Emotions in Music

Grade 10 Music
Unit 3 – PCUP
Spring 2021
Mr. Nick
Emotions in Music

“Be it songs that mend a broken heart or tracks that get us feeling
pumped up and excited, music can be powerfully emotive. But how do
composers create these effects and what is happening to us when we
listen?”

(Utton)
The Art of Emotions

“A composer makes assumptions that certain tonalities have a similar

effect on everyone and so will play with versions of minor chords
being sad and major chords being happy”. “Within this very crude but
useful way of seeing things there are many other elements to be played
with, like the musician's way of playing, the type of instrumentation,
rhythm, recording technique, all being manipulated to bring about a
feeling in the listener.” (Utton)
• “If you play an Ab major chord on its own, it’s just an Ab chord,” he says.
“But if you play it in the middle of a song that up to this point has been
entirely in the key of C (a key that doesn’t have a Ab chord in it) this changes
everything in that it creates tension.”
• ‘‘Music is all about tension and release and this is achieved through how what
you’re playing relates to the ‘home base’ or the key that you’re in. Relating
your musical trigger to the key creates more feelings than the trigger itself.”
(Utton)
The Science…

“Although psychologists have found that listening to music “lights up”

whole areas of the brain associated with a complex range of emotions,
as well as releasing the “happy neurotransmitter” dopamine, the exact
reason why some pieces of music can move us to tears or make us shout
for joy still remain, for the most part, a mystery... which is perhaps why
the world’s greatest composers and songwriters remain artists, and not
scientists” (Utton).
Basic Emotions
“During the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman identified six basic emotions that he
suggested were universally experienced in all human cultures. The emotions he
identified were happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger.” (Cherry)

Of course, there are many, many more emotions that exist, however these basic
emotions can be mixed, like colors, to create all other emotions one may feel and
experience.

Our objective in this unit will be to create and reflect on emotional music.
What is Emotional Music?
• Let’s first define what emotional music is, because of course all music has
emotion. By emotional music, I am referring to music that has that spark of
beauty often connected to feelings of sadness, tragedy, longing, hope etc.
Emotions that go deep and will make you feel the music in your heart and
soul.
• Emotional music, like all styles of music, comes in many different shapes and
flavors. In truth, you have unlimited choices and flexibility as a composer to
create whatever style of emotional music you want.
(How To Compose)
Emotional Music – Intimate & Soft
• This style has a very mellow, thoughtful and deep mood. It is often characterized by a slow tempo, minimalistic arrangement,
and instruments such as sordino strings, ambient pads and soft piano. The voice leading for this style should be very smooth,
and the focus is more on harmony that melody. Rhythm and percussion should basically be as minimal as it gets.
• Tips for Intimate & Soft Emotional Music:
• Slow Tempo
• Soft Sounds
• Low Dynamics
• Ambient Sound
• Sparse Arrangement
• Minimal Rhythm
• Harmony over Melody
• Smooth Voice Leading
• Main Focus is Atmosphere
(How To Compose)
Emotional Music – Fragile & Delicate
• Now with this style of emotional music, the character and mood is more focused on that feeling of loss, tragedy and
grief. The instrumentation is often focused on solo instruments because they naturally sound more delicate and fragile,
especially solo strings or solo woodwinds. The amount of expression you can add with solo instruments is way
stronger than ensembles or sections, and this style of emotional music really takes advantage of this fact. Legato
variation, strong and passionate vibrato, expressive articulations like bends and glides, dynamic expression curves etc.
• Tips for Fragile & Delicate Emotional Music:
• Slow Moving Tempo
• Solo Instruments
• Strong Vibrato
• Beautiful Legato
• Dynamic Curves
• Expressive Articulations
• Main Focus is Melody
(How to Compose)
Emotional Music – Lush & Soaring
• This style of emotional music has the biggest sound of them all. A huge lush and soaring leading melody that has the power to induce
tears and a strong feeling of beauty. You will hear this style of emotional music used a lot in film soundtracks for those big cinematic
scenes, and when it comes the music will almost always ramp up in volume in the overall soundtrack. An example would be in the
Lord of the Rings, when those panoramic scenes over the mountains and landscapes come, the music will become huge, lush,
emotional and with soaring melody that guides the emotion of the scene. Another example is in the Pirates of the Caribbean, from the
track “Up is Down”, where the music shifts from bouncy and energetic, to tear-jerking and amazingly beautiful.
• Tips for Lush & Soaring Emotional Music:
• Big Sound
• Lush Ensembles
• Powerful Layering
• Long Notes
• Lyrical Legato
• Strong Expression
• Focus = Strong Theme

