Instrumental music often accompanies the most dramatic scenes of films, enhancing emotional engagement and storytelling through its unique ability to evoke imagery and emotions. A recent study has illustrated precisely how the various acoustic features of soundtrack music—such as tempo, loudness, and pitch—can elicit distinct visual images of movie scenes in the minds of listeners. With careful examination, the researchers found distinct and mostly non-overlapping contributions of these acoustic elements, bridging the connection between auditory stimuli and imaginative visual imagery.
Conducted with the participation of 121 individuals, this study aimed to explore whether instrumental music merely evokes emotions or if it also conveys more complex meanings. Instrumental music, defined as music without vocals, was emphasized for its role as part of the multisensory experience of film. Participants listened to twenty 15-second excerpts of polyphonic instrumental music and provided descriptions of imagined movie scenes they envisioned alongside the music.
Previous research has shown the compelling ability of music to evoke strong emotions ranging from happiness to sadness. Yet, the exact role instrumental music plays in the evocation of extra-musical imagery—elements like lighting, character roles, and settings—remains less understood. This study sought to clarify these contributions by rigorously analyzing acoustic features.
Participants were presented with carefully selected movie soundtrack excerpts, and after listening, they were asked to rate their emotional experiences and describe the movie scenes they had envisioned. The researchers then analyzed how these ratings correlated with specific acoustic features: tempo, mean loudness, variability in loudness, pitch, and dissonance.
The findings were compelling. For example, excerpts characterized by faster tempos prompted listeners to envision brighter, hot, and colorful settings. Conversely, soundtrack excerpts with higher loudness levels led to the imagination of sharp, large, and heavy objects. Interestingly, the imagery associated with characters varied greatly based on the acoustic elements, highlighting distinctions between positive and negative emotional associations. It was found, for example, higher dissonance and loudness escalated the idea of villains as tall characters experiencing negative emotions.
Even more fascinating was the finding about emotional mediation—specifically how negative emotions like fear and sadness seemed to fully mediate the relationship between specific acoustic features and the imagined properties of movie scenes. This indicates not just correlation but suggests these emotions play significant roles when it came to associatively linking music and imagery.
"Distinct and mostly non-overlapping contributions of acoustic features to the imagination of properties of movie scene settings, characters, actions, and objects" succinctly sums up the essence of these findings as noted by the authors of the study. It emphasizes the acuity with which acoustic cues from instrumental music can paint vivid mental pictures, crafted from the emotional fabric interwoven by the music's characteristics.
The researchers were cautious to specify limitations, highlighting the scope of their study predominantly covered Hollywood film scores and participants with Western musical enculturation. They hinted at the need for broader studies examining the cross-cultural responsiveness to audio cues found within non-Western music contexts.
These findings raise important questions about the interconnectedness of various forms of media. Insight gained from this study may facilitate more effective educational practices, as educators might leverage specific musical qualities to enrich learning experiences, and also contribute to the burgeoning field of media accessibility, ensuring inclusive designs for audio-visual materials.
Overall, the ability of non-vocal instrumental soundtrack music to evoke rich visual and emotional landscapes expands both the fields of music cognition and general cognitive neuroscience. This inquiry opens new avenues to understand how multisensory experiences can shape, inform, and deepen our engagement with storytelling—both on-screen and beyond.