Book Review Essay: The Emotional Power of Music:

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Musical Arousal,

Expression and Social Control

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Dylan van der Schyff
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY!

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Authors draft | penultimate version not for quotation
Final version in Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 24(4)

Edited by Tom Cochrane, Bernardino Fantini, and Klaus R. Scherer

Oxford University Press | Hardback | 1st Edition, July 18, 2013
392 pages | 246x171mm | 978-0-19-965488-8
Price: 55.00/$94.00 USD
Also available as an e-book $55.99 USD

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The Emotional Power of Music is an anthology that draws together an impressive range of
perspectives to explore the deep connection between music and emotion. The volume
includes interviews with composers and performers, historical accounts of the social and
therapeutic uses of music, various philosophical approaches, as well as research and theory
in psychology and neuroscience. This interdisciplinary perspective reflects the diverse
backgrounds of the editors of the volumeTom Cochrane, a philosopher; Bernardo
Fantini, a historian of medicine and health; and Klaus Scherer, whose field is psychology.
The book is organized in three sections, respectively entitled Musical expressiveness,
Emotion elicitation and The powers of music. Each section receives an introduction by
one of the editors where constituent chapters are outlined and placed in context. These
introductions offer useful background information for readers who may be new to this area
of research. Likewise, they allow more experienced readers to better orient the research
offered by each author within the field at large. The writing is generally clear and well
referenced; key terms and concepts receive adequate explanation. As a result, the book
should be accessible to anyone interested in the topic while remaining a valuable reference

for scholars in the field of musicology and psychomusicology. For the most part, the
music and musical practices discussed are restricted to Western art music and this may
frustrate some readers. This notwithstanding, the book offers both critical perspectives and
welcome enhancements to traditional approaches, with many of the authors embracing
important current concerns associated with embodiment and human development. In what
follows, I outline the contents of each section of the book, attempt to draw out the main
themes of each chapter and discuss their relevance for prospective readers. I offer critical
commentary occasionally and note connections and contrasts between chapters. The focus
of this review is on areas associated with philosophical and psychological musicology,
which comprises the majority of the volume. Chapters dealing with historical issues are
considered only briefly.

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Section One: Musical expressiveness
Following Tom Cochranes introduction, Section One opens with musicologist Michael
Spitzers analysis of Trocken Blumen from Schuberts song cycle Die Schne Mllerin.
Spitzer begins with a traditional musicological approach, initially looking for emotional
meaning within the melodic and harmonic structure of the work. The chief focus here is on
understanding how the composer constructs the pieceand, as Spitzer suggests, the whole
cyclearound a melodic apex (the highest sung note) that coincides with the emotional
peak of the composition. What makes Spitzers approach so interesting, however, is the
way he develops a more explicitly biological and movement-based conception of musical
emotion than one usually finds in traditional score based analysissee, for example, his
discussion of the subconscious physiological-emotional power of the cry, as well as the
metaphor of growth and blossoming. Indeed, Spitzer argues that most analytical
approaches to musical emotion are static and he suggests that we would do better to
consider music in terms of its affective trajectory. This perspective allows Spitzer to
analyze the core affectin this case sadnessas a complex package of entailments; or as
a group of goal driven processes.

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This approach is not necessarily at odds with attribution, expressionist, resemblance,