(How To Compose)
Emotional Music – Romantic & Beautiful
• Now this style of emotional music is not as sad and tragic, but more hopeful and inspiring. But it can still bring you to
tears with its beautiful tone. The romantic style of music can be anything from nostalgic, to idyllic, to heart-warming.
It often features sweeping melodic lines, and a lot of dynamic arcs and curves in the performances. This style can be
used for music that expresses love, or simply to add a sense of beauty, like the majesty of nature and mother earth.
• Tips for Romantic & Beautiful Emotional Music:
• Mainly Strings and Woodwinds
• Sweeping Melodies
• Lots of Dynamic Expression
• Gentle & Soft Mood
• Main Focus is on Curves

(How To Compose)
Emotional Music – Ambient & Atmospheric
• To create an emotional and beautiful atmospheric vibe you can focus on ambient sounds and textures that have that
organic, intimate and magical vibe. And then compliment it with minor harmonies in a very minimal, light and soft
way. You can use a lot of depth effects like reverb and delay to make the entire composition more ambient and
atmospheric. With atmospheric music you should focus mainly on adding movement and motion to your sounds,
instead of adding too many changes. You can think of emotional atmospheric music like a gentle touch of comfort
and sympathy.
• Tips for Ambient & Atmospheric Emotional Music:
• Atmospheric Soundscapes
• Ambient Sounds
• Low Dynamics
• Long Sustaining Sounds
• Lots of Depth Effects (Reverb & Delay)
• Focus on Movement instead of Changes
(How To Compose)
Guidelines for Emotional Music

Music is an art form, with unlimited creative expression. And with

emotional music, like all other styles, there will never be a set of
guidelines that cover all sub styles and colors perfectly. However, in the
following slides there are a set of guidelines and practical tips for you,
that you can use for writing and composing emotional music. Let’s go
through these tips and guidelines, one by one, right now.
(How To Compose)
Slow & Smooth

In most cases emotional music has a slow tempo, meaning actual BPM.
However, the most important aspect is that the leading melodies and
harmonies flow smoothly and have that nice and slow lyrical motion.
Meaning the slow and smooth is mainly focused on the playing style
and performance, not only the BPM. You can have a high BPM in your
composition, but still play slow and smooth emotional melodies and
chord progressions.
(How To Compose)
Minor Harmonies

It goes without saying that minor harmonies are most often preferred when
writing emotional music, simply because minor is more sad and emotional
compared to major. This goes for the key and scale you use, the chord
progressions, and even the intervals you use for your melodies. However,
as I always teach, how you play has a deeper impact than what notes you
play. Meaning that you can in fact play in major keys and use mostly
major chords, and still get a very emotional feel in your music.
(How To Compose)
Suspended Harmonies

Apart from minor chords and harmonies, suspended chords and voice
leading can add incredible beauty to your chord progressions. Meaning
sus4 and sus2 harmonies. Make sure to use these suspended chords to
your advantage, even if you use bigger chords such as 7ths. That
suspended 3rd will always carry so much emotional tension. And
remember that add 9th chords are essentially another color of sus2,
which makes them very beautiful and emotional.
(How To Compose)
7th Chords
7th Chords always have a way of adding an extra dimension of beauty and complexity.
There are many colors of 7th chords, and of course those that focus more on the minor
3rd harmonies will sound the most emotional. For example, let’s take a minor 7th
chord. It’s a minor chord, with an added minor 3rd. This creates a very lush sounding
minor emotional chord. But even a major 7th chord, which is a major chord + a major
3rd, feels more emotional than a simple major triad. You can use this to your advantage
as a composer, in a chord progression that uses one or more major chords. Add a 7th to
them to make them more lush and beautiful, and you will avoid the too uplifting vibe.
Or of course you can add any other scale degree to get rid of that major triad sound.
(How To Compose)
Simple & Sparse
In most cases, emotional music will have a minimalistic approach to the
arrangement as well as the parts you write. Long notes, long chords, few
instruments. And if you layer your parts it will mostly be in unison and
octaves to keep that minimal vibe. You can use something as simple as an
ambient piano with some soft sordino strings playing chords and harmonies,
and that will pretty much do the job for this style of music. Add an
expressive lead melody playing a beautiful and emotional part, and you got
it all covered.
(How To Compose)
Lyrical Voice Leading

