Music and awe: complex emotions evoked by tonal dissonance

Although previous literature has established a strong connection between awe and music, the influence of consonance and dissonance in this relationship remains largely unexplored. In the present study, participants (N = 50) rated consonant and dissonant musical excerpts on their experiences of pleasure, power, and awe. The results indicate that, while consonance tends to evoke pleasure, dissonance elicits stronger feelings of power and awe, up to a certain point. However, when dissonance becomes too pronounced, such as in a highly chromatic or atonal context, feelings of both pleasure and power decline. More dissonant music also significantly predicted increasing feelings of the following specific awe dimensions: altered time perception, self-diminishment, perceived vastness, physical sensations, and need for accommodation. Musical experience was a significant predictor of the difference in ratings of consonant and dissonant music, with more musically experienced participants deriving greater pleasure, power, and awe, and more connectedness and physical sensations associated with awe, when listening to increasingly dissonant music. These findings reveal an incongruence between positive affect and emotional intensity, challenging the prevailing assumption in psychological literature that dissonance is merely unpleasant.