or persona models of musical expressivity (for an overview see Davies, 1994; Gracyk &
Kania 2011, part II). However, as Spitzer points out, it does tend to radicalize such
possibilities with the listener by highlighting the fundamental transformative aspects of
musical experience; and by recognizing that emotions are not simply expressive modes, but
rather states of mind or being that involve action tendencies. Thus, for Spitzer, our affective
involvement with music is grounded, first and foremost, in empathic experiences of
movement, the body and social interactions (e.g., separation anxiety). According to him,
these primal responses and associations are what allow emotional contagion to occur in
the first placewhich, in turn, allows us to aestheticize the feelings we refer to with terms
such as sadness, joy and so on. Some readers will recognize the influence of theories
developed in affective neuroscience and may wish that this connection be developed more
fully. The work of Panksepp (2005) for example, is discussed only briefly. Mark Johnsons
(2007) work in embodied aesthetics is also relevant to Spitzers affective trajectory
approach; the inclusion of such research would lend further support from the fields of
neuroscience, human development and philosophy of mind. Nevertheless, the chapter
provides a welcome embodied extension to traditional musicology that may point the way
towards enhanced forms of analysis.
Following Spitzers analytical approach, Chapter 3 offers a change of focus. Here
Tom Cochrane interviews three very different composers in order to discover how they
understand and employ the expressive powers of music. Cochrane begins each interview
with essentially the same question, Do you believe music arouses emotions in listeners?
This allows each composer to move off in his own direction, with Cochrane providing
further questions that do an excellent job of clarifying and advancing the ideas at hand. The
first interview is with electro-acoustic composer, Jean-Claude Risset. Risset works outside
the context of traditional tonal harmony and is therefore able to offer a unique perspective
on the relationship between sound and feelingone developed over many years of creative
practice and research composing with sound and composing sound itself. The composer
discusses our affective relationship with sound on a number of levels (bodily states,
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environmental context, survival and evolution), and he considers how music and sound may
be used to manipulate listeners, for better and for worse. Along these lines, Risset shares
some of the fascinating discoveries and experiences he and his colleagues have encountered
in their practice, as well as reflections on how post-tonal and non-tonal music is received
and experienced emotionally in different contexts (e.g., film, theatre, acousmatic listening
environments). In all it is a fascinating discussion, underpinned by Rissets quasi-ethical
position that the generation of emotion in music should be an interactive process,
performed by the active and attentive listener, rather than as a result of systematic
processes intended to make the music emotional by using tricks of the trade producing
direct psychological effects (p. 26).
This is followed by a brief conversation with Brian Ferneyhough that examines the
relationship between emotion and the cultural milieu, as well as the composers
understanding of his relationship with the performers of his works. Ferneyhoughs
recognition of the fundamentally embodied status of the performer and listener (and thus
the music itself) is revealing. Also interesting is the embrace of ambiguity and multilayered contextual interpretation in his understanding of composer-performer-listener
relationships. As Ferneyhough puts it, sincerity [is] not interchangeable with the
abandonment of ambiguity (p. 31).
An insightful discussion with film composer Carter Burwell concludes the chapter.
Among other things, Burwell reveals the central role music plays in highlighting the subtext
of a cinematic narrativehow music conveys emotional context when the visual imagery
might otherwise be neutral or ambiguous: like Psycho where the music is telling you to be
tense, even when youre just watching someone in a hotel room doing nothing (p. 36). As
Burwell discusses, cinematic music may be employed both rhetorically and ironically to
underscore more nuanced aspects of character development, plot, and style. See, for
example, his entertaining discussion of musical exaggeration in the Coen brothers film,
Fargowhere the fact that the music cant see the comedy is itself funny. Its like the
music is the straight man who has no idea that anything funny is going on (p. 39). In all,
the chapter provides fascinating insights into how these three composers understand the
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emotional power of music and develop it in their work: Burwells approach is overtly
manipulative in order to support (or sometimes even drive) the narrative of the film;
Ferneyhough plays with ambiguity and interpretation; and similarly, Risset highlights the
active agency of the listener for enacting the emotional meaning of the work.
Having considered the perspective of the analyst and the composer(s) in Chapters 2
and 3, the following three chapters take up themes related to performance. In Chapter 4,
musicologist Daniel Leech-Wilkinson begins with a look at the anxiety about the ontology
of musical works. The author suggests that the traditional view that places the locus of
musical meaning and expressivity solely within the score is wrongheaded. He discusses the
origins of this assumption; and he argues persuasively for the central role of the
performernot simply as producers of faithful representations but rather as agents who
are culturally and historically situated and who necessarily bring their unique embodied life
experience to bear in their involvement with music. Leech-Wilkinson draws on three
performances of Schuberts song Die junge nonneeach offering a very different
emotional experienceas well as analyses of Alfred Cortots highly idiosyncratic
performances of Chopin. In the process he develops a performance-centered approach to
musical expressivity that focuses less on musicological facts and much more on bodily
response (p. 50). Here Leech-Wilkinson refers to the recent work of philosopher Mark
Johnson (2007) in embodied aesthetics to explain how our experience of music is informed
by the ways we move and respond to the environments we inhabit. These provide us with
metaphorical models for experiencing other kinds of motion and apparent motion (p. 50).
Given such insights, Leech-Wilkinson argues that music cannot be said to exist. Rather, it
happens, and in a multitude of ways (p. 44).
This approach breaks with the reifying tendencies of traditional music ontology by
understanding a musical work (or a body of work) not as a thing, but rather as an ongoing,
transforming process (Bohlman, 1999; Clarke, 2012; Small, 1999). As such, it resonates
strongly with the growing pool of researchers who explore the adaptive, ecological and
enactive nature of musical involvement. In all, Leech-Wilkinson presents a refreshing

