Perceived emotions of harmonic cadences

Harmonic cadences are chord progressions that play an important structural role in Western classical music – they demarcate musical phrases and contribute to the tonality. This study examines participants’ ratings of the perceived arousal and valence of a variety of harmonic cadences. Manipulations included the type of cadence (authentic, plagal, half, and deceptive), its mode (major or minor), its average pitch height (the transposition of the cadence), the presence of a single tetrad (a dissonant four-tone chord), and the mode (major or minor) of the cadence’s final chord. With the exception of average pitch height, the manipulations had only small effects on arousal. However, the perceived valence of major cadences was substantially higher than for minor cadences, and average pitch had a medium-sized positive effect. Plagal cadences, the inclusion of a tetrad, and ending on a minor chord all had weak negative effects for valence. The present findings are discussed in light of contemporary music theory and music psychology, as knowledge of how specific acoustic components and musical structures impact emotion perception in music is important for performance practice, and music-based therapies.