Emotional music is almost always lyrical in nature, meaning smooth

flowing voice leading and beautiful legato transitions. By lyrical I mean
a smooth flow both the voice leading of your harmonies, as well as
graceful movement in the intervals you use for your melodies. And a
smooth legato connection between most of your voices. From short
legato speed to full on portamentos on some chosen transitions for an
elevated emotional accent.
(How To Compose)
Expressive Vibrato
Vibrato is probably the single most important expressive technique for adding
emotion to any note in your performance. And of course you can have many shapes
and colors of a vibrato technique. From light, all the way to passionate vibrato. You
can also shape your vibratos with curves, to change how strong the vibrato is over the
time of the note. As well as the vibrato speed. A good rule of thumb for vibratos, is
that they will always be more clear and expressive on a solo instrument compared to
an ensemble or section. In my opinion, strings and woodwinds have the most
expressive and emotional vibrato. For leading melodies with solo instruments that
would mean for example, flute or oboe, or violin or cello.
(How To Compose)
Minimal Rhythm

Rhythm is the core of music, as it is present everywhere, even a melody

will have rhythm built into the very pattern of notes. However, for
emotional music a rule of thumb can be to use minimal focus on
rhythmic parts and percussion, and way more focus on harmonies and
melodies. You should even consider reducing the rhythmic attention in
your melodies as well, by using longer notes, air and silence in between
phrases, instead of short rhythmic melodic phrases.
(How To Compose)
Motion and Curves
Dynamic motion like crescendos and diminuendos, arcs of various lengths, and
swells..are all used extensively in emotional music. Because graceful movement
is so expressive and emotional, however you implement it into your
performances. So as a general guidelines you should think in terms of flowing
smooth curves and movement in every aspect of your performances, and you will
have a good starting point to write parts for your emotional music compositions.
(How To Compose)
Tempo Automation

Gradually changing tempo over time is a super powerful way of adding

emotion and expression to your music compositions, and often it is
slightly neglected by composers. In emotional music styles you can do
this even more extensively than many other styles of music. So much
so, that your entire tempo track can be full of tempo automation curves
to shape the movement of time over your complete composition.
(How To Compose)
The Power of Silence

Silence is one of the greatest and most powerful tools in music. It can
add a sense of drama, it can give more weight to a musical phrase, and it
can add a sense of reflection which is amazing for emotional music.
Simply by adding more silence and air into your music performances in
your composition will often add that sense of depth and atmosphere that
often goes hand in hand with emotional and beautiful music.
(How To Compose)
The Sounds of Emotional Music

Now let’s explore what kinds of instruments and sounds are common to
use in emotional music. Of course this depends on what style and
character your emotional music composition should have, but it is still
important to have a good palette of colors to use in your composer
toolkit. So let’s go through some of the most common sounds of
emotional music, right now!
(How To Compose)
Soft Piano

• Piano, the most grand of all instruments, the king of dynamics and
range. And in my opinion, a soft sounding piano is one of the most
fundamental instruments for emotional music of all styles.
• Soft Tone
• Low Dynamics
• Mellow Performance
• Ambient Depth
(How To Compose)
Lush Strings
• Lush strings is another amazing instrument for emotional music, especially for the chords,
harmonies and backing atmospheres. But also for high range melodies to carry your main theme.
• Lush Sound
• Low Dynamics
• Low Range (Harmonies)
• High Range (Melodies)
• Smooth Voice Leading
• Dynamic Movement
• Soft Articulations
(How To Compose)
Expressive Melodies

