Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study tested the influence of musical style on observers' perceptions of representational and abstract paintings. Participants were thirty-six male and thirty-six female undergraduates who viewed eight paintings under one of three listening conditions: matching, non-matching, or no music. Participants rated each painting on four semantic-differential scales. Mean ratings were compared using MANOVAs. An interaction of painting style and listening condition (Wilks' lambda = .780, p < .05) showed participants' aesthetic experience of viewing the paintings was intensified when the paintings were accompanied by matching music. A main effect for music style (Wilks' lambda = .718, p < .01) showed participants thought all paintings were less active and more beautiful when accompanied by the impressionist music. There were no significant effects for gender.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Cowles

J. T.

(1935). An experimental study of the pairing of certain auditory and visual stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 461–469.

Cupchik

G. C.

Winston

A. S.

, & Herz

R. S.

(1992). Judgments of similarity and difference between paintings. Visual Arts Research, 18, 37–50.

Hasenfus

Martindale

, & Birnbaum

(1983). Psychological reality of cross-media artistic styles. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 9, 841–863.

Kellaris

J. J.

, & Rice

R.C.

(1993). The influence of tempo, loudness, and gender of listener on responses to music. Psychology and Marketing, 10, 15–29.

Lindner

, & Hynan

M. T.

(1987). Perceived structure of abstract paintings as a function of structure of music listened to on initial viewing. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 25, 44–46.

Marks

L. E.

(1978). The unity of the senses: Interrelations among the modalities. New York: Academic Press.

McCurdy

J. D.

(1973). Synergetic perception. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 3, 217–246.

Merleau-Ponty

(1962). Phenomenology of Perception. ( Smith

, Trans.). New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

National Gallery of Art. (1983). New York: Videodisc Publishing, Inc.

10.

Osgood

C. E.

Suci

G. J.

, & Tannenbaum

P. H.

(1967). The measurement of meaning. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

11.

Parrott

A. C.

(1982). Effects of paintings and music, both alone and in combination, on emotional judgments. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 54, 635–641.

12.

Ravel

(1910). Ma Mère L'Oye [Recorded by the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by P. Boulez]. On Ravel [CD]. Hamburg: Deutsche Grammaphon. (1994).

13.

Simon

C. R.

, & Wohlwill

J. F.

(1968). The role of expectation and variation in music. The Journal of Research in Music Education, 16, 227–238.

14.

Webern

(1913). Fünf Stücke für Orchester [Recorded by the Nederlands Balletorkest]. On Anton Webern [CD]. Austria: KOCH International. (1989).

15.

Wehner

W. L.

(1966). The relation between six paintings by Paul Klee and selected musical compositions. The Journal of Research in Music Education, 14, 220–224.

Effects of Music on the Perception of Paintings

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References