Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

The SMMA was not designed to stand alone as an analytic tool. Grocke also used
phenomenological descriptions of the music, while the SMMM was used
methodically to assess the various elements of the music selections (Grocke 1999, p.
219). In the context of this study it served well as one source of analytical
informations to ground the Intensity Profiles. Together with the phenomenological
descriptions of the music the SMMA qualified both the IAPs and the hermeneutic
interpretations of the music.
9.4.2.3 The Mood Wheel
Hevner’s Mood wheel is one of the oldest devices of experimental music psychology
still in use. It was designed in the early 1930ies, and it is still in use as a tool to
identify one very important aspect of the affective expression of the music (for a
discussion, see: Gabrielsson and Lindström 2001, Juslin and Sloboda 2001).
However, a critical question is whether important affective qualities are missing in the
mood wheel, and whether the ‘wheel’ construct is sufficiently validated (Bonde 1997;
Wosch 2002, 2004). Especially it is relevant to make an inquiry about the qualities of
anxious/anxiety and angry/anger in a mood analysis, as they seem to be missing in
Hevner’s system (Wosch 2004). Part of an answer may be that Hevner designed the
mood wheel to identify the mood expressed in the music (or better: the mood the
music is expressive of), not the mood or affect of the listener, as influenced by the
music. Music is not ‘a sentient being’ (Kivy 1990), and I agree with Hevner (and
many others) that music cannot express/be expressive of anxiety or anger. However,
music in mood category 7 or 8 may very well evoke or support feelings of anger or
rage in a client (example: The special GIM Program Affect release was designed to
support anger work. It begins with the movement Mars from G. Holst’s symphonic
suite The Planets, followed by two movements from Orff’s Carmina Burana).
Anxiety may be evoked – or provoked – by music in different mood categories, often
music that is ambiguous, with more than one layer of expression and meaning, with
alien timbres etc. (example: 2nd movement of Menotti’s Piano Concerto and excerpts
from Shostakovich’s 5th symphony, both included in the program Emotional
Expression II).
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