9 great composers explained in 9 emotions
when listeners are asked to describe the
effect of a given music
they will often describe the music in
emotional terms
the emotional significance of music has
been recognized since the beginning of
civilization
think of homer’s odyssey
in which ulysses could only resist
the power of the siren songs by being
tied to the mast of his ship and pluck
the ears of his crew
now fast forward to the middle ages
when a musical notation system was
developed that would prove the basis for
magnificent musical works by such
composers as bach mozart beethoven and
schubert what we commonly refer to as
classical or western art music today
now although some people find their way
into it naturally others
find it boring tedious complicated
overwhelming or just simply too long
i think that the point that gets lost
here is that classical music just like
most other types of music
is really a source of emotional
empowerment and
reward
and yes
many works of classical music can be
long meaning they last more than three
minutes
but think of this as an asset
rather than eliciting fleeting moods
this music can take you on a veritable
emotional journey
and so here is the idea of my talk
let’s take something that we all share
and know about namely emotion
and use this as a gateway into something
that most of us or many of us know less
about namely classical music
now when you hear the word emotion
you may think of
terms such as happiness sadness anger
surprise or fear maybe
but can these standard emotion
categories really capture the essence
and the richness of music evoked
emotions
now our lab has done years of research
into this and the answer is no they
can’t
nor can the labels that you will see
occasionally popping up in the subtitles
of tv series such as ominous eerie or
cheerful because these labels describe
the music
not anything that you yourself feel
in fact our research
has shown that music evoked emotions can
be broadly very broadly categorized in
nine spheres of emotions
the first one is wonder that’s ulysses
you know being so overwhelmed by the
sirens
moved amazed
then we have transcendence which is
related but has also spiritual
components including states such as
being overwhelmed or odd
then we found nostalgia is quite often
induced by music
and it can be directed towards the past
it’s often filled with inspiring uh
memories but also towards the future
when it becomes more like some
indistinct longing
tenderness we know that one think of the
fact that most songs are love songs
i think that tranquility speaks for
itself
and of course music can be a source of
enormous joy
and it can instill a sense of strength
and power
and finally it can be a source of
tension making you nervous or edgy or
suspense in a state of suspense
and it can also induce sadness
now we call this the gems model of
musical emotion because it was created
in geneva geneva music emotion scales
but gems of course also does suggest
that there is something particularly
valuable to these emotions which i think
is indeed the case
now this system is extremely useful
because at once it’s possible to
organize entire musical libraries
according to the emotions that the
tracks evoke
and not just any subjectively chosen
emotion tags but
emotional labels that research has shown
reflect what listeners actually feel in
response to music
in what follows
i’m going to use these emotions to
present you a gateway into classical
music by introducing composers nine
great composers
uh through the lens of these emotions
now of course the output of any composer
is so vast that it cannot be fully
captured by a set of specific emotions
and yet
i think each great composer has
something very unique about his music
about the sound and that also includes
the types of emotions that their music
induces
now obviously it will certain music will
tend to have a certain emotional effect
on most listeners
much of the time but of course not on
all listeners and not all of the time
because there are factors such as
culture and taste and mood also play a
role
when showcasing now some of the emotions
i have selected to represent the
composers i have also to say that it is
research inspired but it was also
creatively
amplified by my own listening
experiences
some of the uh composers that i will
present and the emotions i will
present also some music samples that
illustrate it
and when that’s not the case and for
those of you that will
look and watch this presentation online
i have placed listening suggestions in
the top right corner so that can take
you further in your exploration so let’s
start chronologically with
bach
brought the art of counterpoint to its
highest level
picture a room in which four people
speak at the same time
that’s not great that’s a situation you
want to avoid but give them melodies
four different melodies to sing and it
can sound wonderful
but it’s very hard to achieve and no one
mastered that art better than bach
by bringing order into an enormous
complexity of notes bach clears your
head
and he can help you recover from turmoil
next to these tranquility inducing
emotions
his music can also be very spiritual
and evocative of transcendence type
emotions
whereas other works are just full of
joyful vigor and you can i think find
some of these emotions if you listen to
these
suggestions that you find in the top
right corner
