2024/01/01 by Wenyi Song, Anh-Dung Dinh, Andrew Horner · 1 voice · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · #Diverse Music Education Insights #Diverse Musicological Studies #Music Technology and Sound Studies
paper · doi:10.1121/2.0001989
openalex publication_date 2024/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Recent research has explored how the emotional characteristics of violin sounds are influenced by pitch and dynamics. This study extends previous work by considering the pitch, dynamics, and vibrato effects on perceived valence, arousal, and 16 emotional categories. A listening test was conducted with 25 participants, who provided ratings on a 9-point Likert scale for both the valence and arousal of 16 single violin notes. Participants also indicated whether the 16 emotional labels described each sound. The results showed that pitch had the greatest impact, with higher pitches increasing arousal. Vibrato level was the second most influential factor - higher vibrato decreased valence but increased arousal. Dynamics had a relatively weaker effect, with louder dynamics increasing valence but surprisingly decreasing arousal. Interestingly, the associations between the 16 emotional categories were complex. Emotions within the same valence-arousal quadrant varied between quadrants. There was even stronger correlation between the low-valence-high-arousal and low-valence-low-arousal emotional categories than between low-valence-low-arousal and high-valence-low-arousal categories, where they might be expected. These findings provide detailed insights into how specific factors shape the perceived emotional characteristics of violin tones.