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approach to musical expressivity that is based in experiencethe lived (and living) world
of the performer-listener.
Chapter 5 follows with a detailed look at the challenges involved in conveying
emotion in opera performance. Here Klaus Scherer explores the question of whether it is
necessary for the singer-actor to actually experience the emotions the narrative requires in
order to be convincing, or if the performer must learn how to skillfully feign them (i.e., the
actor/singers paradox). The physical requirements of theatrical singing and movement, as
well as the psychological demands of maintaining character and narrative, means that the
opera performer must maintain a high level of control over psycho-physical states.
However, as Scherer points out, in order to be convincing, the emotions the performer
exhibits must satisfy a number of requirements. Most importantly, the expressive modalities
must be coordinated in a way that credibly invokes the spontaneity and lack of control
associated with genuine, highly charged emotional experiences. After a series of brief
interviews with five professional opera performers, as well as a consideration of a number
of approaches to emotional expression in acting (e.g., Diderot, Stanislavski and Roach),
Scherer argues that the real vs. fake dichotomy may not be useful in analyzing how
performers actually convey emotion in practice. What is needed, he claims, is a more
nuanced middle ground approach. To this end, Scherer offers some interesting possibilities
for analysis such as his push-pull model, which considers how the performative aspects
of emotional expression in the theatre may be understood as extensions of those
experienced in everyday lifethat is, the distinction between largely involuntary internal
physiological factors that push emotional expression in certain ways, and those external
socio-cultural conventions that pull the expression to take on certain forms rather than
others. As Scherer writes, [] we all constantly play emotion theatre. Thus the distance
from real life to professional acting is not nearly as clear-cut as it is usually made out to be
(p. 66).
Some readers may wonder if such a clear push-pull distinction may actually be
tenable outside of isolated cases. Scherer responds to this concern by suggesting that push
and pull factors occur only very rarely in isolation and that both expression determinants
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interact with each other (p. 66). Thus it is implied that this distinction provides, at the very
least, a useful starting point for the comparative analysis of how emotions are performed
both in the theatre and in everyday life. Finally, although the focus of this chapter is on
operatic performance, performers from other genres may find much that is relevant here.
Indeed, many musical practices require that performers inhabit the emotional world of the
music they are creating as fully as possible while maintaining a clear and present
connection to the technical (physical and psychological) requirements necessary to enact
that musical world in the first placeScherers approach stands to be greatly extended
through research with performers working in other musical environments.
Chapter 6 takes up the issue of the resistance of the instrument. Here Tom
Cochrane moves from a discussion of the nature of artistic expression to how the resistance
of the instrument contributes to the creative act of the performer. On the first subject,
Cochrane relies on the thought of Collingwood (1938). And as a result, he seems to expect
readers to simply accept certain assumptions, such as the notion that artistic expression
begins with a vague and oppressive impulse from which the artist extricates herself
through the clarifying act of creative expressionthe business of art proper is to express
the emotional state of the artist (p. 75). The aesthetic ideas of Collingwood remain
controversial and there are strong differences of opinion over how his work should be
interpreted. Indeed, while the act of communication with the wider community is central to
Collingwoods theory, it has been argued that his approach overly identifies the artwork
with the inner experience of the artist himselfa view Cochrane seems to have no qualms
with when he argues that if the audience cannot re-create the artists emotional state by
engagement with the work, then the artist cannot be sure that he or she has had a genuine
aesthetic experience (p. 76). By this light, the idea that the audience should have any role
to play in interpreting the work appears to be rendered nonsensicallisteners are reduced
to reconstituting the intentions of the artist; a view that has received considerable criticism
over the last century (e.g., Wollheim, 1980; for a rehabilitation of Collingwoods aesthetic
ideas, see Ch. 8 in Robinson, 2005).

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Furthermore, the Collingwood-Cochrane position also appears to demand a clear

separation between the contrivances and conventions associated with some notion of mere
craft and the rarified, putatively original and wholly uncontrived activity of the artist.
Keeping in mind here that the artist Cochrane is discussing is the musical performer, we
may reasonably question if all performances worthy of the status of art should (or could)
adhere to the ideal criteria Cochrane lays out. Are we to exclude from art any music where
the musician comes to the performance prepared with certain emotional, aesthetic and
technical objectives in mind? It seems possible that most performers would (as a point of
necessity) arrive with at least a tentative intellectual and emotional trajectory. Are listeners
indeed simply passive re-creators of the artists emotional states? Are there some musical
performers who are clearly not artists and are some performance genres and contexts not
artistic? Where exactly do we draw that line? In brief, a controversial idealist-expressionist
conception of music and emotion is uncritically assumed; and readers, especially those who
are performing artists and critical-aesthetic philosophers, may find much that is problematic
here. Unfortunately, Cochrane does little to address potential objections or the question of
who such ideal Collingwoodian performers might be. However, he does comment that: !

If the performer is engaging in a Collingwoodian act of creative self-expressionthe

kind of immediate creative articulation found not just in improvisation but any
creative interpretation of a scorethe physical interaction with the instrument will
also shape that mental state expressed by the performer in the musical event. In these
circumstances, then, we should recognize that the instrument is not merely a means to
the end of realizing some pre-existing expressive sentiment, but a vital part of
shaping expressive content from the beginning. (p. 77)

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This is a compelling statement (Collingwoodian concerns aside) as it draws attention to the
essential psycho-physical engagement with the musical instrumentboth directly for the
performer and indirectly or empathically for the listener. Cochrane expands on this in
interesting ways, notably drawing on Toru Takemitsus discussion of the Japanese biwaa

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notoriously difficult one string instrument intentionally made to embrace imperfections and
noise. In brief, it is argued that exploring and negotiating the resistance of the instrument
is central to musical creativity; and that a sense of such physical engagements with
instruments is crucial for emotional affect to be convincingly expressed and perceived in
musical performances. Cochrane highlights this by considering how some computer
musicians deliberately simulate such interactions (imperfections: variations, or
irregularities in timing, dynamics, tunings and attack) in order to make their music more
expressive. Following this, Cochrane discusses a recent trend in music instrument
technology that aims to reduce instrumental resistanceincluding his own mood organ,
which employs physiological sensors to collect signals that are then used to manipulate
musical variables.
Cochrane also makes some interesting comparisons with the historical move towards
standardization in instrument technology, and discusses how this may enable musical
meanings to be conveyed more consistently. Some readers may find referencing to relevant
literature to be somewhat limited. For example, the important recent work of Marc Leman
(2008) is not discussed, which is surprising given Cochranes strong interest in interfacing
or mediating technologies. In all, however, the chapter is informative, although some
readers will find the initial discussion of Collingwoodian aesthetics problematic and
perhaps unnecessary.
The last two chapters in Section One offer historical perspectives on how
performance and emotion were understood in the early baroque and Renaissance periods
respectively. In Chapter 7, Christine Jeanneret discusses the gender ambiguity inherent in
performance practice and musical texts in 17th century Italy (i.e., the idea of the female
performer and the role of castrati). And in Chapter 8, Claude Victor Palisca explores the
ethos of musical modes that emerged and disappeared in the second half of the 16th century,
offering comparisons and contrasts with Ancient Greek perspectives. Because these
chapters deal with concerns more closely associated with historical musicology, I do not
discuss them at length here.

