Musical emotions: Functions,origins, evolution

Theories of music origins and the role of musical emotions in the mind are reviewed. Most existing theories contradict each other, and cannot explain mechanisms or roles of musical emotions in workings of the mind, nor evolutionary reasons for music origins. Music seems to be an enigma. Nevertheless, a synthesis of cognitive science and mathematical models of the mind has been proposed describing a fundamental role of music in the functioning and evolution of the mind, consciousness, and cultures. The review considers ancient theories of music as well as contemporary theories advanced by leading authors in this field. It addresses one hypothesis that promises to unify the field and proposes a theory of musical origin based on a fundamental role of music in cognition and evolution of consciousness and culture. We consider a split in the vocalizations of proto-humans into two types: one less emotional and more concretely-semantic, evolving into language, and the other preserving emotional connections along with semantic ambiguity, evolving into music. The proposed hypothesis departs from other theories in considering specific mechanisms of the mind–brain, which required the evolution of music parallel with the evolution of cultures and languages. Arguments are reviewed that the evolution of language toward becoming the semantically powerful tool of today required emancipation from emotional encumbrances. The opposite, no less powerful mechanisms required a compensatory evolution of music toward more differentiated and refined emotionality. The need for refined music in the process of cultural evolution is grounded in fundamental mechanisms of the mind. This is why today's human mind and cultures cannot exist without today's music. The reviewed hypothesis gives a basis for future analysis of why different evolutionary paths of languages were paralleled by different evolutionary paths of music. Approaches toward experimental verification of this hypothesis in psychological and neuroimaging research are reviewed.     

Acoustic analysis and mood classification of pain-relieving music

Listening to preferred music (that which is chosen by the participant) has been shown to be effective in mitigating the effects of pain when compared to silence and a variety of distraction techniques. The wide range of genre, tempo, and structure in music chosen by participants in studies utilizing experimentally induced pain has led to the assertion that structure does not play a significant role, rather listening to preferred music renders the music "functionally equivalent" as regards its effect upon pain perception. This study addresses this assumption and performs detailed analysis of a selection of music chosen from three pain studies. Music analysis showed significant correlation between timbral and tonal aspects of music and measurements of pain tolerance and perceived pain intensity. Mood classification was performed using a hierarchical Gaussian Mixture Model, which indicated the majority of the chosen music expressed contentment. The results suggest that in addition to personal preference, associations with music and the listening context, emotion expressed by music, as defined by its acoustical content, is important to enhancing emotional engagement with music and therefore enhances the level of pain reduction and tolerance.     

Subjective study of preferred listening conditions in Italian Catholic churches

The paper describes the results of research aimed at investigating the preferred subjective listening conditions inside churches. The effect of different musical motifs (spanning Gregorian chants to symphonic music) was investigated and regression analysis was performed in order to point out the relationship between subjective ratings and acoustical parameters. In order to present realistic listening conditions to the subjects a small subset of nine churches was selected among a larger set of acoustic data collected in several Italian churches during a widespread on-site survey. The subset represented different architectural styles and shapes, and was characterized by average listening conditions. For each church a single source–receiver combination with fixed relative positions was chosen. Measured binaural impulse responses were cross-talk cancelled and then convolved with five anechoic motifs. Paired comparisons were finally performed, asking a trained panel of subjects their preference. Factor analysis pointed out a substantially common underlying pattern characterizing subjective responses. The results show that preferred listening conditions vary as a function of the musical motif, depending on early decay time for choral music and on a combination of initial time delay and lateral energy for instrumental music.     