now next mozart’s music has that never
abating
spirited flow to it
it is evocative of joy and
vivacity never sentimental
there is a natural warmth to his music
it’s basically like almost the feel of a
human heartbeat
that can be evocative of genuine
tenderness and even romantic love of
which of course mozart’s operas tell
fascinating stories
but as human as his music is
there is something non-human about it
and it’s the miraculous perfection
i recently read a book whose author was
a tormented adolescent and he says
mozart saved his life
upon hearing mozart for the first time
he had an epiphany
you don’t leave a world that contains
such marvels and beauty
let’s see
now you know probably who comes next
beethoven he is the uncontested titan of
classical music
almost even looking at the portrait you
can sense there is something forceful
and overbearing about him and his legacy
and indeed more often than not his music
tells stories of turmoil
struggle defiance and triumph over
adversity and it does so with a
completely new sonority bigger louder
richer
and that gives the emotions in the power
and tension sphere particular prominence
but in his later works there is also a
mystical
component to his music that evokes
transcendence type emotions if you want
to experience them all look no further
than his ninth symphony but you can also
encounter and explore them in the other
suggestions i have placed in the corner
there
now when schubert
died
one year after beethoven he was just 31
years old he was constantly out of money
and he moved in and out with friends
and he could not
afford to buy a piano
much of his music is songs and um it
tends to evoke visions of happiness of
bliss that can paradoxically feel so sad
because you realize they’re just that
visions dreams that will never
materialize
hence the core emotional theme of his
music
is longing
his music is permeated by
bittersweet beautiful harmonies but also
sudden e-returns that can make you
shiver
take a listen
chopin was a slim physically frail man
of aristocratic manners
he did not compose any symphonies or
operas but he radically changed the way
the piano sounds
in fact
relative to previous composers i mean as
much as their music their piano music
was captivating and original it almost
sounds clumsy in comparison
although his music can sound majestic
it’s the mix of nostalgia and tenderness
that gives this music its very
particular feel and if you want to
experience that tune into the nocturnes
or any of the other suggestions that you
can see there
now the next composer that put me a
little bit into a difficult situation
because it could have been any of the
following
brahms
list mendelssohn schumann verdi wagner
but you know i found it’s time to veer
out of western europe and so
get to know tchaikovsky his music
embraces a very
rich range of emotions in fact
his ballet suites put you right in the
middle of fairy tales
inducing wonder type emotions
but his symphonic music can really fire
you up with energy or expose you to um
the most nostalgic kind of melancholy
now our next composer that’s maybe a bit
of a controversial choice i do actually
see that
but call it my wild pick
brookner
essentially crashed into musical life
like a meteor his music is highly
original
he has no precursors and practically no
successor maybe with the exception of
gustav mahler
his symphonies have tremendous spans
organ-like sonorities they’re evocative
of vast mountain landscapes or
awe-inspiring cathedrals
for his fans at least
the music carries a message that is
connected to the infinite
therefore transcendence captures the
emotional effect of this music perhaps
better than any other emotion but you
will also experience a lot of power
related emotions and tranquility related
emotions
let’s tune into the beginning of his
seventh symphony
claude debussy had nothing but scorn and
derision for the conventional rules of
composition as a student at the piano he
would shock his teachers with strange
chords that were not supposed to exist
let alone follow one another whereas
previous composers used sound to bring
musical ideas to life for wc
sound is the real deal itself and so
the magical uh sort of dazzling um
sounds that he actually extracts
especially from the piano but also the
orchestra
proved peerless
to evoke the essence of a given
atmosphere or a particular setting also
lending his music an incredibly sensuous
feel
next we hear klash atraverle fei
which is bells through leaves
and is apparently inspired by a
traditional french villagers to sound
church bells all the way from all saints
to all souls day
now dbc’s radical new music was taken
further mainly by three composers namely
arnold schoenberg igor stravinsky and
bella bartok
of the three i have picked
as my final composer bella bartok
because of his
extremely expressive uncompromising edgy
angular music decidedly non-romantic
often inspired by somewhat
somber hungarian peasant songs
his music also stands out
because it brings maybe music’s most
important feature rhythm so much into
focus in fact his rhythms are very
complex lending his music enormous
tension listen to this
with this big ban
our journey ends today
we all knew before that there are
various ways
to get to know classical music
when you go out today you know there is
a difference fun way to do it and it’s
very simple
through the emotions you’d like to
experience
[Applause]
you