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Section Two: Emotion elicitation

Section Two turns the focus towards the question of emotion elicitation. This topic is one of
the most contentious in the field, largely because the nature of musical emotions remains so
vague. For example, although studies have suggested that musical experiences may elicit
psychophysiological responses that are similar to those produced by so-called basic
emotions (joy, sadness, rage and so on)and that often appear to correlate with certain
structural aspects of music (rapid changes in dynamics, unexpected cadences, changes in
tempo and so on)it has also been shown that emotional-physiological changes associated
with music do not always clearly map onto those found in studies of non-musical
emotions (Krumhansl, 1997, p. 351). Indeed, a large amount of evidence suggests that
specific emotions may be consistently attributed to given musical passages by
appropriately encultured listeners, but it has nevertheless proven difficult to demonstrate
convincingly that music actually produces such emotions in listeners (Scherer & Zentner,
2001; Gabrielsson, 2001-2002). This, along with philosophical problems associated with
musical intentionality (i.e., the object of musical emotions), has contributed to the
problematic suspicion that affective musical experiences may be emotionally cue
impoverished; that they are merely representative of, diminished versions of, or somehow
different from, other types of emotions.
Such ambiguities have prompted many researchers and theorists to develop more
complex approaches based on richer conceptions of what the word music implies as well
as more nuanced multi-factorial, embodied-ecological, developmental and action-based
conceptions of what emotional-affective response entails. Thus, as Scherer points out in his
introduction (Ch. 9), underlying concerns in this section involve developing new
perspectives on the nature of musical emotions, how they are created and represented, and
what the meaning of such processes might be for human bio-cognitive development at
ontogenetic and evolutionary levels.
In Chapter 10, Scherer and music psychologist/computer scientist Eduardo Coutinho
draw out a multi-factorial approach that takes into consideration a wide range of
interacting elements including structural, performance, listener, and contextual features.
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Five possible mechanisms or routes that afford the production of emotions in listeners
are discussedappraisal, memory, entrainment, emotional contagion, and empathyand
the complex inner workings of each are considered at cognitive and pre-cognitive levels.
Again, these routes are thought to function interactively and useful diagrams are provided
to help clarify how this might be understood.
While Scherer and Coutinho acknowledge that musical experiences involve many
different types of affective states, their analysis is restricted to what they refer to as
properly emotional reactions to music as based on convergent definitions in the current
literature and using Scherers Component Processing Model (CPM) of emotion as a
guide (p. 139). The CPM offers a way of discussing the emotional appraisal of an event
through a set of criteriaphysiological symptoms, motor expression, action tendencies,
and cognitive appraisal. These components are understood to be integrated multi-modally
and continuously updated through largely non-conscious processing. This results in
representations, parts of which may then become conscious and subject to assignment to
fuzzy emotion categories which may then lead to labelling with emotion words,
expressions, or metaphors (p. 123). The CPM thus allows the authors to differentiate
affective phenomena into a number of classes that are not separated by sharp boundaries
and where the meaning of emotion words for the respective classes may be difficult to
define and are multiply interrelated (p. 128).
Put simply, Scherer and Coutinhos approach offers a more nuanced view of musical
emotions, as well as a richer base of criteria and components for empirical research, than is
afforded by attempts to align musical psychophysiological responses with basic emotions
(e.g., Juslin & Vstfjll, 2008). This said, some readers may take issue with a number of
assumptions. Of the eight affective classes suggested, the authors single out three as
properly emotional and thus relevant to music: the utilitarian, aesthetic, and epistemic. It is
argued that immediate personal relevance is necessary for the production of utilitarian
emotions. Thus special emphasis is given to so-called aesthetic or epistemic emotions
because, as the authors claim, they correspond to the lack of personal relevance associated

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with most musical experienceswhich, they argue, explains the ambiguity found in
traditional attempts to align musical and non-musical physiological-emotional responses.
In brief, the authors assume an essentially Kantian (aesthetic) stance with regard to
musical emotions that, for many critics, tends to reduce music to a kind of detached
perceptual process (i.e. one associated with a bias towards Western academic approaches to
classical music listening; see Clarke, 2005; Elliott, 1995; Johnson, 2007; Small, 1999).
Indeed the whole chapter, explores how music creates emotion in listeners. And despite
references to context and culture, the overriding assumption here is that musical emotions
are caused by external structural antecedents intrinsic to the music itself acting on
specific internal processing mechanisms. Some will object that this plays down the fact
that listeners are not passive receivers, but rather come to musical experiences primed for
action, ready to enact the musical worlds they participate inin other words, that musical
experiences are personally relevant. Along these lines, readers may find it useful to contrast
Scherer and Coutinhos orientation with empirical research and theory associated with
dynamic systems and enactive models of emotion and the mind (Colombetti, 2014;
Freeman, 2000; Johnson, 2007; Lewis, 2005; Noe, 2004; ORegan & Noe, 2001; Varela et
al. 1993). These perspectives offer a compelling alternative to the traditional reliance on
18th century aesthetic axioms (see Johnson, 2007; Elliott, 1995) and the cognitivist/
information-processing approach to cognition (e.g., Pinker, 2009; see Clarke, 2005 for a
critical perspective in a musical context).
In Chapter 11, musicologist Luca Zoppelli looks at fear-arousing mechanisms in
Verdis Messa Requiem. Zoppelli distinguishes three main mechanisms of musical
communicationA) emotional coding, B) intrinsic meaning, and C) extrinsic
symbolization. In doing so he extends the traditional focus on the formal and referential
elements of musical works by bringing biological and developmental concerns to bear on
the production of musical meaning. This allows him to pose some interesting questions and
to make some tentative suggestions with regard to the various ways by which the
constituent characteristics of A, B, and C might interact in differing works, contexts and
with different listeners. Zoppelli then applies his approach to Messa Requiemthe
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juxtaposition of primordial embodied responses with symbolic imagery, traditional

