjectivepositions.

The subject in music perception

Our study is based on a phenomenologicalconcept of the subject; i.e. we tried to allowthe subject to appear in all its aspects (seelist below). People react to music not only ina cognitive or vegetative way, but experiencemusic according to their cultural andsubjective position. We distinguish betweenthe following main aspects of the subject,which, however, cannot be (are notnecessarily) separated in perception itself,but which can be analysed reflectively:

cultural identity

national identity

sexual identity (gender)

temporal identity (being the same personthrough time)

bodily identity

Psychoanalysis

The above-mentioned aspects of the subjectmay never be completely conscious. Throughunconscious-ness, they are associativelyconnected both among each other and to the

personal history, i.e. to the subjective andcontingent experiences of each individual. Bymeans of the psychoanalytic method of freeassociation (Freud), unconscious structuresof meaning can appear and thus be reflected

upon by the subject. Our method allows forthe possibility that in our actual perception(of music) we are also influenced byunconscious aspects of the subject.

Music therapy

Music therapy, when understood aspsychotherapy, is based on the idea of

projection (cf. Decker-Voigt 2000 p. 216).During the process of perception the patientprojects into and perceives in music theabove mentioned conscious and unconscious

aspects of the subject. Perception becomes aprocess by which the meaning of a givenobject is constituted by the perceiver. Thus,music therapy has phenomenological roots.While talking about a certain perceived pieceof music, the patient becomes able to reflectstructures of meaning that had before beenunconscious.

Ecos opennessof the work of art

In his book The Open Work, Umberto Ecoaims to show that the concept of a musical

work cannot be described independently fromthe perceiving subject, for it is open to adiversity of interpretations and ways ofperception. The amount of informationcarried by a piece of music, for example,cannot be determined objectively, because itdepends on the way the music is perceivedby a certain subject in a certain social andcultural context (Eco 1977 pp. 132-139). Ecodistinguishes between two categories ofopenness within his concept of the work ofart:

1st category

According to Eco, this type of openness is thebasis of every act of perception (cf. Merleau-Ponty 1945 pp. 381-383). Everyphenomenon can be perceived in manydifferent ways depending on the perceivingsubject. Western classical music, like anywork of art, is fundamentally open to anambiguity of interpretation and perception,although the inherent and composed musicalstructure does not change.


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2nd category

This category of openness applies to manycompositions of the 20th century, e.g. tocompositions by Luciano Berio and John Cage(cf. Eco 1977 p. 55). Here, the openness ofthe musical work and the freedom withinmusic perception is not only anepistemological but also an aesthetic fact. Bymeans of aleatoric methods, for example, thetraditional concept of the work is destroyed.Unlike the concept of the musical work asclosed entity, the inherent structure of suchpieces is in many aspects open, both to theperformer and to the listener. According toEco, this category of openness ischaracterised by a higher degree ofinformation than the first category.

Qualitative investigation

We aimed to investigate the intersubjectivesimilarities and subjective differences, andUmberto Ecos concepts of 1st and 2ndcategory of openness of the musical work,within music perception:

Method

6 postgraduate students of musicology eachfilled in two questionnaires and attended two

interviews. They were asked to listen to andlater discuss the Confutatis of the Requiemby W. A. Mozart (Eco's 1st category ofopenness; questionnaire 1 and interview 1)and Six by John Cage (Eco's 2ndcategory ofopenness; questionnaire 2 and interview 2).Questionnaires 1 and 2 investigatedsimilarities and differences betweenparticipants concerning the perception ofmeaning and emotion within the two pieces.Interviews 1 and 2 were unstructured andbased on the participants' former (written)

statements.Subjects. According to the qualitativemethod in psychology, subjects were chosensystematically. The following characteristicsof the subject pool (theoretical sampling), allpostgraduate students of musicology, shouldcontribute to a clarification of the mainquestions of this study:

1. Subjects have comparable a level of

education, and probably also comparable

experiences with this music, i.e. the

statements should be similar both

according to the vocabulary and to the

cultural meaning (similar music-historical

knowledge.)

2. So the individual differences in emotion

and meaning should be easily

distinguishable from the inter-individual

common meanings.

3. Subjects personal interest in a

musicological investigation should

motivate their frankness towards the

investigator.

4. Subjects and the investigator use about

the same scientific language.

5. Musicologists should be used to reflecting

upon their musical experiences.

Musical pieces. The two pieces asexamples for U. Ecos two categories ofopenness - were chosen for the followingreasons: Confutatisfrom the Requiemby W.A. Mozart is well known and relatively simplein its structure. Because of its traditionalharmony, its Christian motives, and its bigcontrasts in timbre we expected the abovementioned aspects of the subject (culturalidentity, gender, body etc.) to be evokedeasily.

