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7. Valence along the Dimensions: Expression
Expression is a property universally agreed to be essential to music and its meaning. But what is Expression, really? And how does it fit into our framework that so far has explained music only in terms of grouping constituent elements into musical units? The issue is further complicated by slightly different uses of the term. In classical music expression is reserved for all the parameters within reach of the performer in contrast to those already prescribed by the composer. The difference between a live performance of a piece and a computer’s MIDI rendition of it is the expression. Using our dimensions, the pitches and rhythms are more or less exactly prescribed (barring only perhaps ornamentation); the dimensions of dynamics, timbre and tempo are indicated only roughly; and finer features like rubato and articulation are more clearly in the performer’s domain. These aspects are what gives music its life in contrast to a dull MIDI rendition. However, in improvisational practices the notes and rhythms are considered part of the performer’s expression as well. So for a philosophical use of the term, expression has to include all aspects of the music, in spite of the classical usage.
My proposal here is to look again at each dimension separately from the perspective of the listener and determine what part of the expression it accounts for. In other words: to see what valence each dimension displays. This step inevitably includes the listener, and we have to be careful to differentiate between different mechanisms of responses to the music within the subjective mind. There are many such mechanisms that we will go through properly in chapter 9.
Valence of Pitch
Let’s start with Pitch. A note can be located anywhere in our hearing range, and we talk about them as high and low. This is a metaphorical use, the pitches themselves are not higher or lower physically speaking, but because we are spatial creatures to such a large extent, somehow music easily lends itself to being thought of in spatial terms. (Scruton 1997: 12-13). Pitches in different registers also have a very different effect on us in a physical sense. We can feel really low notes in our bodies, as if the vibrations carry on in them. Low notes feel a certain way, like they are heavy and grounded; and high notes feel light and freer to move. In a technical sense, higher frequency equals higher energy level. We also find the human voice located in the middle register, with the mean male and female voice around one octave apart.
The next step comes with several notes in a sequence, and the melodic direction that follows. The direction created by a second note is either upward or downward, if not staying on the same note. This is already significant, but at the same time it’s hard to deduce further meaning from it. The extreme case is a melody that is constantly going upward over a long time: it has the expression of reaching upward, striving and increasing effort (for example in Rachmaninoff Symphony no. 2, third movement where the strings strive upwards towards a climax for a long time). The opposite of going downward has the expression of a decline in effort, a resignation to a lower energy state. Typically, melodies use both directions and switch between them very often, so the frequency energy level is constantly fluctuating. However, we are still left with the phenomenon of sensing movement within music, even if there isn’t a clear destination.
The Timbre of pitch also has valence. The configuration of overtones we saw in chapter 5 provides a sense of Tone color when we hear it. All instruments hold their own ground in the landscape of timbre, and all grounds come with slightly different tone colors. Instruments have different areas of tone color within their ranges, and within one kind of instrument, different types, brands and exemplars display fine differences in nuance. The Dynamic dimension is more straight forward – volume comes from amplitude and is also in effect higher “energy load” per time, independent of the other variables. We feel louder music as a stronger force acting in the music, as having a higher intensity.
Valence of Rhythm
Now to the Time dimension of rhythm, meter and tempo. Do the elements along these dimensions mean something to us? There is an obvious correlate with Tempo and excitement. Higher tempo and quicker notes mean excited music of some sort. This also correlates with higher energy load per time, which makes sense. Then we have the special feature of Meter, which is an underlying (emergent) structure of beats that the actual rhythms are placed within. A major difference between classical music and popular music is the stability of the meter, often in the form of drums keeping it emphasized at all times. There is a special response to this rhythmic feature that is inherent in any music experience (classical music as well). I don’t know exactly how to describe this “rhythmic response” in psychological or physiological terms, but rhythmic qualities can be a reason for musical preference. All kinds of dancing to music speaks to this, as well as any inclination to move our bodies to the rhythm of music, like tapping our feet or bobbing our heads. I think the seed for an explanation comes from the fact that we are rhythmic creatures. We have a heartbeat and a respiratory rate that has to keep going regularly in a rhythm to sustain our lives, and the way we move in the world through walking and running is also a rhythmic endeavor. Patrik Juslin puts up “Rhythmic Entrainment” as one of eight emotional arousal mechanisms, with the idea that our bodies can respond to a rhythmic oscillator, for example music, by synchronizing our bodily rhythms like pulse or respiratory rate (Juslin 2019: 276-86). Juslin concludes that it is not sufficiently demonstrated to have such a concrete physical effect, but I don’t think a strong version of the mechanism is needed to say that there is a special rhythmic response to music, still supported by all that evidence (more about arousal mechanisms in chapter 9). As a counterexample, music that consciously avoid a regular beat by changing both time signature and type of rhythms typically gives the impression of being chaotic, imbalanced and hard to follow. A common rhythmical feature with special valence is Syncopation, where notes come consistently in between the beats of the meter. It is rhythmic tension and provides a sense of restlessness of high intensity. (If no other regular beat is present and the music is syncopated for a longer stretch of time, the listener will eventually start hearing the rhythm as or non-syncopated instead.) Polyrhythms present another type of rhythmic tension with strong opposite forces acting against each other, and the Hemiola is one polyrhythm that manages to reconcile them.
