School-age students from Grades 2, 5, 8, and 11/12 (N = 112) were asked to listen to a recording of the first movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 104. All subjects were asked to record their perception of “tension ” in the music using a Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) dial. As in previous studies of this type (Fredrickson, 1995; Madsen & Fredrickson, 1993), no definition of the term in question was given, allowing subjects to, in essence, create their own definition. Graphic analysis showed that even though the magnitude of group responses varied widely, there are some striking similarities in the timing of major group responses. Pearson correlations between groups ranged from .98 between the fifth and eighth graders to . 71 between the second graders and a population of professional musicians from a previous study who responded to the same musical recording. In general, younger subjects tended to use a wider range of the dial, whereas older and more musically experienced subjects were much more conservative. These results were consistent with results of previous studies and indicated a perceptual consistency regarding an entity that a fairly wide variety of populations define as tension in this piece of music.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Birkoff, G. D. (1933). Aesthetic measure. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
2.
Brittin, R. V. (1991). The effect of overtly categorizing music on preference for popular music styles. Journal of Research in Music Education, 39, 143–151.
3.
Brittin, R. V., & Sheldon, D. A. (1995). Comparing continuous versus static measurements in music listeners' preference. Journal of Research in Music Education, 43, 36–46.
4.
Byrnes, S. R. (1987). Different aged and mentally handicapped listeners' response to western art music selections. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45, 568–579.
5.
Capperella-Sheldon, D. A. (1992). Self-perception of aesthetic experience among musicians and non-musicians in response to wind band music. Journal of Band Research, 28 (1), 57–71.
6.
Clynes, M., & Nettheim, N. (1982). The living quality of music. In M. Clynes (Ed.), Music, mind, and brain: The neuropsychology of music. New York: Plenum Press.
7.
Crozier, J. B. (1981). Information theory and melodic perception: In search of the aesthetic engram. In H. I. Day (Ed.), Advances in intrinsic motivation and aesthetics (pp. 433–461). New York: Plenum Press.
8.
DeNardo, G. F., & Kantorski, V.J. (1995). A continuous response assessment of children's music cognition. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 126, 42–52.
9.
Edenfield, T. N. (1989). Children's non-verbal response to ‘world music’ listening. Report published by Florida State University, Tallahassee.
10.
Fredrickson, W. E. (in press). The effect of a conductor on perception of musical tension. Southeastern Journal of Music Education.
11.
Fredrickson, W. E. (1995). A comparison of perceived musical tension and aesthetic response. Psychology of Music, 23 (1), 81–87.
12.
Geringer, J. M. (1995). Continuous loudness judgments of dynamics in recorded music excerpts. Journal of Research in Music Education, 43, 22–35.
13.
Goldstein, A. (1980). Thrills in response to music and other stimuli. Physiological Psychology, 8 (1), 126–129.
14.
Gregory, D. (1994). Analysis of listening preferences of high school and college musicians. Journal of Research in Music Education, 42, 331–342.
15.
Gregory, D. (1995). The continuous response digital interface: An analysis of reliability measures. Psychomusicology, 14, 197–208.
16.
Hargreaves, D. J., & Castell, K C. (1987). Development of liking for familiar and unfamiliar melodies. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 91, 65–69.
17.
Henkin, R. V. (1955). A factorial study of the components of music. Journal of Psychology, 39, 161–181.
18.
Hevner, K. (1936). Experimental studies of the elements of expression in music. American Journal of Psychology, 48, 246–268.
19.
Heyduk, R. G. (1975). Rated preference for musical compositions as it relates to complexity and exposure frequency. Perception and Psychophysics, 17, 84–91.
20.
Johnson, C. M. (1996). An empirical investigation of musicians' and nonmusicians' assessment of perceived rubato in musical performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 44, 84–96.
21.
Kawaguchi, E., & Gregory, D. (1994). CRDI software package [Computer program]. Tallahassee, FL: Center for Music Research, Florida State University School of Music.
22.
Madsen, C. K. (1997). Focus of attention and aesthetic response. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45, 80–89.
23.
Madsen, C. K., Brittin, R. V., & Capperella-Sheldon, D. A. (1993). An empirical method for measuring the aesthetic experience in music. Journal of Research in Music Education, 41, 57–69.
24.
Madsen, C. K., & Fredrickson, W. E. (1993). The experience of musical tension: A replication of Nielsen's research using the continuous response digital interface. Journal of Music Therapy, 30 (1), 46–63.
25.
Madsen, C. K., & Geringer, J. M. (1990). Differential patterns of music listening: Focus of attention of musicians versus nonmusicians. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 105, 45–57.
26.
Madsen, C. K., Geringer, J. M., & Fredrickson, W. E. (in press). Focus of attention to musical elements in Haydn's Symphony #104. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education.
27.
Madsen, C., Geringer, J., & Heller, J. (1991). Comparison of good versus bad intonation of accompanied and unaccompanied vocal and string performances using a continuous response digital interface (CRDI). Canadian Music Educator, 33, 123–130.
28.
Namba, S., Kuwano, S., Hatoh, T., & Kato, M. (1991). Assessment of musical performance by using the method of continuous judgment by selected description. Music Perception, 8 (3), 251–275.
29.
Nielsen, F. V. (1983). Oplevelse af musicalsk spending [The experience of musical tension]. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.
30.
Nielsen, F. V. (1987). Musical “tension” and related concepts. In T. A. Sebeok & J. Umiker-Sebeok (Eds.), The semiotic web ‘86: An international yearbook (pp. 491–514). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
31.
Nielzen, S., & Cesarec, Z. (1982). Emotional experience of music as a function of musical structure. Psychology of Music, 10 (2), 7–17.
32.
Sheldon, D. A. (1994). Effects of tempo, musical experience, and listening modes on tempo modulation perception. Journal of Research in Music Education, 42, 190–202.
33.
Sloboda, J. A. (1991). Music structure and emotional response: Some empirical findings. Psychology of Music, 19 (2), 110–120.
