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Arts & Communication Emotional experience of listening to music

Table 13. Grade‑based differences in expressed emotions (the Kruskal–Wallis H‑test)
Emotion, Grade, school level Average rank Kruskal–Wallis df P
musical piece
Calmness, no. 1 First primary school (n=19) 50.34 19.625 8 0.012*
Second primary school (n=22) 72.18
Third primary school (n=23) 48.24
Fourth primary school (n=11) 67.55
Fifth primary school (n=7) 63.14
Sixth primary school (n=19) 75.11
First secondary school (n=11) 82.18
Second secondary school (n=13) 87.5
Third secondary school (n=9) 81.94
Happiness, no. 2 First primary school (n=19) 86.74 24.549 8 0.002**
Second primary school (n=22) 65.27
Third primary school (n=23) 66.35
Fourth primary school (n=11) 71.14
Fifth primary school (n=7) 81.14
Sixth primary school (n=19) 50.71
First secondary school (n=11) 84.36
Second secondary school (n=13) 66.15
Third secondary school (n=9) 37
Notes: *P<0.05; **P<0.005.
Abbreviation: df: Degree of freedom.

Table 14. Familiarity‑based differences in expressed These results agreed with Dobrota and Reić Ercegovac,
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emotions (Mann–Whitney U‑test) whose research showed that the participants were most
likely to agree on happiness; additionally, the recognition
Emotion, Familiarity Average Mann– Z P
musical rank Whitney of different emotions in music varies depending on the
piece emotion.
Happiness, yes 3.884 2.001 −2.165 0.03* Gender was not a key factor while identifying the
no. 6 emotion that a particular musical example evoked,
no 5.161 indicating that music affects emotional experience across
gendered lines and is in line with Škojo’s findings. There
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Calmness, yes 4.142 1.742 −2.054 0.04* was also no notable difference in emotions based on
no. 6 students’ level in school, confirming the findings of Škojo,
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no 4.902 Nawrot, and Imbir and Golab. Finally, familiarity with a
piece did not considerably impact the identified emotions.
Happiness, yes 1.653 1.176 −2.314 0.021* These results agree with Dobrota and Reić Ercegovac
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no. 7 and Fuentes-Sánchez et al., indicating that familiarity
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no 7.392 with a composition was not a prerequisite for identifying
the dominant emotion within it; this can be explained
Happiness, yes 3.427 1.522 −2.403 0.016* with the Model of Redundant Signs, according to which
no. 8 emotions in music are expressed by culturally specific
no 5.617 acoustic features such as tempo, tonality, and dynamics.
In conclusion, students from similar backgrounds were
Note: *P<0.05. highly likely to agree on emotions evoked by a given piece
Abbreviation: Z: Z-score. regardless of their gender or academic experience. No

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 7 doi: 10.36922/ac.6009