The piece Sixby John cage (composed for 6percussionists in 1991), was chosen becauseof the aleatoric principle according to which itwas composed and its large diversity of

timbre. According to Umberto Eco, this pieceshould allow a wider range of interpretations,i.e. perceived emotions and meanings.

Open questionnaire. Before responding tothe open questionnaire, subjects were askedto listen to the music several times. Then,they were first asked to write down allthoughts, feelings, bodily impressions,recollections, and associations that come totheir minds while listening to the music(question 1), and later asked them to try and


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connect those thoughts, feelings etc. to somemusical parameters and/or to the text(question 2).

Unstructured interview. The unstructuredinterview was based on the questionnaire.Here, we took up the basic ideas, concepts,and emotional words that the subject hadwritten and asked him/her for some furtherinformation; e.g. we asked the person whathe/her associates with a certain concept orword. By this process of communication thedifferent aspects of the subject (see above)should come into light and the subjectsmusical experiences should be related totheir personal history.

Transcriptions. The interviews were

recorded and transcribed. However, insteadof transcribing only the content of thesubjects statements, we noted every aspectof speech that could have meaning, e.g.intonation, pauses, and speed. This shouldhelp interpreting the interview in its deepstructure.

Examples

Mozart. With the Confutatis, the inter-subjective sphere was the opposition ofpower versus weakness that was associated

with the timbre of the voices (men versuswomen), the instruments (trumpets,percussive bass lines etc.), the dynamic andthe emphatic rhythm, and could be related tobodily reactions (high versus lowtension/arousal). On the basis of this,almost every participant perceived andinterpreted this opposition with differentpriorities. The aspect of power, for example,was experienced as either political, sexual,moral, or religious. How come, people reactso differently to a piece of music, of which

the meaning seems to be so obvious?

One female participant experienced thegender aspect very clearly. Furtherassociations with the power of the menchoir were fear, threatening, martial andevil. The women choir was experienced astender and comforting. Identifying with thewomen, she explained in the interview thatthis was her concept of man in general,which in turn was associated with therelationship to her father.

Cage. Here again, participants had incommon the perception of an oppositionlinked to the texture of the music. Thisopposition was interpreted as silence/peaceversus motion/noise/John Cage in a

lumber-room. This was further associatedwith the oppositions mechanic/city/trafficversus nature/avenue and meditativeversus disturbing. While nature was notconsistently associated with silence but alsowith noise, disturbing and motion, naturewas consistently perceived as pleasant andcity or traffic as unpleasant. So theaesthetic evaluation did not depend on themusical texture but on its interpretation.

Those associations could again be linked tothe personal history of the participants, butin a more superficial way: one participantsaid she heard the traffic because she onceheard a performance using traffic noises.Another participant said the music wouldremind her of some music she used formeditation although the disturbing elementsprevented her from falling into a meditativestate.

In general, identification played a minor rolewhile certain pictures from our daily life werethe main experienced meanings.

Interpretation

The results suggest that emotion andmeaning in music perception differ accordingto the applied method of interrogation andthe piece, i.e. 1st vs. 2nd category ofopenness of the work of art, and can bedistinguished into a subjective and an inter-subjective sphere.

Questionnaire versus interview. In theopen questionnaire, subjects in generalanswered in a more superficial way than

during the interview. As a consequence, wefound more inter-individual similarities ofperceived meaning and emotion within thewritten statements. But, based on thosesimilarities, subjects interpreted and thusexperienced the music in slightly differentways. During the interview, we tried to findout why those experiences differed in certainways, and found that each interpretation wasdependent on the subject position/identitythat each person had taken towards the


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music. This subject position in turn could beexplained by the individual experiences thateach person associated with certainperceived emotions or meanings.

Mozart versus Cage.According to UmbertoEcos theory of the open work, the piece byJohn Cage should evoke a much largerdiversity of subjective meaning than thepiece by W.A. Mozart, while the piece byMozart should generate a larger sphere ofcommon meanings than the piece by Cage.This could not be confirmed. Although theprocess of perception was very similar forboth pieces, namely an interaction amongcultural/inter-subjective meaning, subjectposition/identity, and subjectivecontingencies, the main difference inperception between those two pieces seemsto be the fact that for the Confutatis thesubject position appeared much clearer.Subjects said it was due to the lack oftraditional musical structure (culturalidentity) that they could not really identifythemselves with the piece by Cage andconsequently did not have as manyassociations with their personal history.