structural harmonic and melodic analysis, as well as a consideration of historical context,
makes for a rich analysis that demonstrates how the musical experience of fear in the piece
occurs through a complex and multilayered process. In all, Zoppellis approach is
refreshing and, like Spitzers (Ch.2), it offers a welcome extension to traditional
musicological methods.
In Chapter 12 philosopher Jenefer Robinson offers a review of three well-known
theories of emotion that often underpin discussions of musical arousal: cognitive appraisal
theories, and the ideas of Frijda and James respectively. The author claims that while all
three approaches offer important insights, each is incomplete on its own. Following the
pluralistic view of musical emotions developed throughout the book, and especially in the
preceding two chapters, Robinson argues persuasively that each approach may be
understood as attending to a different mechanism in a multi-stage process that involves,
among other things, appraisal, action readiness, and feeling. Thus she suggests that these
perspectives might inform each other, thereby allowing more comprehensive views on
musical emotion than is possible through strict adherence to any one of them. There is little
here that will be new to experienced readers in music psychology and musical aesthetics.
Nevertheless, Robinson does an excellent job of outlining the complex concerns associated
with the theories at hand. As a result, the chapter serves as a useful introduction to some
important themes and figures in the field.
In Chapter 13 philosopher Stephen Davies introduces his theory of emotional
contagion, which he has been developing since the early eighties in order to deal with a
central problem related to how music induces emotions in listenersnamely, the question
of intentionality, or how best to understand the emotional object of musical experience.
Traditionally, the obvious place to turn to would be the 'music itself', to its formal
expressive characteristics and the listeners appraisals of it. As Davies points out, however,
the music itself cannot be the emotional object of the response because the listener does
not believe of the music what would make it the intentional object of a sad response,

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namely, that the music is unfortunate, suffering or regrettable (p.170). He then discusses
contagion theory as a possible explanation.
Davies argues for what he refers to as an attentional mirroring response, which
does not rely on beliefs about the music itself, but rather on the idea that we experience
music as presenting the kind of carriage, gait or demeanor that can be symptomatic of
states such as happiness, sadness, sassy sexuality, and so on (p. 171). This, Davies
suggests, allows for the communication of emotion from music to listener as emotional
contagion or infection, through physiological mimicking behaviour in the listener. The
approach is interesting in that it draws less on representational syntactic-linguistic aspects
of musical communication and more on movement and body related characteristics.
However, the support offered for the theoryat least in this documentis sparse and
speculative. Indeed, the chapter seems somewhat abbreviated and some readers may
wonder why Davies does not draw on the growing body of research and theory in
ecological-embodied music cognition, embodied aesthetics, cross-modal perception and
developmental studies (Johnson, 2007; Leman, 2008; Ramachandran, 2011; Trevarthen,
2002; van der Schyff, 2013a). But perhaps this is because such issues are taken up in
subsequent chapters (see Krueger below). Whatever the case, such an extended view might
afford Davies the freedom to orient his work in a broader and more supportive theoretical
context; at present he sees contagion theory as an exception to more orthodox cognitive
appraisal theories and he contrasts it with persona models.
In Chapter 14, philosopher Joel Krueger offers, as Scherer points out in the section
introduction, a much appreciated developmental perspective. Indeed, research and theory
in music and emotion has traditionally focused on examining the verbal and physiological
responses, the brains and behaviours, of adult Westerners within the rather codified and
prescriptive cultural environment of academic Classical music listeninggenerally
assuming a disembodied information-processing conception of mind, where cognition
occurs through representational recovery of an objective world out there via discrete pregiven cognitive mechanisms in the brain (i.e. modules; see Varela, Thompson & Rosch,
1993). Therefore, it is not surprising that music and emotion research has traditionally
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emphasized more explicitly componential and iterative cognitive processes such as

