The Emotional Characteristics of Bowed String Instruments with varying Pitch and Dynamics

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Final Year Thesis Oral Presentation

Title: "The Emotional Characteristics of Bowed String Instruments with
varying Pitch and Dynamics"

By

Samuel Joseph Murdoch GILBURT

Abstract

Previous research has shown a strong connection between music emotion and 
timbre, and that musical instruments have strong emotional characteristics. 
This paper investigates the range of emotional characteristics within the 
bowed string instrument family, and in particular, the effect of varying 
pitch and dynamics on the emotional character. We conducted listening tests 
to compare the effects of pitch and dynamics on the emotional 
characteristics of 28 instrument sounds from the violin, viola, cello and 
double bass. We compared these sounds pairwise over ten emotion categories. 
We found that the emotional characteristics Calm, Comic, Happy, Heroic and 
Romantic were strongest for mid- and high-range pitches, while Scary was 
strongest in the extreme low- and high-range pitches. Interestingly, Shy 
was relatively unaffected by pitch. The high register of the cello was 
considered particularly Angry in comparison to the violin and viola for C5 
forte. The results showed that Angry, Comic and Heroic were stronger for 
loud dynamics, while Calm, Romantic, Sad and Shy were stronger for soft 
dynamics. These results deepen our understanding of the emotional 
characteristics of the bowed strings. They also provide practical 
suggestions for audio engineers and musicians such as using the lower 
register of the violin, viola and cello to emphasise Sad characteristics, 
or using a soft dynamic level to accentuate a Romantic passage of music.

Date:                   Monday, 4 May 2015

Time:                   3:10 - 3:50pm

Venue:                  Room 5560
                        Lifts 25/26

Committee Members:      Prof. Andrew Horner (Supervisor)
                        Prof. Fangzhen Lin (Reader)