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F. R. Balteş, M. Miclea, A. C. Miu
Bartlett, & Dowling, 1995). However, it is unclear whether music-induced affect is
similar in musicians and non-musicians.
Comparisons between musicians and non-musicians suggested that
aesthetic judgments are also grounded on a common conceptual content that may be
somewhat modified by musical expertise (Ystok et al., 2009). Using a verbal
association task, it was shown that non-musicians generated more adjectives
connected to the mood or emotional balance related to music, whereas musicians
appreciated the inciting features of music, its novelty and originality (Ystok et al.,
2009). The emotional categorization of short musical stimuli was equally reliable in
musicians and non-musicians (Bigand et al., 2005). Using positron emission
tomography, Blood and Zatorre (2001) found that the intensity of music-induced
chills is associated with increased cerebral blood flow in reward areas (e.g., ventral
striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal and ventral medial prefrontal cortex).
This study included only musicians, on the assumption that this population is more
likely to experience strong emotional responses to music, although the authors
acknowledged that music training is not necessary to experience these responses
(Blood & Zatorre, 2001). Clearly, further studies are required in order to clarify
whether musical training impacts music-induced emotions.
The objectives of the present study were: (1) to explore the affective space
of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons; and (2) to compare the emotional arousal and valence of
the Four Seasons between musicians and non-musicians. Although Vivaldi’s
masterpiece is widely known, we expected differences in familiarity between
musicians and non-musicians, and consequently we controlled for this variable in
the comparisons of emotional responses. We hypothesized that the movements of
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons would cover the entire affective space (i.e., positive and
negative valence with varying degrees of emotional arousal), considering the
composer’s intention to suggest the features of different seasons in his music.
Another hypothesis was that, although we controlled for differences in familiarity
with this particular composition, musicians would perceive the Four Seasons as less
emotionally activating and pleasant than non-musicians, due to their knowledge of
baroque music style.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Participants
N = 16 musicians and N = 14 non-musicians with ages from 22 to 40 years (mean
age = 28 years), with good hearing abilities and no neurological disease records,
have taken part in this experiment. The musicians group included instrument
players and choir members from the National Opera House from Cluj-Napoca,
Romania. The musicians benefited of an average of ten years of musical education
and they were actively involved in musical activity at the time of this study. The
non-musicians were recruited from the population of students in psychology from
Cognition, Brain, Behavior. An Interdisciplinary Journal
16 (2012) 107-119