Continuous Response to Perceived Affective Intentions in Music Listening

Perception of affective intentions in music is a complex, yet commonplace, phenomenon that is influenced by listeners’ experience with different musical traditions and the style of the music. This study explores the continuous responses of listeners to a piece of Chinese orchestral music and how their musical backgrounds influence affective responses, as well as the acoustic and musical features used in the perception of affective intentions. Three groups of listeners (trained in Chinese and Western art music traditions and nonmusicians) were presented with a 15.5-minute piece of music and responded continuously on a unidimensional emotional intensity scale and a two-dimensional valence and arousal interface in separate blocks. Functional data analysis compared differences between listener groups’ response profiles. Time series analysis explored how each listener group utilized different acoustic and musical features over the course of the music. Results show significant differences between listener groups over different sections of the music. Valence responses diverge more than arousal or emotional intensity responses. The perception of affective intentions in music is influenced by the degree of familiarity listeners have with a musical tradition, the content implicated in the music, and the complex sonic environment created by the composer’s creation and the musicians’ interpretation.