| Summary: | Training can enable performers to express music in a personal and emotional way while
communicating aesthetic impressions to an audience. Little research has been done on the
emotive experiences of performing musicians listening to their own performances. The main
goal of this study was to develop a reliable way to investigate emotive content of such
experiences through a combination of listening profiles and continuous measurement.
This empirical, methodological study used a mixed-method design. Responses from formally
and informally trained musicians were tested. The methodology consists of two parts:
listening profiles (Part I), and the continuous measurement of self-reported emotional
response to music (Part II), supported by interviews. Part I consists of a demographic
questionnaire, a listening test and a personality test. Part II consists of a computerised
questionnaire with four questions: 1) word sorting, 2) word, colours, and facial expressions
checklists, which participants use to indicate their emotional responses while the music plays,
3) free description, and 4) rating scales. Data was obtained during three test periods.
Part I results revealed that personality, illness, preferences, and psychological factors
influence the emotive content of listening experiences. Participants’ response time and
manner of word sorting was also supportive of their profiles. Part II results revealed that
listeners pay attention to both structural and performance elements as well as emotive content
in both prescribed and personal musical tracks. Only a few participants were able to identify
the predetermined emotion of the prescribed musical tracks. Participants’ experiences seemed
to be influenced by training and personal preferences.
Listening to their own recorded performances, informally trained participants were able to
focus progressively less on performance elements and more on emotive content, while formally trained participants seemed to focus progressively more on performance elements,
and less on emotive content. === Thesis (MMus)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012
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