representation, appraisal and production rules. However, as Krueger points out, the
uncritical acceptance of these views has led to what Sloboda (2005) refers to as the
pharmaceutical model, where musical listening is understood to be an essentially passive
experience. Given this prevalence of this view, it is also not surprising that some have
argued that music has little or no biological relevance for human well being, that it is
merely parasitic on cognitive processing (modules) that evolved to support supposedly
proper adaptations (i.e. language, see Pinker, 2009; for a discussion of musicality as a nonadaptation that is biologically meaningful for human well-being see Patel, 2008, 2010; see
also van der Schyff, 2013b). In response to all of this, Krueger offers an excellent review of
research and theory that focuses on infant musical development and neonatal therapeutic
contexts (see DeNora, 2000). Here he explores themes of empathy and intimacy through a
discussion of musicking (Small, 1999) as form joint-sense making. This allows him to
demonstrate the primordial necessity of musicality for embodied and pre-linguistic
emotional-aesthetic forms of understanding and communication, including the primary
intersubjectivity (Trevarthen, 2002) so necessary for developing social bonds. These
embodied forms of knowing are understood as central to our ability to enact the physical
and socio-cultural environments we inhabit as infants; and, as Krueger argues, we continue
to draw on them even as we grow up and begin to develop language and propositional ways
of thinking (see also Benson, 2001; Johnson, 2007).
In all, this developmental view offers a much broader conception of what music
entails; it demonstrates the deep biological significance of communicative musicality for
human ontogenesis, socialization and well-being (i.e. musical experience as a form of
social scaffolding) and it strongly suggests that there is much more to musical experience
than a passive contemplation of the apparent musical meanings a composer has seen fit to
embed within a pieces compositional structure (p. 178). As Krueger points out, listeners
have a great deal of perceptual autonomy in what they do with music: how they listen,
what sorts of meanings they choose to enact, and how they actively engage with music to
forge relationships and shared experiences (p. 178). While some readers might wish that
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the relevance of this developmental perspective for adult involvement with music was
referenced in more detail (e.g., Johnson, 2007), the chapter nonetheless offers an excellent
complement to the work of previous authors in this volume who attempt to draw out more
embodied or enactive approaches to musical experience (e.g., Spitzer and LeechWilkinson); and it provides a valuable counterpoint to perspectives that focus largely on
appraisals, Basic Emotion Theory and so on. As a result the chapter will be especially
useful for newcomers to the field who are interested in exploring alternatives to the
traditional focus on the relationship between structure and expression.
Music psychologists Lincoln John Colling and William Forde Thomson continue the
concern with embodied and ecological factors in Chapter 15, Music, action, and affect.
Contra Davies (Ch. 13) the authors argue that music as the paradigm example of an
embodied signal can be the direct object of powerful emotional experiences (p. 197). In
doing so they employ a multimodal and embodied-ecological approach in order to consider
how facial expressions and other bodily movements influence the perception of musical
emotions. They begin by pointing out that before the rise of the recording industry, music
was almost always experienced as a multimodal phenomenon containing auditory, visual
and kinaesthetic dimensions; and that before the rise of the concert halls, music was
rarely observed passively [] music making was often social, collaborative [] and had
weak boundaries between performer and audience (p. 197). Colling and Thompson then
review research that demonstrates the profound influence of gesture on music perception
and affective judgments. This research is then discussed in a theoretical context that
grounds perception in action. Here the insights of James (1884, 1905) and Gibson (1966)
are discussed; as is the common-coding theory (Hommel et al., 2001), which states that
the perception of action influences action planning, and action (and action planning), in
turn, influence perception (p. 203). Action (i.e., sensory-motor) based approaches to
emotion are considered along with relevant empirical evidence, including recent research in
canonical and mirror neurons.
A special emphasis is placed on the Shared Affective Motion Experience (SAME)
model developed by Istvan Molnar-Szakacs and Katie Overy (2006). Put very simply, the
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SAME model offers a way of understanding how a hypothetical mirror neuron system in
humans may allow music to access the emotional faculties by representing music as motor
commands: depending on the listener, movement is extracted at different levels of the
motor system; emotional intentions are thought to be inferred directly from this motoractivity, whether actual or simulated.
Colling and Thompson attempt to refine this view by arguing that the action plans
generated by mirror neurons function for perceptual prediction (p. 205). The authors then
place this in the context of musical expectancy theory, as discussed by Huron (2006), in
order to develop a feedback-controlled synchronization model that they claim unifies
action-based models of emotions with anticipation-based models of musical emotions. This
model further is supported by the work of Carver and Scheier (2009), which sees emotions
as the natural outcomes of the attainment of or failure to attain goals (p. 207)where
feedback from this is then sent to a behaviour control system that regulates or modifies
future action responses. As the authors explain in detail, this occurs through a complex
process that operates over multiple timescales and across bodily, environmental and
abstract contextsthe results of more immediate expectancies may interact with higherorder expectancies in order to create a multilayered emotional experience (p. 209).
To summarize, Colling and Thompson comment that by their model we infer
emotions from the motor activations that result from the actions we take to be responsible
for producing the music; that ones emotional valence is due to ones success or failure at
predicting the musical action; and that thus It is possible then for one to have a positive
emotional experience in response to predicting musical action that is perceived as
emotionally negative (pp. 209-210). The authors rely heavily on the relationship between
expectation and emotion elicitation; other possibilities are not discussed in detail. Within
this context, however, the chapter offers an excellent enhancement to established
anticipation theories (e.g., Huron, 2006; Meyer, 1956)one that is very well researched
and richly referenced and that will no doubt be of great interest to newcomers and
established musicologists alike. As with Scherer (Ch. 10), readers may find it interesting to

