Redefining sad music: Music’s structure suggests at least two sad states

People Experience Different Emotions from Melancholic and Grieving Music

“…Recent research is consistent with the idea that musical sadness may be a synthesis of (at least) two distinctive affective states: melancholy and grief (Huron, 2015, 2016; Warrenburg, 2020b). The distinction between melancholy and grief dates back to Darwin (1872), who suggested that these emotions may have separate motivations and physiological characteristics.…”

“…The current study suggests that previous research may have conflated at least two separable emotional states under the umbrella term sadness: melancholy and grief. Melancholic and grieving music utilize different kinds of music-theoretic structures (Warrenburg, 2020b) are perceived as separate emotional states (Warrenburg, 2019), and result in different emotional experiences (the current study). The main implication of these findings is that researchers may wish to re-examine the way they use emotional terms in studies of music and emotion.…”

Analysis and Classification of Music-Induced States of Sadness

“…Lee et al, 2013). Additionally, grief is associated with increases in epinephrine, cortisol and prolactin (Warrenburg, 2020). Huron (2011) put forward a conjecture that sad music could increase levels of the hormone prolactin, which are typically low in those with MDD.…”

“…Developing this understanding into a more comprehensive model of music-induced sadness will help to elucidate the variability in the literature of sad music. Warrenburg (2020) claimed that further classification of music-induced sad states is required, even considering an infinite spectrum of states. While this is not yet possible, there is an abundance of literature alluding to a range of emotions regarding sad music.…”

Section 3: Emotion Abstracts

“…The implications of this research include the idea that meta-analyses and reviews can be interpreted in new ways using an emotionally granular framework. A series of five experiments consistent with this idea is reviewed, where participants were able to use emotionally granular terms to identify subgroups of music previously unrecognized in the music and emotion literature (Warrenburg, 2020b;2020c). In considering the "future directions" of music and emotion research, it will be important to utilize methodology consistent with emotional granularity in order to discover (potentially) many more than 10 emotions that can be expressed and elicited by music.…”