Dr Aris Lanaridis

The ability of music to generate emotional responses is a multifaceted phenomenon and its manifestations have been at the centre of multidisciplinary attention at least since the 1950s. Existing research has mainly explored psychological and physiological manifestations of emotional arousal when listening to music. There is still insufficient explanation of the underlying reasons for music's ability to facilitate the sharing of emotional ideas. This thesis investigates the processes involved when a composer creates emotional connection with an audience. This communication process is understood as a dynamic mechanism that utilises learned experience and is activated through the agency of the subconscious upon the experience of listening to music. This mechanism informs the structure of a model of emotionally shared experience through music and puts specific focus on this between the composer and their audience. A model was created to explore this process and data was collected from reception tests administered to a group of post-graduate student composers. The model was constructed around the key ideas of meaning, emotion, and narrative. Detailed analysis using coding through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis indicate that the emotional interaction music creates between composer and listener is not a linear, unidirectional chain of communication but a shared experience that both the composer and the listener respond to through a common aesthetical understanding. Responses are administered by dialectical processes which are responsible for the sharing of emotional meaning through music. From this perspective, the subconscious is considered to be a powerful agent that regulates our responses in all decision-making moments in musical communication and should be considered as an important element in the communication process.

Background Our responses to music are varied, dynamic and frequently create a strong emotional charge which is often categorised through the use of metaphorical descriptors which map the underlying dimensions of the experience. Our understanding of these emotional responses has been investigated through a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches that have explored how music and emotion connect. Interest in music and emotion has developed into a distinct field of study through the work of Sloboda (2005), Thompson (2009), Juslin and Sloboda (2010) and expanded our understanding of the relationship between music and emotional responses. Many of these studies focus on identifying change (emotional, physiological, behavioural) within a controlled laboratory environment verifying a connection between music and an emotional episode which registers as a cause and effect transformation. As our capacity to explore the workings of our brain increases, we may deepen our understanding of the way music evokes emotions. Aims We are now at a stage where we might include other factors beyond current studies and our attention here is to consider the way that our lived experience impacts on our ability to respond to music at an emotional level. We present a multi-layered theoretical model to explore this ongoing relationship between experiential learning and music. Firstly, we consider how existing theories of meaning, identity and emotion converge into an individual’s life-learning, which holds a strong potential to be linked to music and be retained in memory (Meyer, 1956; Tajfel, 1981; Tarrant, North & Hargreaves, 2002; Huron, 2006; Van den Tol & Ritchie, 2014). Secondly, we consider how the emotional meaning of music is acquired through the interaction with other people, which entails personal narrative that can be seen as an important part of cultural and social learning (Schiff, 2012). Finally, we propose that the emotional communication is necessarily an automatic one because the way the individual interacts with the culture and society in their conscious mind finds a perfectly functioning duplicate in their subconscious (Lanaridis, 2017). Method This perspective draws on theories that introduce, develop and support the multi-voiced, dialogical capacity of the brain which generates triggers in the decision-making game (Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010). To do this we use narrative as a way of exploring the way that these automatic processes emerge in the thoughts as an emotional narrative. Results We present a theoretical and empirical approach of emotional communication through music based on meaning, emotion and narrative. Rather than consider emotion as a 'snapshot' or in binary terms such as 'sad' or 'happy' our initial studies demonstrate that a much richer emotional narrative emerges that suggests that further study into narrative as a way of exploring the subconscious decisions that give rise to what we have termed the emotional charge of music. Conclusions Our approach looks at composers and their audience as listeners and suggests that emotional communication is a simultaneous interpretative process that is heavily influenced by individuals and groups of significance and that becomes part of the automatic processes of the subconscious. By considering the meaning of music as an emotional narrative we look beyond the meaning itself and to the process of making emotional meaning and to further understand how we as individuals make the decisions we do.

How can the same music make one person sad and another person happy? From infancy and onwards, moments of social and cultural interaction shape identity, contain emotional value and hold a strong potential to connect with music. Such emotionally charged moments of meaning-acquisition are evaluated by the brain and selectively stored in memory (Van den Tol & Ritchie, 2014). This store of lifetime memories, or in other words, our own personal experiences, is what we draw from when we want to assess and deal with a new situation, both rationally and emotionally. The most important theories on identity, emotion and music look into evolutionary/cultural/social learning to explain their findings (Meyer, 1956; Tajfel, 1981; Tarrant, North & Hargreaves, 2002; Huron, 2006; Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008). All these theories have contributed volumes towards our understanding of the interplay between emotional arousal and music. What is, however, still missing from all this in depth exploration is a clearer understanding of the way this interplay conditions the emotional message a composer intends to communicate to their audience. Cultural and social learning happens through the interaction with other people and entails personal stories that can be seen as an important part of this learning (Schiff, 2012). This learning leaves a strong imprint in memory, rich in meaning and emotional value. Music has demonstrated notable power to recall such memories and their emotional manifestation (Van den Tol & Ritchie, 2014). This presentation introduces a critical approach in an attempt to contribute valuable insight in the way music communicates emotion. It suggests that the relationship between music, emotion and narrative should be looked at and examined holistically and as part of our experiential learning that the brain holds as lifetime memories (Lanaridis, 2017). In extension, emotional communication should be perceived as emotional sharing and should be examined in relation to the overlap of the listeners’ experiential learning.

The ability of music to transmit emotional intention is a widely acknowledged phenomenon across a range of musicological, psychological and semiological research disciplines. Much of this research has focused on the description of the narrative qualities of music within the communication process. However, there is still insufficient explanation of the underlying reasons for the ability to transmit emotional ideas, and little empirical research has been undertaken on the extent and accuracy of the narrative functionality of music. This article considers the reasons, level and extent of the narrative capacity of music in the context of a contemporary society. For this, it looks at the Self from an angle of internal dialogical activity, in order to investigate the subconscious interaction between individual and society. The article also considers the factors that may influence the shaping of musical taste and that may be responsible of setting the mode through which listeners perceive and filter music in the contemporary culture. Specific emphasis is given to the role of the media not only as an important source of information but also as a mechanism for influencing our perception of societal reality. Keywords: plurality of cultural voices/personas, plurality of promoter positions, intersubjectivity, social identity, dialogical self, social representations