Modeling Musical Tension

The concept of musical tension is a complex phenomenon that is evident to listeners yet hard to describe formally. In qualitative terms, an increase in tension can be described as a feeling of building excitement or impending climax, or an increase in uncertainty, while decreasing tension can be described as a feeling of relaxation, resolution, or fulfillment. The goal of this work is the implementation of a quantitative, parametric model for describing musical tension. The model is based completely on empirical data and takes into account multiple, disparate musical features including melodic contour, harmony, onset frequency, tempo variations, rhythmic regularity, and dynamics.

Analyses

The musical excerpts used to build the tension model were analyzed and described according to each of the parameters in question. In the case of the one-dimensional features such as tempo and onset frequency, the descriptions were straightforward. Multi-dimensional features such as harmony required quantitative descriptions produced by other theoretical models (in the case of harmony, Lerdahl's tonal tension model). Below are images of all the feature descriptor graphs for one of the musical excerpts, a passage taken from Brahm's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Screenshot showing tension data for the opening of Beethoven's First Symphony.