A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of the Role of Musical Structural Features in the Perception of Emotion in Greek Traditional Music

Background in music psychology. Music is widely acknowledged as a powerful elicitor of strong emotional experiences; this is partly attributed to its inherent features. Previous research has found a relationship between certain features of music and their emotional connotations. However, research has been mainly limited to Western art music and its inherent qualities, neglecting the cultural effects on perception of emotion in music. Background in historical musicology, music theory and analysis. ‘Ethos’ is a notion found in notable civilizations, such as Chinese, Indian, Greek, Arabic, etc. Researchers of Byzantine music, studying the notion ‘ethos’, have up to now mainly concentrated on discussing similarities and differences with the characteristics of ‘ethos’, as described in treatises of ancient Greek music theory and philosophy, as well as in medieval and post-medieval theories of the byzantine modes. Aims. The present study expands the area of music research to the field of non-Western music, focusing on Greek traditional music, which is based on Byzantine music theory. The researchers’ main goals were a) to pinpoint cultural similarities and differences in the perception of emotion in music, and b) to shed light on the role of musical structure in the decoding of emotional messages when listening to a familiar or unfamiliar musical tonal system. Main contribution. 14 Italians, 15 British, and 30 Greek adult listeners rated the level of communication of certain basic and secondary emotions while listening to 10 Greek traditional musical excerpts. Subsequently, the relationships between certain structural features of the musical excerpts and the subjects’ judgments of the intended emotions were examined. Results showed that basic emotions were accurately recognized (except for the emotion of fear), along with some secondary emotions. Moreover, familiar and unfamiliar listeners seemed to rely more or less on different structural parameters during the emotional decoding process. Conclusions from previous empirical research on the role of certain structural features, as well as theoretical descriptions of ‘ethos’ were partly confirmed. Implications. It is once more confirmed that people perceive music in both a culture-specific and a universal manner via the decoding of various perceptual cues. Such a conclusion could strongly influence educational practice, being an incentive for music educators to focus more on teaching students how to listen and decode acoustic cues, and how to improve structural communication during instrumental performances, or in music composition.