• Expressive Melodies. In general, for your leading melodies you really

want to go all in with expression to create a rich and powerful impact
in emotional music.
• Solo Instruments
• Intimate Sound
• Lyrical Legato
• Strong Vibrato
(How To Compose)
Deep Ambience
• Atmosphere, ambience, and depth. Those are very important aspects of
emotional music, and there are several types of instruments, articulations and
sound design techniques you can use to create those deep ambient sounds for
emotional music.
• Ambient Pads
• Soundscapes
• Dreamy Pulses
• Deep Swells
• Huge Reverb
(How To Compose)
Shimmering Magic

• himmering and organic sounds that has that magical sustain in the
notes, are very good to add atmosphere to your emotional music.
• Sweet Harp
• Magical Plucks
• Mellow Keys
• Divine Harmonics
• Light Bells
(How To Compose)
Beautiful Vocals

• The human voice has the most incredible expression and emotional
range of any instrument. Whether you use choirs or solo voices, if you
add those beautiful vocals you will make your music more emotional.
• Glorious Choir
• Melodic Vocal
• Lyrical Vocal
(How To Compose)
 But what about composing for
the emotions of Fear, Suspense,
and Anger?
 How to Create Fearful Music
Eerie Intervals  
• Certain intervals are scary because they throw the conventions of music harmony and
theory into disarray. One, the tritone, was considered so disconcerting that it was called
diabolus in musica (the devil in music) by medieval theorists, and avoided at all costs!  
• That’s why this same interval appears on the violin at the start of Saint
Saëns’Danse Macabre; and it continued to instill fear in the minds of many parents when
embraced by heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Slayer.  
• Chromatic notes, as featured in the ominous Shark Theme in John Williams’ score
to Jaws – one of the most instantly recognisable and frequently quoted themes in the whole of
film music – can also send shivers down the spine. 
(What Makes)
The Disturbing Dies Irae
• Quoting this plainchant from the Latin Mass for the Dead has
become the standard strategy by which composers across the ages have sought
to signify the deathly.  
• Berlioz uses it in the final movement of the Symphonie Fantastique, Liszt in his
Totentanz and Rachmaninov in Isle of the Dead. 
• More recently, it has made some surprise appearances in popular culture,
including Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd and Alan Menken’s score to
Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  
(What Makes)
Intimidating instrumentation 
• The pipe organ heads the list of instruments associated with horror given its gothic, archaic
connotations, being used prominently in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score to The Phantom of the
Opera (where, as in Gaston Leroux’s novel, it is played by the ghostly protagonist).  
• Vic Mizzy’s theme to The Addams Family, which was brilliantly parodied by Alf Clausen for a
Halloween special of The Simpsons, uses harpsichord for much the same reason; while Saint-
Saëns’s Danse Macabre features solo violin, the instrument traditionally associated with the devil.   
• The impact of O Fortuna from Orff’s Carmina Burana is maximised by its loud, tense opening for
full chorus, and the appearance of Dies Irae in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique is made to sound
fierce by being presented on tubas and bassoons, punctuated by bells to signify the ecclesiastical and
funereal.  
(What Makes)
The Haunting Human Voice 
• High, screeching string sounds, as used in Bernard Herrman’s soundtrack to the shower scene from
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, can be scary for their evocation of stabbing and connotations of
bloodcurdling human screams.  
• A low, menacing human voice can itself sound equally terrifying, as in the rasping vocals adopted
by the likes of shock rocker Marilyn Manson – whose cover of Danny Elfman’s This is Halloween,
from The Nightmare Before Christmas, warrants a special mention – or the eerie narration by veteran
horror actor Vincent Price in Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which culminates in cackles of evil
laughter.  
• Full choruses, meanwhile, add a gothic feel to scores ranging from Carmina Burana to Sweeney
Todd to The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
(What Makes)
 Fear and Suspense

• Instrumentation
• The two most commonly used instruments in suspense music are synthesizers
and strings.
• Synthesizer music is eerie and artificial.  Notes can last far longer than any
human could hold them. Perfect for suspense music.

