Lauren Perez

9/18/2021

ENGL 1302

Music Interpretation

Introduction

It is known that most people use music in their everyday lives, whether it comes to

exercising, work, homework, parties, etc., although music has more of an effect on our moods

than we think. Whether it comes to concertation, sleep, excitement, etc., music significantly

influences our brains due to the sound wavelength, which can stimulate emotions while listening.

The majority of the music has been labeled either romantic, sad, calming, upbeat, etc., yet it can

be different depending on how they interpret music. People's interpretation of music also applies

to an artist's music creation when it involves lyrics and instrumentals, or just instrumentals alone.

Because of their own meaning of music, music can also interact with the different sides of the

brain, stimulating the brain and emotions. Music is usually associated with the right side of the

brain because the right side of the brain is involved in creativity. The ride side of the brain also

holds memory so that music can trigger specific memories as well. Therefore, is music the

reason for stimulating emotions, or is it the brain that causes it?

Methods/Experiment
 For the methods of this experiment, I will be having five people listen to instrumental

music, which just mainly piano music. Because I figured it would be best to use rather than use a

trending song that most people would know. Especially when it comes to piano music, they do

not know what to expect, and it will play best because people can take piano music differently. I

have listened to these four piano songs beforehand for that reason, I knew what they would be

listening to, and kept it consistent among five people. The four songs were Piano Sonata No.2 in

F major by Mozart, Akomi by Thalis, Oniro by Thails, and Soft Night by Elskavon. The age

range of the experiment will be fourteen through twenty-three, this can also help see how the age

of maturity plays a role in this. Because as a human grows up, the brain is growing and

developing until it reaches a certain age, which is approximately twenty-five until it reaches full

maturity. During the experiment, I will have the participants be seated down, so they are in a

calm environment while listening to music in order, and have them tell me what their thoughts

were.

Result

I had the five people listen to the songs, and they gave me their feedback on how they

felt/ viewed the music for themselves. I have gotten about one out of the five who were very

descriptive on how they viewed, and felt towards it. After reading what they said, I grew

interested in the descriptions because it was something I did not expect. The first four were

around an age range of fourteen through twenty. These four participants combined said that they

were sad songs due to situations in their lives, another said it gave them a sense of calmness, and

others said that it gives them fulfillment for future hopes. The final two participants have created

stories within the music and how the music influenced the stories. This participant is aged

twenty-three, and as he listened to each song, he had given a description individually. For the
first song, he said it was like a fuzzy memory in which he is dressed well for an occasion, but it

gave a sense of uneasiness that everything was coming to an end. The following song felt like

they were with a loved one, yet a feeling of sorrow because they know it will not last forever;

therefore, to just cherish the moment, in the end it was just a memory. The next song felt like as

he was going upstairs to go to a better place, yet fighting the urge to go back, although he must

have the courage to leave things behind to start new that they must break out of their shell to

become better, and happy. Because of that he must have the courage to move forward by not

looking back. The final song made him feel that he was in a black void, and the only light he saw

was the moon. While sitting on a stump, he thinks about coming into terms of acceptance, and

what he has learned not to look back.

Discussion

Throughout the experiment, and getting different interpretations from the participants it

occurs to me that each individual has seen themselves in these songs. These four songs have had

an influence on their emotions; whether they found it calming, sad, happy, etc. they did enjoy

listening to music. The last participant with the first song he envisioned colors associated with

the theme as him dressing up in a black suit with a violet tie and drinking red wine. That is

actually associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, which led to a theory by Hoyt

Sherman that it does not appear to be any direct links between color perception and sound

fluctuations. Data suggest that a high percentage of people perceive color when listening to

music (McWhinnie). The right hemisphere also gives familiar senses of the memory that

involves music. Research has been done on an individual who hallucinated a song called “Santa

Maria,” and they interpreted it as a sense of “familiarity experience” from a time she had fallen
in love in college. The picture below the individual has epileptic discharges by monitoring

seizures that occur in the right temporal lobe as the wavelength (Wieser).

Conclusion

In the end, from the information, and knowledge I have gathered from this experiment

that when it comes to music it is a given that people have their own viewpoints. However, people

have different mindsets, and visions, which makes it interesting to see a person's view on how

they see, or feel about the song. It is another way of learning things about a person's music taste

and their interpretation of the music they like. This can also involve people who have medical

conditions how familiar sound wavelengths can bring back specific memories. It goes back to the

idea that is music the reason for the stimulation of emotions, or is it the brain that causes it? I

believe they work together because the brain plays a role in stimulating emotions induced by

music. Therefore, they both go hand and hand because it brings the creativity out of people and

remembers memories.
Works Cited

Altenmüller EO . “How Many Music Centers Are in the Brain?” Annals of the New York

Academy of Sciences, vol. 930, 2001, pp. 273–80.

McWhinnie, Harold J. “The Computer and the Right Side of the Brain Ii.” Computers &

Graphics, vol. 15, no. 2, 1991, pp. 313–318., doi:10.1016/0097-8493(91)90086-W.

Tillmann, B, et al. “The Role of Expectation in Music: From the Score to Emotions and

the Brain.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, vol. 5, no. 1, 2014, pp. 105–113.,

doi:10.1002/wcs.1262.

WIESER, HEINZ GREGOR. “Music and the Brain.” Annals of the New York Academy

of Sciences, vol. 999, no. 1, 2003, pp. 76–94., doi:10.1196/annals.1284.007.\