Relativity of musical mood

TL;DR

This paper explores how the perceived mood of musical chords, specifically major and minor, can change based on the observer’s motion due to the Doppler effect, suggesting new ways to influence musical perception.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the Doppler effect can alter the perceived emotional quality of chords depending on the observer's frame of reference, introducing a novel perspective on musical perception.

Findings

Major chords can sound minor when observed from a moving frame

Almost any triad can be perceived as different chords depending on observer velocity

Potential applications in interactive music performance are discussed

Abstract

A combination of three or more tones played together is called a chord. In the chromatic scale, chords which are consonant are of particular interest and can be divided into several groups, two main ones being the major and minor chords. This paper shows that if three sounds are produced by three spatially separated sources, a "happy" sounding major chord can be observed as its "sad" sounding counterpart depending on the observer's velocity - a consequence of the well known Doppler effect. The analysis is further extended to show that almost any triad may be observed by choosing an appropriate frame of reference, and several interesting symmetries, asymmetries and features of the system are discussed. Finally, the possibility of applications of this effect in the music performance and creation in the context of "interactive listener" is discussed and suggestions for overcoming some technical difficulties are proposed.