The Role of Motion Information on Correlations between Music and Emotion

- Focusing on Changes between Strain and Relaxation -

Abstract

What relationships exist between music and emotions? We believe that information on motion exists in one of the most important relationships. We investigated whether the addition of visual motion images while listening to music changed the evaluation of aesthetic harmony. Subjects were asked to watch two kinds of animations (uniform velocity and uniformly accelerated motions) moving in synchronization with music and to evaluate them with reference to aesthetic harmony. The result showed that uniformly accelerated motion was preferred to uniform velocity motion. The characteristics of uniformly accelerated motions, namely, changes between strain and relaxation, were related to the mechanism of musical emotion.