Musical Emotions Explained

Patrik N. Juslin

The first single-author book in psychology to offer a coherent account of musical emotions
Written by one of the leading researchers in the field
Explains with both clarity and rigour the manifold ways in which music may engage our emotions
Sufficiently engaging to attract lay readers, yet comprehensive and novel enough to attract specialists
Richly illustrated with several music examples from everyday life

2019 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Musical Emotions Explained

Patrik N. Juslin

Description

Can music really arouse emotions? If so, what emotions, and how? Why do listeners respond with different emotions to the same piece of music? Are emotions to music different from other emotions? Why do we respond to fictional events in art as if they were real, even though we know they're not? What is it that makes a performance of music emotionally expressive?

Based on ground-breaking research, Musical Emotions Explained explores how music expresses and arouses emotions, and how it becomes an object of aesthetic judgments. Within the book, Juslin demonstrates how psychological mechanisms from our ancient past engage with meanings in music at multiple levels of the brain to evoke a broad variety of affective states - from startle responses to profound aesthetic emotions, and explores why these mechanisms respond to music?

Written by one of the leading researchers in the field, the book is richly illustrated with music examples from everyday life, and explains with clarity and rigour the manifold ways in which music may engage our emotions, in a style sufficiently engaging for lay readers, yet comprehensive and novel enough for specialists.

2019 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Musical Emotions Explained

Patrik N. Juslin

Part I: Introduction
1. Setting the Stage: Overture in C Major
2. The Book's Composition: Aim and Structure
3. The Value of a Psychological Approach
4. Music, Experience, and Affect
Part II: Expression and Perception of Emotion
5. What Is Meant by Emotional Expression?
6. Empirical Studies: What Have We Learned?
7. Music as Expression: Objections and Obstacles
8. Breaking the Code: The Musical Features
9. How Are Music and Emotion Links Studied?
10. Viewing Music Through a Brunswikian Lens
11. The Voice of Angels? Iconic Expression
12. Further Layers: Intrinsic and Associative Expression
13. Deviation From the Exact: The Role of the Performer
Part III: Arousal of Emotion
14. Beyond Perception: When Music Moves Us
15. Does Music Arouse Emotions? How Do We Know?
16. The Prevalence of Emotional Reactions
17. How Does Music Arouse Emotions?
18. Jumping at Shadows: Brain Stem Reflex
19. Get Into the Groove: Rhythmic Entrainment
20. Mirroring the Expression: Contagion
21. Ring My Bell: Evaluative Conditioning
22. Blast From the Past: Episodic Memory
23. Seeing in the Mind's Eye: Visual Imagery
24. What Comes Next? Musical Expectancy
25. Predictions, Implications, Complications
Part IV: Aesthetic Judgment
26. Aesthetics: The Hard Problem?
27. Traditional Approaches to Aesthetics
28. What's Special? Adopting the Aesthetic Attitude
29. Aesthetic Criteria: Meet the Usual Suspects!
30. A Novel Approach Towards Aesthetic Judgment
31. Aesthetics and Affect in Broader Perspective
32. The Last Chorus: Putting It All Together
33. Coda: Final Outlook
Appendix: The Lens Model Equation

2019 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Musical Emotions Explained

Patrik N. Juslin

Author Information

Patrik N. Juslin is Professor of Psychology at Uppsala University in Sweden, where he directs their research and teaching in music psychology. His work focuses on the perception and experience of sound in music and speech, particularly in relation to emotion, also covering areas such as music education, health, music performance, and aesthetics. Juslin co-edited the Handbook of Music and Emotion (2010) together with John Sloboda, and has also previously worked semi-professionally as a guitar player.

2019 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Musical Emotions Explained

Patrik N. Juslin

Reviews and Awards

"Juslin connects music and emotion to all manner of other human processes (e.g., learning, memory, perception) and, most strikingly, to aesthetics. The author's direct engagement with aesthetic judgment helps lift the book from something like an impressive compendium (a list of references runs 45 pages) to something much grander and more important. That the writing is consistently friendly and personal, never clinical, is somewhat surprising. Through some magic discussion remains accessible to almost any mature reader, even as the author marches through his argument with remarkable precision. The book could prove especially useful to musicians and might prompt them to think differently about what they do." -- CHOICE

"Handbook of Music and Emotion, by Patrik N. Juslin and John A. Sloboda, is an excellent book. It is comprehensive and up-to-date, well organized, well written, and stimulating." -- Music Perception