how can music without lyrics invokes emotions and feelings in us such as joy, fear, sadness and etc?
In: Biology
Music has different meaning in different cultures. In this way, it is like a language that you learn. For example, “Da-nunt, Da-nunt” means shark attack or danger. (I’m referring to the music from Jaws.)
Other musical meanings are rooted in tradition. Funeral music makes us sad, because it reminds us of funerals.
So, once you have learned the meaning of common musical progressions, you hear the meaning in the music. (Musical progression are notes played in a certain order together.). What is interesting is that like a language, the meaning varies between cultures. It also varies by your personal experience.
It is often surprising for people to learn the music has meaning, because the lyrics match the mood of the music. But musicians do that on purpose, so you don’t really think about it. You can look on the internet and find many examples of people mismatching lyrics and musical progression meaning. It can be very unsettling. Another example is that the musical key used for a song may be associated with an emotion. You can sing a song in a different key and it will just seem wrong somehow.
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