The Illuminator

Sad Music evokes positive emotions

People like listening to sad music because it actually evokes positive emotions, according to a new study. Japanese researchers asked 44 volunteers, including both musicians and non-specialists, to listen to two pieces of sad music and one piece of happy music.

Each participant was required to use a set of keywords to rate both their perception of the music and their own emotional state. 

The sad pieces of music included Glinka's " La Separation" in F minor and Blumenfeld's Etude "Sur Mer" in G minor. The happy music piece was Granados's Allegro de Concierto in G major. To control for the "happy" effect of major key, they also played the minor-key pieces in major key, and vice versa.

The researchers said that sad music evoked contradictory emotions as participants felt sad music to be more tragic, less romantic, and less blithe than they felt.

( Source Times of India)