!17

contrast this approach with more explicitly dynamic-enactive and sensorimotor approaches
to emotion and aesthetics (for an overview see Colombetti, 2014; see also Johnson, 2007).
Chapter 16, by music psychologist Wiebke Trost and neuroscientist Patrik
Vuilleumier, takes up the topic of Rhythmic entrainment as a mechanism for emotion
induction by music. As the authors remark, By nature, emotions are regarded as transient
processes emerging and transforming themselves in time. In this respect music shares an
important characteristic, as they both fluctuate in time (p. 213). With this in mind, the
authors consider how musical experiences influence the perception of time and how such
temporal properties are associated with emotional experiences; this is developed from a
neurological and physiological point of view. After brief discussions of selected literature
concerning music perception and emotions, the mechanisms of emotion induction, and
the physiological reactions to music (i.e., respiration and cardiac activity), the authors go
on to discuss various forms of musical entrainmentperceptual, motor, physiological,
social; and their relevance for emotion induction. They suggest that a distinction should be
made between familiar and non-familiar music; and they briefly discuss why this is so,
pointing to how: on one hand, entrainment with familiar music may rely on established
pathways through various induction mechanisms like evaluative conditioning,
emotional contagion, or episodic memory; while, on the other hand, unfamiliar music
must be analyzed along multi-step auditory pathways according to general acoustic
features [] (p.221). Along these lines, Trost and Vuilleumier consider possibilities for
future research, especially with regard to how familiarity might heighten entrainment
responses and how entrainment might be understood in terms of a cyclic or feedback
process: entrainment induces emotion, which in turn strengthens entrainment. The chapter
offers a useful introduction to the subject, although reference to relevant literature in social
cognition and developmental studies is strangely absent.
Chapter 17 concludes Section Two with neuroscientist Stefan Koelschs examination
of the neurophysiological correlates of music-evoked positive emotions. Here Koelsch
argues against a number of problematic assumptions: that music does not elicit real
emotions; that musical emotions have little material (i.e., biological) effect on listeners; that
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music does not involve goal-oriented responses; and that thus music is not directly relevant
to human well-being. He begins by outlining the deep social significance of musical
activityconsidering seven interrelated functions that assert the central role of musicality
for empathy (or co-pathy), communication, group cohesion and social cognition. Drawing
on a range of relevant literature, Koelsch then presents a convincing argument that music is
in fact goal directed as it helps fulfill social needsmusic-evoked emotions are related to
survival functions and to functions that are of vital importance to the individual (p. 232;
contrast with Scherer and Coutinho above). Koelsch also takes a somewhat cautious stance
towards the standard mechanistic and inductive approach to musical emotions. Although
he does sometimes use this vocabulary, (like Krueger, above) he wants to avoid the
assumption that musical emotions are necessarily determined by specific musical
antecedents acting on predetermined cognitive mechanisms (an assumption that recurs
throughout the book). Thus he discusses some underlying principles of how emotions may
be evoked by musicas opposed to focusing on pre-given mechanisms and formal
induction processes. These include appraisal, contagion, memory, expectancy, imagination
understanding; but special attention is given to how these relate to the interactive social
functions of musical activity. Coming from an established neuroscientist this is indeed a
refreshing and intriguing approach. Koelsch concludes with a detailed look at the neural
substrates of how positive emotions are evoked in musical experience leading to
attachment and forms of social bonding.

!
Section Three: The powers of music
Like chapters 6 and 7, Section Three deals largely with historically related material. As a
result, I offer only a brief overview of each chapter. This has nothing to do with the quality
of the research presented, which is excellent, but rather reflects the focus of the readership
of this journal on current trends in philosophical and psychological musicology. This said,
it should be noted that such historical perspectives are crucial for understanding the ways
we have come to think and talk about musicthe metaphors we use and the personal and
cultural significance we ascribe to it. As Fantini points out in the section introduction,
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!
Historical analyses provide a sense of how musical activities have been socially
embedded, particularly as such activities reflect alternative conceptions of the nature
and power of music, but also interpret the [current] models based on the concepts,
beliefs, and metaphors present in a given culture. (p. 254)

!
The importance of such research is echoed by Ian Cross in scientific-philosophical context
when he writes, what we know of music in neurobiological and neuroscientific terms is
constrained by a conception of music that is narrowly shaped by historical and cultural
notions of what constitutes music (Cross, 2010, p.2). Thus it is hoped that these chapters
will receive the attention they deserve from reviewers better versed in historical
musicology.
In Chapter 19, Fantini offers a look at forms of thought between music and science.
This is taken up in a largely biological context to consider how two important models of
life played a fundamental role in the development of music theory in the 17th and 18th
centuries respectively. To begin, Fantini introduces the theory of fibers developed in the
Baroque period. In doing so, he demonstrates how the power of musicpreviously
associated with abstract Pythagorean mathematical relationshipscame to be understood in
terms of vibration, movement and bodily resonances. This is followed by a discussion of
the 18th century interest in elementary organisms, or cellsagain, Fantini argues for an
aesthetic parallel with how music was understood and constructed in the classical period
(e.g. the focus on sonata form). In brief, it is shown how the appositional, interchangeable
and sinuous approach of the Baroque biological-musical view is replaced with a cellular,
hierarchical and autonomous (i.e., formal) perspective in the Classical period. The chapter
demonstrates close ties between how we have historically understood musical and
biological processes; and this may well inspire further cross-disciplinary work in
uncovering new connections, such as those between music and more recent autopoetic
and dynamic approaches to biological systems (Thompson, 2007; Varela et al., 1993).