(Regan)
• Tempo
• One of the easiest ways to do this is to raise the tempo.
• Tempo is defined as the speed at which a piece of music should be played. The higher
the tempo, the faster the music.
• This is especially true if your music is already very staccato — made up of short,
individual notes. Knowing this, it makes sense that good suspense music can mimic a
fast heartbeat.  
• Not immediately, mind you.  This technique is about suspense music, not horror
music. It’s all about the slow build. It starts out slow, then builds and builds.
(Regan)
• Dynamics
• In music, a crescendo is where the volume hits its peak.
• This is where you use your scariest music.  You can still mimic a heartbeat.
 You can still use strings or synths. But this isn’t suspense music, this is horror
music.
• Take everything you’ve been doing and turn it up to 11.

(Regan)
 Anger/Rage
Loud Dynamics
• The use of forte dynamics and accented notes creates a steady stream of loudness throughout
a piece. Loud dynamics cause an increase in intensity and power within a song that
stimulates the release of adrenaline in the listener, beginning the fight or flight response.
• Powerful dynamics evoke a significant range of emotions, so it’s important to understand
what is the exact effect you are achieving. For example, the volume of a song jumping from
very soft to very loud is dynamic, but it will more likely produce terror rather than rage. And
prolonged loudness is more likely to emulate excitement rather than rage by continually
pumping adrenaline into the listener. To differentiate between excitement and rage, the
composition will require another component, called harmonic dissonance.
(How To Create)
Harmonic Dissonance
• Harmonic dissonance is a technique used to create negative emotions like terror, sadness, and rage.
Certain intervals and scales appear more or less dissonant depending on the listener.
• The reason dissonance causes rage is due to the acoustic ratio between the wavelength of two different
notes. For example, a perfect 5th interval’s wavelengths contain a ratio of 2/3, which is fairly easy for
the human brain to process while a minor second interval contains a ratio of 16:15, which is far more
difficult for our brains to conceptualize. Any interval with closely related notes creates an effect called
“beating” where the slight amplitude peak overlap between the two notes causes a pulsation in the
sound.
• The displeasure created by dissonance causes the listener to feel destabilized, distraught, and
directionless, which can evoke an important aspect of anger: a perceived threat.
(How To Create)
Forward Drive
• Once all the sonic elements are in place, it’s important to insert a counterbalance into the structure.
Think of it as taking breaks from the dissonance. This is done by “Forward Drive and Release”,
where the song transitions from dissonance to the root of the key in order to create a sense of
resolve (called resolution). The effect is powerful: it allows a fresh release of adrenaline after
returning and then departing once again from the tonic/root.
• One of the best examples of a song that balances harmonic dissonance with resolution is Nirvana’s
Smells Like Teen Spirit. The song is a rollercoaster of emotions, from melodic vocals over mellow
guitar, transitioning to screaming on top of overblown drums and distorted guitar. Each time the
song returns to the root of the key it enables the listener to recover their emotions, only to launch
back into dissonance and descending into rage.
(How To Create)
18 Emotions – One Piece of Music
(Collier)
One Melody – Different Emotions
(How To Create Different)
Chord Progression for Different Moods
(Write A Chord)
Singing with Expression
(Gault)
How To Translate The Feeling Into Song
(Claudio)
Unit 3- PCUP - Overview
Global context: Identities and relationships

Key concept: Change

Related concept: Audience

Statement of inquiry: Art moves the soul in different ways depending on the audience/viewer

Inquiry questions:

Factual: What emotions does art evoke for you?

Which artworks do you choose for different circumstances or moods? 
Which techniques do artists use to stimulate emotion?

Conceptual: How can you take positive feelings from one art form and explore them in another?  
Do the arts have a role in constructive change?

Debatable: Are artists obligated to their audience?

Summative Tasks

• 1: Research Presentation to include: 

• The student’s favourite piece(s) of music, including research about the artist
and the context at the point of creation 
• A critical analysis of student’s chosen piece(s) of music
• To demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the music piece(s) and how
artistic techniques are used to evoke emotion, including a thorough analysis and
perceptive interpretation of their research 
• To provide a detailed and insightful critique of the music piece(s) chosen.
• 2: Development of Outcome
• A selection of process journal extracts to show:
• the development of the student’s artistic intention
• the exploration of artistic ideas
• Skills and techniques acquired during the progression of the work near the start, the middle and towards the end
process.

