- #121
BenG549
- 50
- 2
zoobyshoe said:
Next to...
You have 3 notes played on a keyboard. It doesn't matter the size of the interval between the 1st and 2nd note as long at the interval between the 2nd and 3rd is the same "magnitude".
"decreasing vocal pitch is used to indicate strength and social dominance, whereas increasing pitch signals defeat, social subordinance and weakness. The affect of major or minor chords is thus inherently positive or negative because they imply social strength (“happiness”) or weakness"
This a big logical step in my book.. Deeper voices sound more assertive and dominant than high pitched voices, therefore decreasing the tone of 1 of 3 notes in an augmented chord by 1 semitone (the equivalent of close to 1 or 2 Hz in the lowest octave band) implies happiness... Interesting idea but it sounds pretty unsubstantiated. Also doesn't account for why music in a minor key is often used in an authoritative powerful dominant context.. the Imperial March in starwars being the first example that comes to mind... that music screams power and authority, not subordinance and weakness. Obviously you could argue that the music is meant to invoke the feelings of subordinance and weakness in us, but is the point not that we hear the "minor" sound in other people and it tell us that they are weak... other wise why do we hear music in a major key when we watch superman and hear his "theme"... unless we are supposed to feel more powerful and dominant than superman, are we not supposed to associate power and dominance with superman? I'm not sure the idea makes total sense.
They do accept this to a degree by saying... "It is of course true that all pitch changes in both music and language are highly context-dependent and therefore meanings can be altered by contextual changes"... and then they say... "but it is nonetheless a simple fact of diatonic harmonies that, starting with a minimal configuration of three-tone chords, the smallest (semitone) movement of one tone from a state of harmonic tension will lead to the positive affect of a major chord or to the negative affect of a minor chord, depending solely on the direction of pitch change."
As if that counters the fact that, in music especially, the idea of power or submissiveness is completely contextual... it obviously does not.
"This relates to the cross-cultural tendency to use rising F0 in questions and falling F0 in statements – indications of “informational weakness or strength”."
This is an interesting idea. However no justification for assuming the last part of that statement is given. In the form of a citation, for example. Sounds a lot like conjecture to me.
In general the article is interesting but it either skips over a lot of detail or it is just presumption and postulation.
The idea of things with lower pitch being more "authoritarian" is likely to do with the fact that things that have more authority are a lot bigger and able to produce these low tones we associate this with fear more than anything... how this lowering tone translates to happiness in music is not really explained in the paper.
Also doesn't explain how people would react to a low pitched minor chord (decreasing pitch being 'authority' 'positivity' etc.. minor being 'submissive' 'sad') compared to a high pitched major chord (increasing pitch 'submissive' 'sad' and major being 'authority' 'positivity')... or visa versa... I'm just not totally sure it makes sense, and with no real reference to earlier work regarding the bits that needed justifying I am sceptical.
Also sorry if a lot of that ramble didn't make sense it's 5 oclock in the morning here, just thought I'd throw my thoughts out there before I fell asleep!
just saw the musical!