多反复结构模型的精确音乐分离方法

针对基本反复模型音乐分离方法自适应性差的问题,提出一种基于美标度倒谱系数(MFCC)的多反复结构模型的音乐分离方法。首先,提取出音乐信号的MFCC系数矩阵(39维的数据构成);然后利用余弦特性得到其相似矩阵,进而将相似度一致的片段划分到一起,建立不同的反复结构模型;之后结合理想二元掩蔽(]BM)分离出背景音乐及歌声的频谱,相应的时域信号则由傅里叶逆变换获得;最后,在不同类型、长度的音乐文件上测试了算法性能,将提出的算法与Rafii的反复算法和Ozerov的灵活窗非负矩阵分解方法进行对比。实验结果表明,改进方法在分离性能上最高提高3 dB左右,并且对于曲调变换大的音乐提高效果更为明显,从而证实了改进方法是一种有效的音乐分离方法,并且更具稳定性。      

Embodied language,best-fit analysis,and formal compositionality

This review brings together two fundamental, but unreconciled, aspects of human language: embodiment and compositionality.One major scientific advance in recent decades has been Embodiment – the realization that scientific understanding of mind and language entails detailed modeling of the human brain and how it evolved to control a physical body in a social community.The ability to learn and use language is one of the most characteristically human traits. Many animals signal, but only people can express and understand an essentially unbounded range of messages. The technical term for the ability of human language to support all these messages from a few dozen alphabetic symbols is Compositionality.Rigor is essential for the advancement of any science, but there has been essentially no overlap between efforts to formalize language compositionality and the manifest embodiment of thought. Recent developments suggest that it is feasible to formalize the compositionality of embodied language, but that this requires a focus on conceptual composition and better understanding of contextual best-fit.     

Using HDC to evaluate signal similarity for information masking

In the many studies done on informational masking, interfering speech reduces speech intelligibility. This effect is often used to secure privacy in public spaces. These applications require estimates of how much masking is required. In general, masking effects are estimated by using spectrum information as excitation patterns. However, estimates of informational masking can hardly be obtained by only using spectrum information. Therefore, we estimated the effects of informational masking using time-domain information. Then, we calculated the cepstra of the envelopes’ magnitude histograms. If these cepstra are different between the target and the masker, the signals are not similar in the time-domain. Furthermore, the effect of informational masking would be low. Therefore, we considered the histograms’ cepstra distances (HCD) to estimate signal similarities. The signal similarities in our first experiment were estimated using five maskers by utilizing the HCD. These maskers were random noise, music, female speech, male speech, and target speaker’s speech. Male and female speech were more similar to the target speech than music and noise. Also, the same speaker’s speech was the most similar in the set of maskers. A listening test was carried out in the second experiment to verify the HCD. A double masker was used in this experiment as an effective informational masker. It has similar characteristics to reversal speech. The listening test results suggest the double-masker’s masking effects has the same relation with HCD. This suggests informational masking can be estimated by signal similarity using the HCD.     

From everyday emotions to aesthetic emotions: Towards a unified theory of musical emotions

The sound of music may arouse profound emotions in listeners. But such experiences seem to involve a ‘paradox’, namely that music – an abstract form of art, which appears removed from our concerns in everyday life – can arouse emotions – biologically evolved reactions related to human survival. How are these (seemingly) non-commensurable phenomena linked together? Key is to understand the processes through which sounds are imbued with meaning. It can be argued that the survival of our ancient ancestors depended on their ability to detect patterns in sounds, derive meaning from them, and adjust their behavior accordingly. Such an ecological perspective on sound and emotion forms the basis of a recent multi-level framework that aims to explain emotional responses to music in terms of a large set of psychological mechanisms. The goal of this review is to offer an updated and expanded version of the framework that can explain both ‘everyday emotions’ and ‘aesthetic emotions’. The revised framework – referred to as BRECVEMA – includes eight mechanisms: Brain Stem Reflex, Rhythmic Entrainment, Evaluative Conditioning, Contagion, Visual Imagery, Episodic Memory, Musical Expectancy, and Aesthetic Judgment. In this review, it is argued that all of the above mechanisms may be directed at information that occurs in a ‘musical event’ (i.e., a specific constellation of music, listener, and context). Of particular significance is the addition of a mechanism corresponding to aesthetic judgments of the music, to better account for typical ‘appreciation emotions’ such as admiration and awe. Relationships between aesthetic judgments and other mechanisms are reviewed based on the revised framework. It is suggested that the framework may contribute to a long-needed reconciliation between previous approaches that have conceptualized music listeners? responses in terms of either ‘everyday emotions’ or ‘aesthetic emotions’.     

