Abstract:
Listening experiments and physical analyses of vocal performances were made to investigate how the emotional expressions were transmitted to listeners and to find acoustic correlates of each emotional expression. Three female singers were instructed to perform a short piece of music so as to communicate five basic emotions to listeners. The five basic emotions were ``happiness,'' ``sadness,'' ``anger,'' ``fear,'' and ``without expression.'' Some listening experiments revealed that, on the whole, the singer's intention and the listener's impression, although there were individual discrepancies, were in general agreement. The performances were analyzed regarding physical parameters such as tempo, dynamics, agogics, intonation, vibrato, and so on. The relationships between the expressive intention of the singers and measured physical parameters were revealed.