Can someone explain to me *why* we can perceive emotion in music? It's all kind of magical to me how music really is a universal language. (Erm, it is, right?) We can all recognise a happy tune, a tense tune, an aggressive one, and perhaps a contemplative or serene tune.
Why is that?
@JordiGH That's a really interesting question. Music is so much a part of culture that you'd think it would be less universal. You'd think that a happy song coming out of, say, the Chinese tradition wouldn't be obviously happy to someone immersed in German culture. And yet, most of the time, it translates fine.
@JordiGH What makes this even more interesting is something I heard on a podcast several months ago, suggesting that some cultures have emotions that don't exist in other cultures, for a whole complicated list of reasons. If they expressed those emotions in song, would people from other cultures understand, despite not having a word for the emotion they're feeling?
If you can find that podcast, I'd really like to listen it!
@Shamar @JordiGH I think it was an episode of Invisbilia, but I'll have to look and see.