Abhängigkeit der grenzen zwischen brauchbarer und unbrauchbarer durchsichtigkeit von der art des musikmotives,der nachhallzeit und der nachhalleinsatzzeit

The clarity of music in a concert hall in an acoustic field with the same ‘Klarheitsmass C’ (clarity index) is not related to reverberation time. The ‘Klarheitsmass C’ is defined as the logarithm of the ratio of the energy of sound which arrives from first reflection (up to 80 ms) to the energy from the later reflections. This ratio is correlated to the clarity. The influence of the time of commencement of statistical decay in real rooms on the clarity may be disregarded. Much more significant is the style of the music. It is possible that a correction is required. Baroque music, e.g. Mozart, demands the highest clarity, so a ‘Klarheitsmass’ of $\text{C = 0 dB}$ may be acceptable, but music of the romantic period may require a clarity of $\text{C = ?3 dB to C = ?6 dB}$. Hearing is more tuned to clarity. When music requiring crispness is heard before music which is romantic in style, then a desire for clarity which is not so high is demanded when listening to a performance of the latter.     

Music stage design

Until comparatively recently the specific acoustic needs of performers, and the means of satisfying these, has played second fiddle to the achievement of satisfactory audience listening conditions in auditoria. This paper presents a personal view of music stage design based on the author's experience in architecture and acoustics and on the results of recent research. Local reflections and the possible influence of stage and auditorium rake are discussed and guidelines for the salient features of orchestral stages are suggested.     

Perception of Nonlinear Distortion in Music Signals Reproduced by Microspeakers

A lot of work has focused on compensating nonlinear distortions of the microspeaker under large excitation, yet it is unclear at which level the effect of nonlinear distortion is imperceptible or not annoying. In this study virtual listening tests were performed to evaluate the deterioration of sound quality in music signals with different levels of nonlinear distortion by a microspeaker. Binaural recordings of the music played by the microspeaker were made at different voltage levels, adjusted to the same RMS power, and afterwards reproduced by a low distortion reference headphone. The “double-blind triple-stimulus with hidden reference” method was used in the listening tests. Listeners were required to not only discern the distortion, but also rank the severity of the distortion. The effects of several factors including subject, program material and distortion level on the perceived distortion are discussed.     

On the formation of structure and electronic transport

By systematic studies of amorphous systems (and most of the results are transferable to liquid systems) we are able to show that structure formation at early stages is to a high degree the effect of self-organized and hence optimized resonances between macroscopic subsystems. There is, for example, a spherical-periodic resonance, based on momentum exchange between the valence electrons in total as one subsystem, and the forming static structure as the other one. It causes spherical structural periodicity of nearest-neighbour shells at medium distances and is a global effect, giving rise to similar effects as described by Bloch's theorem in crystals. Resonances based on an exchange of angular momentum became apparent too. Accordingly, together with the local quantum chemical effects, global resonances are important as well and both will cooperate to get the most optimal energetic situation for the total system. Occasionally, the global effects even dominate structure formation. We report on different scenarios where the total system is able to optimize the resonances. The resonance model explains major structural features of many liquid and amorphous systems of different types as there are pure elements, binary as well as ternary alloys, metallic glasses, glassy semiconductors, glassy Zintl systems, and light-weight Al–TM alloys (TM: from Ti to Cu). Spherical-periodic order causes pseudogaps or even gaps at the Fermi energy and hence has dramatic influences on any electronic transport. Accordingly, understanding structure formation on the basis of resonances also triggers a deeper understanding of electronic transport properties.     