Subjectivity versus inter-subjectivity.The results reinforce our assumption that

music perception can be distinguished into asubjective and an inter-subjective sphere ofemotion and meaning. This inter-subjectivesphere can be explained in terms of timbreand contour, i.e. within our culture we seemto have learned to associate certain timbres(including dynamic and instrumentation) withcertain meanings and emotions. E.g. withinthe Confutatis, the men choir along with itsfortissimo, the rhythm and the trumpets etc.was associated with power and strength,while the soft melodic lines of the women

choir accompanied mainly by violins wasassociated with weakness.

Based on this very fundamental inter-subjective sphere, e.g. the oppositionbetween power and weakness, however, eachsubject perceived and interpreted the musicin its own way depending on its subjectposition and its personal background.

Implications

The interviews reinforced the assumptionthat emotion and meaning in musicperception is constituted by a process of

interaction among cultural (inter-subjective)meaning, subject position/identity, andsubjective contingencies. What implicationsdoes this have for other musicologicaldisciplines?

Aesthetic considerations

Our study might help to clarify a discussionbetween Umberto Eco and the AmericanPragmatist Richard Rorty.

Some years after publishing The Open Work,Umberto Eco came up with the idea of theintentio operis(cf. Eco 1996). By this notion,Eco restricts his former model of the openworkby claiming that every work of art canbe interpreted and perceived in only a limitednumber of ways (hermetic semiosis). Thecommunication between the intention of theperceiver and the intentioof the work of artis determined by the coherent structure ofthe work of art itself. Eco calls suchinterpretations that go beyond the intentiooperis over-interpretations.

Richard Rorty criticises this idea of theintentio operisvehemently, saying that everywork of art is exclusively constituted by itsinterpretation or perception; we cannot stepout of the hermeneutic circle. (cf. Eco 1996)

Our study suggests that instead of talking ofan intentio operis or of over-interpretations,we should accept the fact that the perceptionof a certain piece of music changesindividually depending on the perceivingsubject. There is, however, a sphere of inter-subjective, similarly experienced emotionsand meanings, which can be explained eitherby traditional conventions or by bodilyreactions common to all human beings orboth.

Implications for a Semantic Analysis

Music analysis is usually based on theconcept of an ideal, epsitemic subject (cf.Imberty 1997), which means that the actualexperience of music - taking place in acertain time and on a certain place, i.e. in a


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certain social and historical context - is nottaken into account. Instead, traditional musicanalysis is oriented by the idea of music perse. If we give up thinking about the work ofart as a unit or closed entity, we also need to

give up the epistemic subject. Analysingmusic could then be based on empiricalstudies such as the one we presented in thispaper.

Summary

This study aimed to investigate therelationship between the two spheres ofcultural/inter-subjective vs. contingent/subjective meaning and emotion in musicperception. We assumed that the subject ofmusic perception is affected by music inmany ways and aspects, which in turninteract with the perceived emotions andmeanings. Only a broad concept of thesubject and a corresponding method isable to bring those dimensions into light. Wewanted to test Umberto Ecos two categoriesof openness of the musical work empirically,i.e. whether a piece by John Cage evokes amuch larger diversity of subjective meaningthan a piece by W.A. Mozart, and whether apiece by Mozart generates a larger sphere ofcommon meanings than a piece by Cage.

The interview transcripts are consistent witha view of music perception as an interactionamong cultural meaning, subject position,and subjective/contingent meaning. This ideaemerged when unstructured interviewsallowed participants to explore their personalassociations.

Umberto Ecos model of theopen workcouldonly be confirmed for the openness of 1stcategory (see paragraph above). The pieceby John Cage that we regarded as a good

example for the openness of 2ndcategory didnot evoke a greater diversity of emotions andmeanings than the piece by Mozart butrather a small range of similarinterpretations.

References

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Decker-Voigt, Hans-Helmit (2000).Aus der Seelegespielt: Eine Einfhrung in Musiktherapie.Mnchen: Goldmann.

Eco, Umberto (1977). Das offene Kunstwerk.Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

Eco, Umberto (1996). Zwischen Autor und Text:

Interpretation und berinterpretation.Mnchen, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.

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Publishers.Imberty, Michel (1979). Entendre la musique:

Smantique psychologique de la musique.Tome 1. Paris: Dunod.

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Imberty, Michel (1981). Les critures du temps:Smantique psychologique de la musique.Tome 2. Paris: Dunod.

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Meyer, Leonard B (1956). Emotion and meaning inmusic.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Rorty, Richard (1989). Kontingenz, Ironie undSolidaritt. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

Sloboda, John A., P. N. Juslin (Ed.) (2001). Musicand Emotion. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.

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