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Arts & Communication Emotional experience of listening to music

Table 10. Familiarity with and emotions about musical piece that the composition evoked happiness than unfamiliar
7 (68 bpm, mezzopiano) students (P < 0.05). There were similar results regarding
calmness (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, 17.2% of students stated
Variable Students (n=134) they knew piece 7 (Table 10), agreeing that the example
f % M SD evokes happiness to a significantly lesser extent than
Familiar 23 17.2 - - students who did not recognize the composition (P < 0.05).
Unfamiliar 111 82.8 - - Results for similar for piece 8 with which 32.8% of students
Happiness 3 2.2 0.06 0.4 were familiar (Table 11). These students again reported
Sadness 81 60.4 1.07 1.05 emotions of happiness to a significantly lesser extent
Calmness 49 36.6 0.82 1.18 than unfamiliar students (P < 0.05). H was therefore not
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accepted.
Anger/anxiety 1 0.8 0.01 0.17
Abbreviations: f: Frequency of responses; M: Mean; SD: Standard 4. Discussion
deviation.
Music school students selected one of the four offered
Table 11. Familiarity with and emotions about musical piece emotions that the eight musical pieces evoked: happiness,
8 (178 bpm, forte) sadness, calmness, and anger/anxiety. The compositions
expected to evoke calmness were pieces 1 and 6. These
Variable Students (n=134) compositions have a slow tempo, quiet dynamics, a gentle
f % M SD crescendo, and are in a major key. The compositions
Familiar 44 32.8 - - expected to evoke happiness were pieces 2 and 8. The
Unfamiliar 90 67.2 - - fast tempo, loud dynamics, and major key of both pieces
Happiness 126 94 2.34 0.83 evoked the expected happiness in almost all students.
Sadness - - 0 0 Anger/anxiety was evoked by pieces 3 and 5. Both
Calmness 3 2.2 0.04 0.26 compositions caused most students to feel angry or upset,
Anger/anxiety 5 3.8 0.07 0.37 which was expected considering their fast tempo, dissonant
harmonies, and significant variations in dynamics. The
Abbreviations: f: Frequency of responses; M: Mean; SD: Standard songs that evoked sadness were pieces 4 and 7, which likely
deviation.
occurred because of their slow tempo, quiet dynamics, and
minor key.
Table 12. Gendered differences in expressed emotions (the
Mann–Whitney U‑test) Reportedly, a fast tempo was associated with energetic
emotions such as happiness and anger/anxiety. In contrast,
Emotion, Gender Mann–Whitney Z P
musical piece Female (n=73) a slow tempo was associated with sadness and calmness,
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Male (n=61) which agreed with Vidulin et al., and Dobrota and Reić
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Anger/anxiety, Female 74.21 1.737 0.024* Ercegovac. The same authors have determined that tonality
no. 5 influences emotion – this finding was confirmed in this
Male 59.48 study. Specifically, happiness and calmness were heavily
Note: *P<0.05. related to major keys compositions, whereas sadness was
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5
Abbreviation: Z: Z-score. associated with minor keys. Vidulin et al., Škojo, and
Daynes found that unexpected sequences of harmonic
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the students in the third grade of primary school expressed progression, dissonant harmonies, notable variations in
the least agreement (P < 0.05). The results often showed dynamics, and atonality can cause anger/anxiety, which
that younger students felt less calm in response to this piece was also confirmed in this study.
than older students. Furthermore, while listening to piece Notably, participants (134) did not always agree with
2 (Table 5), third-grade secondary school students agreed one another about which of the four emotions was evoked
that the piece elicited happiness to a significantly lesser by a given piece. If two of the eight songs could elicit an
extent than first-grade primary and secondary school emotion, 268 responses were possible. Nevertheless, there
students (P < 0.005). Therefore, H was also not accepted. were still remarkable trends concerning which of the
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Finally, to verify H , the results were compared using the four emotions students selected as closely matching their
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Mann–Whitney U-test (Table 14). In total, 41% of students internal response. The highest number of participants
indicated familiarity with piece 6 (Table 9). However, a agreed on which music elicited happiness (258), followed
significantly lesser number of familiar students reported by calmness (211), anger/anxiety (204), and sadness (166).

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 6 doi: 10.36922/ac.6009