Fourier at the heart of computer music: From harmonic sounds to texture

Beyond the scope of thermal conduction, Joseph Fourier's treatise on the Analytical Theory of Heat (1822) profoundly altered our understanding of acoustic waves. It posits that any function of unit period can be decomposed into a sum of sinusoids, whose respective contributions represent some essential property of the underlying periodic phenomenon. In acoustics, such a decomposition reveals the resonant modes of a freely vibrating string. The introduction of Fourier series thus opened new research avenues on the modeling of musical timbre—a topic that was to become of crucial importance in the 1960s with the advent of computer-generated sounds. This article proposes to revisit the scientific legacy of Joseph Fourier through the lens of computer music research. We first discuss how the Fourier series marked a paradigm shift in our understanding of acoustics, supplanting the theory of consonance of harmonics in the Pythagorean monochord. Then, we highlight the utility of Fourier's paradigm via three practical problems in analysis–synthesis: the imitation of musical instruments, frequency transposition, and the generation of audio textures. Interestingly, each of these problems involves a different perspective on time–frequency duality, and stimulates a multidisciplinary interplay between research and creation that is still ongoing.     

Characteristics of noise-canceling headphones to reduce the hearing hazard for MP3 users

Three pairs of headphones [standard iPod ear buds and two noise-canceling headphones (NCHs)] were chosen to investigate frequency characteristics of noise reduction, together with their attenuation effects on preferred listening levels (PLLs) in the presence of various types of background noise. Twenty-six subjects with normal hearing chose their PLLs in quiet, street noise, and subway noise using the three headphones and with the noise-canceling system on/off. Both sets of NCHs reduced noise levels at mid- and high-frequencies. Further noise reductions occurred in low frequencies with the noise canceling system switched on. In street noise, both NCHs had similar noise reduction effects. In subway noise, better noise reduction effects were found in the expensive NCH and with noise-canceling on. A two way repeated measures analysis of variance showed that both listening conditions and headphone styles were significant influencing factors on the PLLs. Subjects tended to increase their PLLs as the background noise level increased. Compared with ear buds, PLLs obtained from NCHs-on in the presence of background noise were reduced up to 4 dB. Therefore, proper selection and use of NCHs appears beneficial in reducing the risk of hearing damage caused by high music listening levels in the presence of background noise.     

Music/voice separation based on the multi-repeating structure of Mel cepstrum coefficient

For the poor adaptability of the original repeating pattern,an improved music separation method of multi-repeating structure of Mel cepstrum coefficient(MFCC) is proposed.Firstly,the MFCC coefficient matrix(39-dimensional data) of the music signal was extracted.Then the cosine characteristic was applied to the count of similarity matrix of MFCC,and the fragments with consistent similarity are putted together.Next different repeating patterns are built for different groups.Thereby the spectrums of the background music and vocal were separated combined with ideal binary masking(IBM),and the corresponding time domain signals were obtained by inverse Fourier transform.Fnally,the improved method was tested on the music database of different types and length,and the separation results were compared with repeating method of Rafii and the non-negative matrix factorization based on flexible framework method of Ozerov.The experimental results showed that the separation performance of improved method was improved about 3 dB,and the performance of music with melody changed larger was significantly improved.Experiments verified that the improved method was an effective music separation algorithm and more stability.     

An elastic-plastic contact model for line contact structures

Although numerical simulation tools are now very powerful,the development of analytical models is very important for the prediction of the mechanical behaviour of line contact structures for deeply understanding contact problems and engineering applications.For the line contact structures widely used in the engineering field,few analytical models are available for predicting the mechanical behaviour when the structures deform plastically,as the classic Hertz’s theory would be invalid.Thus,the present study proposed an elastic-plastic model for line contact structures based on the understanding of the yield mechanism.A mathematical expression describing the global relationship between load history and contact width evolution of line contact structures was obtained.The proposed model was verified through an actual line contact test and a corresponding numerical simulation.The results confirmed that this model can be used to accurately predict the elastic-plastic mechanical behaviour of a line contact structure.     

