Influence of Pitch Height on the Perception of Submissiveness and Threat in Musical Passages

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Date

2006-07

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Empirical Musicology Review

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Abstract

Bolinger, Ohala, Morton and others have established that vocal pitch height is perceived to be associated with social signals of dominance and submissiveness: higher vocal pitch is associated with submissiveness, whereas lower vocal pitch is associated with social dominance. An experiment was carried out to test this relationship in the perception of non-vocal melodies. Results show a parallel situation in music: higher-pitched melodies sound more submissive (less threatening) than lower-pitched melodies.

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Keywords

music, prosody, pitch height, emotion, threat, aggression, timidity, politeness

Citation

Empirical Musicology Review, v1 n3 (July 2006), 170-177