# How Music Communicates Emotion



## David Baxter PhD (Mar 25, 2011)

*How Musicians Communicate Emotion*
by Matthias Rascher, Open Culture 
March 18, 2011

Daniel J. Levitin, author of the best-selling books _This Is Your Brain On Music_ and _The World In Six Songs_, is James McGill Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal. Levitin?s most recent study tries to explain how musicians communicate emotion by manipulating the ?expression? of a musical piece. His research shows that variations in the timing of a performance have an even greater emotional impact than do variations in the loudness of playing. ?The skilled pianist has learned to communicate musical emotion primarily by making some notes longer and some shorter, some louder and some softer ? just like we do in normal conversation.?


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