Acoustic comfort in large dining spaces

This study carried out a questionnaire field investigation in two typical large dining spaces. The results suggest that the acoustic comfort of diners has an influence on the comfort evaluation of the overall dining environment, and background noise is an important factor affecting the acoustic comfort evaluation of diners. The role of various individual sound sources in background noise has been investigated, considering general background music, speech sound, activity sound, and mechanical noise, and it has been revealed that background music, other diners’ speech sound and tableware’s impact sound has a dominant impact on the acoustic comfort evaluation of diners. Compared with the existence of background music in background noise, diners’ acoustic comfort evaluation is higher than that without background music. The loudness, articulation, noise level and preference degree of various individual sound sources are factors which affect diners’ acoustic comfort evaluation on sound sources. In terms of demographic and social factors, gender and the frequency of dining out have a significant impact on diners’ acoustic comfort evaluation.     

混响感知的听觉心理

综述了中国传媒大学传播声学研究所近年来在混响的主观感知机理上的研究工作和进展,涉及混响感的语意调查与分析,音乐听闻的混响偏爱度实验,混响感的差别阈限,混响感的因素分析,以及混响处理与音乐情感之间的相互影响等研究结果。对混响感知的研究对进一步探究在有界空间中主观听感的生理心理机制是十分有启发的。     

Über die gewünschte hörerlautstärke bei kammermusik

One of the acoustic criteria that have a major influence on the auditory experience during a concert is that of volume. This is something that is not always felt to be satisfactory, especially among chamber music audiences. It is not yet known, however, which volume levels listeners of chamber music pieces consider to be desirable. By means of suitable listening experiments, an attempt was made to find an answer to this question.In a medium-sized auditorium, comparable in size to a small chamber music hall, individual listeners were played excerpts from various pieces of chamber music. Each listener was requested to adjust the volume to what he or she felt to be the optimal level. The following values were then measured for each excerpt: the equivalent continuous sound level L_eq, the mean maximum level L_1% and the lower limiting level L_95%. The measurements, which covered a sample of 24 people, show that:

1. 1.1.|There are clear upper and lower limits for acceptable sound volume levels.
2. 2.2.|The preferred volume levels can differ considerably within these limits.
3. 3.3.|There is an individual volume range for each individual listener.
4. 4.4.|A volume with an equivalent continuous sound level L_eq around 70 dB(A) is the single most satisfactory level for listeners overall.

     

The origins of language and the evolution of music: A comparative perspective

According to Darwin [Darwin, CR. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray; 1871], the human musical faculty 'must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed'. Music is a human cultural universal that serves no obvious adaptive purpose, making its evolution a puzzle for evolutionary biologists. This review examines Darwin's hypothesis of similarities between language and music indicating a shared evolutionary history. In particular, the fact that both are human universals, have phrase structure, and entail learning and cultural transmission, suggests that any theory of the evolution of language will have implications for the evolution of music, and vice versa. The argument starts by describing variable predispositional musical capabilities and the ontogeny of prosodic communication in human infants and young children, presenting comparative data regarding communication systems commonly present in living nonhuman primate species. Like language, the human music faculty is based on a suite of abilities, some of which are shared with other primates and some of which appear to be uniquely human. Each of these subcomponents may have a different evolutionary history, and should be discussed separately. After briefly considering possible functions of human music for language acquisition, the review ends by discussing the phylogenetic history of music. It concludes that many strands of evidence support Darwin's hypothesis of an intermediate stage of human evolutionary history, characterized by a communication system that resembled music more closely than language, but was identical to neither. This pre-linguistic system, which could probably referred to as "prosodic protolanguage", provided a precursor for both modern language and music.