Music expresses emotion without feeling it. Stephen Davies was the first to claim that "music is expressive of emotions in virtue of displaying emotion characteristics in appearance." Associations between musical features and emotion differ among individuals. Appearance emotionalism claims many listeners' perceiving associations constitutes the expressiveness of music. Which musical features are more commonly associated with which emotions is part of music psychology.
The process of emotional elicitation begins with an "automatic, immediate response that initiates motor and autonomic activity and prepares us for possible action" causing a process of cognition that may enable listeners to name the felt emotion.
The philosopher Jennifer Robinson assumes the existence of a mutual dependence between cognition and elicitation in her description of "emotions as process, music as process" theory, or process theory. Robinson argues that the process of emotional elicitation begins with an "automatic, immediate response that initiates motor and autonomic activity and prepares us for possible action" causing a process of cognition that may enable listeners to name the felt emotion.
Structural features are divided into two parts, segmental features and suprasegmental features. Segmental features are the individual sounds or tones that make up the music; this includes acoustic structures such as duration, amplitude, and pitch.
Some studies find that perception of basic emotional features are a cultural universal, though people can more easily perceive emotion, and perceive more nuanced emotion, in music from their own culture.
Performance features refer to the manner in which a piece of music is executed by the performer(s). These are broken into two categories: performer skills, and performer state. Performer skills are the compound ability and appearance of the performer; including physical appearance, reputation, and technical skills. The performer state is the interpretation, motivation, and stage presence of the performer.
There are plenty of examples when it comes to performance features and how a performer may elicit emotion throughout a performance as well as their capability of eliciting emotion in their audience.
Listener features refer to the individual and social identity of the listener(s). This includes their personality, age, knowledge of music, and motivation to listen to the music.
One of the listener features would be the mindset of the listener. The listener's mindset while listening to music plays a large part in their emotions when it comes to listening to music.
Another listener feature, as stated, would be the personality of the listener. Some people are more moved by music than other, especially those with a background in music or any particular knowledge of music.
Contextual features are aspects of the performance such as the location and the particular occasion for the performance (i.e., funeral, wedding, dance).Most music that is going to be played at a funeral is going to evoke sad emotions versus music that's played at weddings that are meant to evoke feelings of happiness and excitement. Where music is being played is going to play a part in the emotions the listener is going to feel while listening to the music being played.
Along with the research that music conveys an emotion to its listener(s), it has also been shown that music can produce emotion in the listener(s).his view often causes debate because the emotion is produced within the listener, and is consequently hard to measure. In spite of controversy, studies have shown observable responses to elicited emotions, which reinforces the Emotivists' view that music does elicit real emotional responses.