Emotional Predisposition of Musical Instrument Timbres with Static Spectra

Music is one of the strongest triggers of emotions. Recent studies have shown strong emotional predispositions for musical instrument timbres. They have also shown significant correlations between spectral centroid and many emotions. Our recent study on spectral centroid-equalized tones further suggested that the even/odd harmonic ratio is a salient timbral feature after attack time and brightness. The emergence of the even/odd harmonic ratio motivated us to go a step further: to see whether the spectral shape of musical instruments alone can have a strong emotional predisposition. To address this issue, we conducted followup listening tests of static tones. The results showed that the even/odd harmonic ratio again significantly correlated with most emotions, consistent with the theory that static spectral shapes have a strong emotional predisposition.