Emotion and Music

When writing a piece of music, it is important to convey a message and create a story within the listener's mind. Music, as a form of communication dates back to tribal songs and to signal incoming danger, and is even present from animals (such as a mockingbird, being able to recreate notes when sung at).
Growing up listening to the charts and pop music, from the Spice Girls and Britney Spears to what I listen to now (a mixture of rock such as Lower Than Atlantis, alternative such as Imagine Dragons and Bastille to even acoustic and folk such as Ed Sheeran and James Bay) has shaped me into who I am and by listening to the stories behind the songs, it has even inspired me into writing my own material from my own experiences.

"The concept of 'communication' requires that there is both a performer's intention to express a specific emotion and recognition of this emotion in question" (Juslin & Sloboda, 2010, p.455). One example of this concept is Adele's 'Someone Like You' described as being "raw and unfiltered and incredibly sad but also, in a lot of ways beautiful and resolute" (Montgomery, 2011) was based on a person she had broken up with and finding out one day that he was engaged. Famously performed with just the accompaniment of a piano, Adele performed at the Brits which tugged at the nation's heartstrings, using only her voice. The emotion that she put into both her lyrics and using the controlled power in her voice not only made it a sombre and beautiful piece, but also connected to people on a level which was understood, as heartbreak is a common occurrence.

Another artist that I feel puts all into their songs is Ed Sheeran, a personal inspiration to me, creating images in the mind with only a sentence. 'Small Bump' was written about a friend's miscarriage, written from a first person's perspective. The song is written in B-flat major described as having a "cheerful love" and a "hope aspiration for a better world" (Schubart, 1806) which is enforced by the lyrics in the song such as "I'll hold your body in my hands, be as gentle as I can". Although it is not Sheeran's personal experience, he is able to put emotion into his songs that allow the listener to feel the pain and sadness of the actual ordeal.

Not all emotional compositions have to be sad or even have lyrics. Mozart's famous 'Marriage of Figaro - Overture' written in D major, boasts instruments ranging from flutes and oboes to trumpets and strings and creates a jolly undertone to open the opera with. Starting off with the fast tempo 'buzzing' of the violins, with the horns joining in immediately, building to a crescendo within the first ten seconds of the four minute piece, with the booming drums echoing in the background, the piece is kept light and bouncy with the quick tempo of the horns and flutes, even at the oboe solo which slows the tempo down, but still keeps the essence of happiness.

Emotion in music is vital, as for many artists, it is a way of putting their own personal feelings into something, and creating a piece that helps to express both the sad and happy. When writing my own songs, it takes me a while to fully get into it and tap into the 'emotion part' in my brain however once I fully embrace it, I am able to translate the words and the feelings into something music using just my guitar. "The performer is a creator who brings to life, through his own sensitivity of feeling and imagination" (Meyer, 1961, p.199). It is not enough just to be able to have the music in front of you in a live performance. To be able to fully get across the emotion within the song, the performer has to embody the emotion fully, ie: a sad song would just be standing quite still, with lots of eye contact, getting across the pain in the eyes as it is being performed.
One thing I need to work on is my performance style and how I get across the emotion in my song when performing live by looking at my body language and where I am looking when singing. Once I get the basic understanding of this, I feel like it will strengthen my skills as a musician and help the audience to understand on a more emotion level.