Valence of Harmony
When it comes to the emergent dimension of Harmony, it’s increasingly difficult to explain the valence. All valence of harmony in Western music is only valid in the system of tonality that it operates within, but somehow this system also comes with two fundamental kinds of valence correlates that are both overlapping and complementary:
(1) Major correlates to positive emotion and minor to negative
(2) Dissonance correlates to tension, consonance to resolution
Within tonality, the major and minor chords are regarded as the most stable harmonies that are also sufficiently full. The octave, the fifth and the fourth are acoustically more consonant, but within tonality they feel somewhat empty by themselves. Thirds and Sixths on the other hand do not feel empty, but not stable either. The prominence of both correlates is widely accepted (see Juslin 2019: 125-129), but the reason for it is not fully explained. Richard Parncutt has gathered and examined six partially related hypotheses (2014) which all have arguments for and against them.
Dissonance: Music in minor is generally more dissonant, which corresponds to negative valence.
Altuity & Markedness: Major music and positive valence are the norm because they are more common; minor music and negative valence are marked as Other.
Uncertainty: The minor triad and scale have a more ambiguous (less salient) root or tonic, and uncertainty is associated with negative emotions.
Speech: Sad speech is “lower than expected,” and music in minor contains pitches that are lower than expected (see chapter 8 on emotional charge).
Salience: “[F]lattened diatonic scale degrees are more salient than sharpened because their harmonics better match the prevailing scale.”
Familiarity: ”Arbitrary emotional differences between major and minor were reinforced in a historical process of cultural differentiation.”
The Dissonance theory seems the simplest. Generally music in minor is more dissonant, but there is also dissonant music that is not clearly in minor with the typical negative connotations (music in the Lydian mode, for example). For this reason I treat it as a separate correlate as stated above. I am skeptical about the Altuity and Markedness hypothesis because it makes far-reaching assumptions about norms both in music and about emotions generally. So I believe the best explanation for the general correlation is some combination of the last four theories.
When we move on to more complex harmonies the general variable is that of dissonance. And within tonality there is a hierarchy of dissonance, both in terms of chord notes in relation to the root and the root in relation to the harmonic progression. Properties then emerge in this hierarchy with the Tonic (I) as feeling the most stable. Here we use Roman numerals to specify a basic triad on the degree of the diatonic scale, with upper-case numerals for major and lower-case for minor. The most common chords are those that have a close relation to the tonic by sharing chord notes and occurring on the consonant scale degrees 4 and 5: The Dominant (V), Subdominant (IV), followed by the Relative minor (vi).
However, before we look at some basic functional harmony, it’s important to state that different musical eras and styles come with differences in nuance in valence of harmony due to stylistic convention. Even an identical pure major chord doesn’t hold the same valence or expression in a Bach chorale as in a Mahler symphony, or a Beatles song. Conventions are formed that specifies the order of the hierarchy, which in turn reaffirms the conventions, until they are changed and developed in both reactionary and revolutionary ways. We will look more into different ways this happens in chapter 12.
Within classical music the Dominant has a privileged position in the hierarchy. A move between the dominant and the tonic (or between the other common chords) is called a Cadence when it occurs at the end of a phrase, and it comes in a few different forms:
Perfect (or Authentic) cadence: V-I
Imperfect (or Half) cadence: I-V, or IV-V
Plagal cadence: IV-I
Deceptive (or Interrupted) cadence: V-vi
The valence of these moves can be derived from the tonal hierarchy: the perfect cadence that ends with the tonic has a feeling of finality to it, and the imperfect cadence demands a continuation in a following phrase. The plagal cadence has another color, more subdued and less firm than the perfect cadence. The deceptive cadence plays with the expectation of the tonic after the dominant but deceives when it instead leads to the relative minor (or any other chord).
The other chords emanating from the diatonic scale are chords within the key: ii, iii and viiO. As we saw in chapter 5 the constitution of chords is different in the minor mode, and the biggest difference is that the triad on scale degree 5 is minor. This is why we use both Natural minor with the minor dominant v, and Harmonic minor with the major dominant V, even though it contains a note outside of the minor scale.
Harmonies that employ notes outside of the scale sound more dissonant and feel like they have a direction away from stability. This could be temporarily with musical tension and Suspensions, or within a movement of Modulation into new tonal areas. One important feature is that of Leading notes, which take on a feeling of direction to another chord. Some important leading notes are:
The third of V, leading to the root of I
The seventh of V, leading down to the third of I
The augmented fifth of V, leading up to the third of I
The clearest illustrations are with the cadence of V-I, but leading notes can occur between other chords as well, and when they do, they typically infer a dominant relationship from their chord to the resolving chord.