Expression to Experimentation: The Effect of Emotional Theories on the Transition from Romantic to Modernist Music

Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Joseph Bognar

College

Arts and Sciences

Discipline(s)

Music

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-25-2024

Abstract

During the shift from Romanticism to Modernism, scientific theories of emotion became more prevalent and widespread. Emerging theories based on understanding emotional responses and human behavior, such as the James-Lange theory, Freudian theory, and behaviorist theory led to changing cultural attitudes toward the nature of emotion and expression. This paper describes how the principal emotional theories of the late 19th and early 20th century affected European composers’ compositional techniques during the Modernist era compared to the earlier Romantic era. Through correlational study and a comparative analysis of Frederic Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor and Arnold Schoenberg’s Suite for piano, Op. 25, this paper describes and contrasts the varied characteristics of emotional expression, including of harmony, rhythmic variation, tempo, dynamic contrast, and form in each piece. In addition, this paper briefly introduces the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, a composer who changed his compositional techniques during his career as new emotion theories were discovered and cultural attitudes toward emotional expression shifted. While several scholars have described emotional expression in different periods of music history (Taylor, 2009; Dahlhaus, 1980) and others have explained the emergence of emotion theories during the 20th century (Reisenzein, 2020; Dixon, 2003), few have explained that these theories contributed to this shift in musical styles in the 20th century. The introduction of new emotion theories and the change in cultural attitudes toward emotion during the late 19th century led to a shift from the emotionally driven romantic music of the 19th century to more experimental modernist music.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

I am a junior music and psychology major, and throughout my time here I have been interested in the many ways that music and psychology interact. After learning about how composers evoke emotions through their music, I became interested in the topic of psychological emotion theories and their effect on musical compositions. This topic pertains to both of my majors and was very interesting to research.

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