Even isolated cultures understand emotions conveyed by Western music

[amyrose2712]

snip

Because of their isolation and very different musical tradition, they can help answer a question that has perplexed music scholars and psychologists for generations: are there musical "universals"? In other words, do the emotions conveyed by music depend on what we've learned through our culture, or can anyone perceive the emotion intended by a composer of a given musical work? Does "good" or pleasant music have cultural boundaries?

A team led by Thomas Fritz visited the Mafa people and played excerpts from Western music intended to evoke one of three emotions: happiness, sadness, or fear. The listeners were pre-screened to make sure they had never been exposed to Western music. The experimenters showed the listeners images of faces expressing each of these emotions, and asked the listeners to point to the face that best represented the emotion conveyed by each excerpt. Here are the results, as compared to the results for the same clips as identified by German listeners:

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/04/even_isolated_cultures_underst.php

[semillama]

1. did they say which pieces of Western music they played for the Mafa? n/t

[laconicsax]

2. If you click the link, you'll find that no, they don't say.

[laconicsax]

3. Am I the only one who finds the headline offensive?

Western music is so wonderful that even the most backwards people understand and appreciate it.

:puke:

[nilram]

4. looking at the headline, I had so many questions --

What about western listeners, listening to music from isolated cultures, would they get its intent? Or even western listeners, listening to music from foreign cultures they hadn't been exposed to? (Easier to find Western participants, though the researchers don't get to have a grant pay for their travel to Cameroon. heh.)

And then once I read the article, the Mafa music still seemed pretty tonal to me, and I wondered, what about cultures that are rhythmically oriented in their music, how would they perceive Western music, or how would Westerners perceive their music?

In the consonant / dissonant test, the Mafa participants didn't like either one much (though they liked the consonant one better). I didn't like the consonant example very much either -- it would be fascinating to have the Mafa participants rate other genres, or performers, of Western music, or of other World musics. Wow -- after hearing that Mafa music example, can you imagine playing Koto music for them? Or even Kora?

And, I got to hear Mafa music for the first time, while reading a scientific report, without having to leave my house, or buy a record (remember those). How trippy is that?

Anyway, those were my reactions. Dunno if you're the only one or not.

[eridani]

5. We can always hope that that will be their next study n/t

[joshcryer]

8. That's truly a terrible thing to take from the headline. If anything I read the opposite.

That isolated cultures with their own norms can identify with a larger culture with its mass media.

[GaYellowDawg]

9. Probably.

Better hang on to that knee - it's jerking. ;-)

[eridani]

6. About 20 years ago, someone did a similar study with different kinds of art

They chose abstract expressionist paintings, Japanese clay pots and African masks, and compared the esthetic judgements of the artists with those in their respective general populations. The Chicago Art Institute students, the potters and the maskmakers agreed with each other about the esthetic worth of the works examined, far more than did the non-artists in all populations.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I think there's something to that

I don't know how non-Western people reacted to Western art, but I do know that Western artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were excited to discover and drew inspiration from the arts of Japan and sub-Saharan Africa.

[amyrose2712]

7. I actually like the dissonant sound better.