Perceived Composer, Author Intent Influences Experience of Music, Poetry

University Relations/Submitted

Lisa Margulis, left, and Bill Levine

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – New research finds that people's perception of author or composer intent influences their experience of a poem or piece of music. But while people want their music to be happy, they prefer their poetry to be sad.

University of Arkansas music professor Elizabeth Margulis and William Levine, associate professor of psychology, collaborated on the study, published this month in PLOS ONE.

"People liked and were more moved by excerpts of music when a description made them sound happy, but they liked and were more moved by excerpts of poetry when a description made them sound sad," Margulis said. "Although it might seem like our evaluative and emotional experiences of artworks are spurred directly by the particular combination of notes or words, these findings show that context - such as the information and assumptions a listener might have about the artist's goals — can play a significant role, leading us to feel and think differently about what we perceive."

Margulis noted a surprising finding in the study was that positive information about composers' intent led to richer experiences of music by listeners but negative information about poets' intent led to richer experiences by people hearing poetry.

"This suggests that the presumed social function of different forms of art can vary widely," she said.

The study asked participants to listen to 30-second excerpts of expressively ambiguous music or poetry that could be interpreted as happy or sad. Just before listening, a brief description of the composer's or author's supposed intent was shown on the screen. The descriptions — one-third positive, one-third negative, and one-third neutral — were randomly paired with excerpts across different participants.

After listening, participants rated how happy and sad they thought each excerpt was, how much they enjoyed it, how moved they were by the piece, and how well the excerpt conveyed the composer or author's intention.

When told it had been created with a positive intent, participants interpreted both music and poetry as happier, and when told it had been created with a negative intent, as sadder. This finding supports the theory that empathy for a perceived human artist plays an important role in emotional experiences of art.

More surprisingly, musical excerpts overall were perceived as happier than poetry excerpts overall. And people's experience differed greatly between the mediums, with participants enjoying music more when they perceived it as happy, but enjoying poetry more when they perceived it as sad.

The tie between author or composer emotional intent and audience experience has theoretical applications for the cognitive science of art, and practical implications for performing arts presenters, people involved in arts outreach, and arts educators.

"These findings serve as a reminder that these art forms may be viewed as instances of intentional communication, and thus — like all communication — may benefit from appropriate contextualization, even when the communication is apparently ambiguous," Levine said.

Rhimmon Simchy-Gross, a doctoral student in the university's Music Cognition Lab, and Carolyn Kroger, a former Honors College psychology major, assisted in the research.

Support for the study was provided by a University of Arkansas Collaborative Research Grant.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.