The Affective Character of the Major and Minor Modes in Music

Abstract

The problem of this study was to determine whether the major and minor modes actually induce the affective states for which they are usually given credit, and the effect of training, intelligence, and talent upon such recognition. The stimuli were 10 pairs of short musical compositions; one member of each pair was in the major, while the other was in the minor. (The harmonic minor form was used.) 205 sophomore students acted as S's. They were given mimeographed sheets with lists of adjectives; the 10 compositions were played by the same pianist, and for each group 5 compositions were in the major and 5 in the minor. No S heard both the major and minor of the same composition. After the playing, the S was required to check the adjectives that seemed applicable to the piece. The results show that the adjectives commonly applied to the major and minor modes of music were consistently applied by these S's. The factors of musical training, talent (Seashore test), and intelligence were found to be influential but not essential in the discrimination of the mood effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)