Harmonic organisation conveys both universal and culture-specific cues for emotional expression in music.

ABSTRACT: Previous research conducted on the cross-cultural perception of music and its emotional content has established that emotions can be communicated across cultures at least on a rudimentary level. Here, we report a cross-cultural study with participants originating from two tribes in northwest Pakistan (Khow and Kalash) and the United Kingdom, with both groups being naïve to the music of the other respective culture. We explored how participants assessed emotional connotations of various Western and non-Western harmonisation styles, and whether cultural familiarity with a harmonic idiom such as major and minor mode would consistently relate to emotion communication. The results indicate that Western concepts of harmony are not relevant for participants unexposed to Western music when other e

SUBMITTER: Athanasopoulos G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7806179 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature