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B. Wu, A. Horner, and C. Lee, "The Correspondence of Music Emotion and Timbre in Sustained Musical Instrument Sounds," J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 62, no. 10, pp. 663-675, (2014 October.). doi: https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2014.0037 B. Wu, A. Horner, and C. Lee, "The Correspondence of Music Emotion and Timbre in Sustained Musical Instrument Sounds," J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 62 Issue 10 pp. 663-675, (2014 October.). doi: https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2014.0037
Abstract: While melody, rhythm, and harmony are important emotional triggers in music, there has been little consideration of timbre. The authors designed a series of listening tests to compare the emotionality of sounds from eight wind and bowed stringed instruments. The violin, trumpet, and clarinet were best at evoking the emotions of happy, joyful, heroic, and comic. Conversely, the horn and flute evoked the emotions of sad and depressed. The oboe was emotionally neutral. Emotions correlated with average spectral centroid and spectral centroid deviation. The results suggest that the even/odd harmonic ratio is perhaps the most salient timbral feature after attack time and brightness. This research has direct implications for musicians and audio engineers who are doing orchestration for such applications as computer games, film sound, and stage music.

@article{wu2014the,
author={wu, bin and horner, andrew and lee, chung},
journal={journal of the audio engineering society},
title={the correspondence of music emotion and timbre in sustained musical instrument sounds},
year={2014},
volume={62},
number={10},
pages={663-675},
doi={https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2014.0037},
month={october},} @article{wu2014the,
author={wu, bin and horner, andrew and lee, chung},
journal={journal of the audio engineering society},
title={the correspondence of music emotion and timbre in sustained musical instrument sounds},
year={2014},
volume={62},
number={10},
pages={663-675},
doi={https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2014.0037},
month={october},
abstract={while melody, rhythm, and harmony are important emotional triggers in music, there has been little consideration of timbre. the authors designed a series of listening tests to compare the emotionality of sounds from eight wind and bowed stringed instruments. the violin, trumpet, and clarinet were best at evoking the emotions of happy, joyful, heroic, and comic. conversely, the horn and flute evoked the emotions of sad and depressed. the oboe was emotionally neutral. emotions correlated with average spectral centroid and spectral centroid deviation. the results suggest that the even/odd harmonic ratio is perhaps the most salient timbral feature after attack time and brightness. this research has direct implications for musicians and audio engineers who are doing orchestration for such applications as computer games, film sound, and stage music.},}

TY - paper
TI - The Correspondence of Music Emotion and Timbre in Sustained Musical Instrument Sounds
SP - 663 EP - 675
AU - Wu, Bin
AU - Horner, Andrew
AU - Lee, Chung
PY - 2014
JO - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
IS - 10
VO - 62
VL - 62
Y1 - October 2014 TY - paper
TI - The Correspondence of Music Emotion and Timbre in Sustained Musical Instrument Sounds
SP - 663 EP - 675
AU - Wu, Bin
AU - Horner, Andrew
AU - Lee, Chung
PY - 2014
JO - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
IS - 10
VO - 62
VL - 62
Y1 - October 2014
AB - While melody, rhythm, and harmony are important emotional triggers in music, there has been little consideration of timbre. The authors designed a series of listening tests to compare the emotionality of sounds from eight wind and bowed stringed instruments. The violin, trumpet, and clarinet were best at evoking the emotions of happy, joyful, heroic, and comic. Conversely, the horn and flute evoked the emotions of sad and depressed. The oboe was emotionally neutral. Emotions correlated with average spectral centroid and spectral centroid deviation. The results suggest that the even/odd harmonic ratio is perhaps the most salient timbral feature after attack time and brightness. This research has direct implications for musicians and audio engineers who are doing orchestration for such applications as computer games, film sound, and stage music.