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Moving backward in time, Chapter 20 looks at how the power of music was
understood in the medieval and Renaissance periods respectively. Here Laurence Wuidar
begins by considering the profound influence of Ancient Greek thought (Plato and
Aristotle) as well as that of early Christian thinkers, with a special focus on St. Augustine.
He then goes on to offer a wonderfully rich account that weaves together a wide array of
figures, highlighting the various moral, religious, therapeutic, and socio-political
dimensions of musical thought in these periods.
Musicologist Brenno Boccadoro remains in the Renaissance in Chapter 21, offering a
look at the psychotropic power of music in this era. Again, Greek antecedents are
consideredwith special attention given to the ancient Hellenic connection between
oenology, music and medicine; as well as the Pythagorean relationship between music,
mathematical ratios, and psycho-physiological/spiritual states of being. It is then shown
how Pythagorean concerns were reintroduced and developed in the Renaissancevia the
thought of Plato, Aristotle and their followers. Here Boccadoro provides a detailed
introduction to the writings of Ficino and, in doing so, gives an excellent overview of the
deep transformative, therapeutic, and bio-spiritual significance of music in the Renaissance.
Chapter 22 moves the discussion into modernity. Focusing on the early
Enlightenment period, cultural historian Penelope Gouk discusses practice and theory
related to music as a means of social control. She begins with late 16th-century France,
demonstrating how musical practice (psalm singing) played an important role in
galvanizing the emerging protestant (Huguenot-Calvinist) religious identity. Such musical
practice was encouraged by leaders of the new order; and was countered in turn by the
Catholics through punitive anti-protestant musical legislation. Gouk then explains how the
Catholic king, Charles the IX, attempted to establish a music education system, Baifs
academy, based on a Platonic ideal that would lead to the production of musical works
capable of regulating social groups. From here she moves forward some 200 years to the
Scottish Enlightenment to consider the thought of Dr. John Gregory. Gregory also believed
in the power of music to influence behaviour for better and for worse. Like Baif, he drew
on the Ancients, albeit with a more medical-biological orientation; and he argued that a
!21

strictly controlled musical curriculum should be developed, not by musicians and poets, but
rather by philosophers and medical doctors so that music could be employed to its full
extent as a vehicle for self improvement and social integration. In summary, the chapter
draws out and contrasts two perspectives on music and social control that, despite their
differences, both attest to the power accorded to music over human development and
socialization in the early modern period.
Chapter 23, by historian of medicine Jackie Pigeaud, draws on a wide range of
documents to explore how music was used to soothe ailments of the body and soul in the
18th centurywith a special focus on the influence of the ancient tradition of music therapy
found in Greek and Biblical texts. In Chapter 24, literary critic Jean Starobinski discusses
the theme of nostalgia. He begins by pointing out that the naming of affective states may
actually produce new emotions and new conceptions of the forces that influence how we
live our lives, both individually and culturally. The word nostalgia is interesting in this
respect because its entrance into the vocabulary of multiple languages can be traced to a
specific time, place and documentnamely the work of the Swiss doctor, Johannes Hofer,
who, in 1688, wrote a dissertation concerning what has also come to be termed
homesickness. The development of nostalgia is then discussed as a sickness of memory
through various historical documents; and a commentary on the ability of music to both
relieve and exacerbate the symptoms of nostalgia is explored across the modern period.
The final chapter of the volume turns from historical concerns to contemporary
problems associated with copyright control. Here social musicologist Ulrik Volgsten argues
that the laws that govern the distribution and use of music are based on principles that run
contrary to what music actually means for the development of human identity, both on an
individual and a collective level. Like Krueger (Ch. 14), he draws on recent research that
asserts the pivotal role musicality plays in human ontogenesis, socialization and the
construction of culture; he argues that listeners are not simply passive consumers; and that
likewise, performers-composers should not be understood as detached owners of
intellectual-aesthetic property. Rather both are seen as agentic interacting collaborators in
the construction of musical cultures and meanings. In brief, Volgsten argues (like Leech!22

Wilkinson, Ch. 4) that our traditional ontologies of music are wrong-headed and in the end
simply serve corporate interestswhich over the years have come to narrowly dictate the
aesthetic-emotional and economic parameters of the music that gets distributed. While this
chapter, and the volume itself for that matter, is almost completely biased towards Western
music, this last chapter hints at the somewhat ominous consequences of the global
corporate culture that now touches the lives of everyone on the planet. Indeed, although this
critical perspective is bound to generate controversy, it will be welcomed by many who fear
that we may risk losing an important part of who we are as our musical activities become
more about the private consumption of musical commodities that are mass produced,
possessing only superficial connections to actual cultures, locations, and individual
expressions of life and meaning.

!
Conclusion: Coda
The volume closes with a very brief Coda that draws together key recurrent themes and
issues. For example, it is noted that some authors find many sources of affect in a single
piece of music (p .357). The editors point out that this poses an ongoing challenge to
develop new research methods and calls out for new theoretical approaches. The editors
also discuss the need for more research in cross-cultural contexts; as well as for more
robust and systematic comparisons between historical and current perspectives. In doing so
they reassert the importance of multidisciplinary research projects. In all, The Emotional
Power of Music offers an impressive array of perspectives on music and emotion and can
be highly recommended to anyone interested in the subject. The book opens up much
needed discourse between diverse areas in musicology, and between musicology,
psychomusicological science and philosophy, thus affording more nuanced, embodied, and
open-ended perspectives on the meaning of music for the human animal. While it is hoped
that future efforts might offer broader cultural and critical views, develop social and
developmental perspectives (e.g., for education; Elliott & Silverman, 2012), and expand the
study of musical emotions beyond standard mechanistic metaphors (as Koelsch and
Krueger do), the editors and authors of The Emotional Power of Music are nevertheless to
!23

be congratulated for an excellent contributionone that will remain valuable and relevant
for many years to come.
!
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