I’m not quite asking for peoples feelings about music, although members are welcome to share their thoughts. I am more interested though in what the scientific explanation is, for why music makes us happy, sad, etc?
(I think I should have placed this in GQ…sorry Mods!! )
It would be wonderful (or perhaps awful?) if an explanation existed!!
Hmmm… what happened here then? Do we not have any Music Theory buffs on the Dope board?
I think this is an interesting subject that probably doesn’t have a pat answer. My guess is that the emotional connection stems from unconscious memories. You may have heard a similar piece of music or maybe saw a movie with a similar score when you were younger. Maybe even as far back as very early childhood. That emotional response to a sound is ever-changing based on music you hear throughout your life.
Yes, we do. The problem is that it’s not a question which music theory sets out to answer. It’s in a no man’s land between the aesthetics and philosophy of music, and of the impartiality of science - before one could answer scientifically why emotions are created, one would need a scientific definition of what emotions are.
I don’t really want to venture into the realm of semantics. I agree my OP is a little vague, but part of what I’m asking is why music has this ability to alter feelings, and transport the imagination? Why are there melancholy chords and upbeat rhythms, and what is it that they do to us?
There aren’t. There are perceptions of such things among listeners, which as Kalhoun indicates involves all sorts of complex and subtle cultural associations. There’s no inherent characteristic of minor triad or a jig which makes it ‘melancholy’ or ‘upbeat’.
This is why it’s not a question of music theory. Its purpose is to describe and define ‘minor’, or ‘jig’. If anything, it’s perhaps a question better directed towards psychologists?
This book appears to be relevant to the OP’s question. I have a copy but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, so I can’t comment on it.
I would propose that music exists *because * it affects our emotions.
A young Mozart discovers that playing music gets him attention and adoration, so he creates more.
Grog thumps on a hollow log one night beside the fire in his cave and notices it makes a pleasing sound. Now, what in the human brain categorizes the sound as pleasing? I can’t imagine.
But, Grog notices that the nubile young cutie looked his way when he did it, so he does it again. Ah! Positive feedback.
Years later, when Grog is too old to care about young cuties, he still likes to thump on the log because it evokes memories of the extremely satisfying times that his mind associates with those sounds.
Well, that’s just not good enough! Get reading it now, and report back here, post haste!
You know I’m only kidding. Thanks for the link. There were a few other interesting titles there, to look out for when I am next in the library.
This and the one you pointed out, might even be worth ordering.
I read *This is Your Brain On Music * about two months ago. Absolutely fascinating study of the connections between music, emotions, pitch, timbre, rhythm, sexual attractiveness…I highly recommend it.
Got some interesting sections discussing how even professed non-musical types are actually MUCH more intuitively musical than they know.
Here is an article about the guy who wrote This Is Your Brain on Music, if you don’t have time to buy & read the book…
Kalhoun; Interesting thoughts, but what about when you hear songs beyond your realm of experience that emotionally affect you?
Gorillaman; Could we describe emotions as sensations of the brain? Using a physical analogy, could “pleasant music” be described as a tickle, and “discordant music”, as a pinch of the flesh?
And thus, the first rock star is created. 
p.s. The rest of you, thanks for your responses.