• The development evidence will enable students to demonstrate: 

• detailed explanation of the intended outcome (the artistic intention, which should be feasible, clear
and imaginative) and its connection with the statement of inquiry 
• exploration of ideas to realize the student’s artistic intention
• the acquisition and development of skills and techniques used to realize the student’s artistic intention 
• 3.:“A Glimpse Into My Soul” - Student Created LP (Album)
• This will be an album put together by the student
• Complete with a track list
• Album Artwork (to transfer meaning to another Art area) OR the creation of a promotional video/ advertisement of the
LP
• The album will be comprised of
• 2 original composed pieces
• MuseScore
• DAW of Choice
• 3 performed adaptations
• Varying styles/ genres/ themes / etc.
• Two interludes (think Dramatic Monologues) between pieces or a spoken intro and outro (this is to transfer meaning to
another Art area)
• The selected pieces will show a rage of emotions and pinpoint 5 times in the
student’s lives that were/ are significantly important to their development into
the people they are today. 
• Keeping in mind: 
• The emotions music evokes for them
• The music chosen for different circumstances and/or moods
• The techniques used by composers/songwriters/performers to stimulate emotion
• Taking the emotions from music and translating them into another artform, i.e. album artwork,
interludes (drama) between the chosen tracks on their album, etc. 
• How music and the emotions attached or created bring/brought about change in the student
• The audience intended to consume their album and what they should feel afterwards
• 4: “A Glimpse Into My Soul” - Programme Notes and Rationale
• This will be the Programme notes created for the 5 works complied in the LP
• Programme Notes to include: 
• Context of each piece 
• Extra-Musical (When and Where?)
• Musical (What, Why, and How?)
• Rationale on how the ALBUM as a whole conveys the intended emotions
AND how it relates to the SOI (Art moves the soul in different ways
depending on the audience/viewer)
Works Cited
Cherry, Kendra. ”The Six Types of Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior”. VeryWellMind, 2020, Retrieved
from https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-types-of-emotions-4163976, 17 February 2021.
Collier, Jacob. “Jacob Collier Plays the Same Song In 18 Increasingly Complex Emotions | WIRED”. YouTube, uploaded by
Wired, 06 Oct. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWHpdmDHrn8&feature=emb_logo
Claudio. “How to translate the feeling into sound | Claudio | TEDxPerth”, YouTube, uploaded by TEDXTalks, 10 Feb. 2017,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5yxIzs5Wug
Gault, Saher. “Singing with EXPRESSION | Techniques to bring out the emotion in your voice”, YouTube, uploaded by Saher
Gault, 01 Aug. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2aGHlsh3M&feature=emb_logo
“How to Compose Emotional Music (Beauty and Expression)”. Composers, 2021, Retrieved from
https://professionalcomposers.com/how-to-compose-emotional-music-beauty-expression/, 17 February 2021.
“How To Create Different Emotions With Your Melodies!”. YouTube, uploaded by Servida Music, 01 Aug. 2019,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh08Y_reOI0&feature=emb_logo
“How To Create Emotions in Music: Rage”. Recording Arts Canada, 2021. Retrieved from
https://recordingarts.com/community/tips/samuel-beilman/evoking-rage-in-music, 17 February 2021.
Works Cited
Regan, Patrick. “How To Use Suspenseful Music: Mastering The Film Score”.
StudioBinder, 2019, Retrieved from https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/film- score-
suspenseful-music/, 17 February 2021.
Utton, Dominic. ”How Do We Evoke Emotion With Music”. The Telegraph, 2018,
retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/power-of-music/how- to-create-
emotion/, 17 February 2021.
“What Makes Music Scary?”. University of Surrey, 2015, Retrieved from
https://www.surrey.ac.uk/features/what-makes-music-scary, 17 February 2021.
“Write A Chord Progression for Every Mood”. YouTube, uploaded by Pianote, 10 Sept.
2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AeYfXEKSJI&feature=emb_logo.