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M apping the H uman H eart : a H olistic A nalysis of F ear in S chubert
Author(s) -
SPITZER MICHAEL
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
music analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-2249
pISSN - 0262-5245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2249.2011.00329.x
Subject(s) - sublime , musical , psychology , affordance , action (physics) , persona , symphony , set (abstract data type) , aesthetics , cognitive psychology , art , humanities , literature , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , programming language
This article analyses two works by Schubert, the first movement of his Unfinished Symphony and Der Erlkönig , in terms of the basic emotional category of Fear. Proceeding from the set of acoustic cues associated with the expression of Fear in musical materials, the article explores this emotional category both as an affective state and as a system of action tendencies enacted by the musical persona through a work's formal behaviours. Schubert's emotional processes are analysed from two standpoints: (1) as pathways through the affect space of Russell's circumplex model and (2) as ecological affordances of Öhman's fear‐imminence trajectory. The article aims at a holistic approach insofar as it explores the continuum between empirical and aesthetic approaches to musical emotion: between psychological and physiological measurements of Fear evinced by sonic features, and philosophical concepts of Fear inherent in the musical sublime, as unfolded by substantial works of art music.