MULTIMODAL PERSPECTIVES OF MUSIC EDUCATION - MELODIC CONTOUR AS THE EMOTIONAL GRAMMAR IN MUSIC AND LANGUAGE

Multimodality refers to the constitution of multiple modes, i.e. socially and culturally shaped resources in meaning making. Multimodal literacy refers to the study of language that combines two or more modes of meaning. In music education, multimodality enables an understanding of musicality on one hand, and becomes a resource in formal learning, on the other hand. Due to cross-modal associations between kinetic, visual and vocal segments, melody recognition is possible by its contour. As parts of a spatial music performance system, melodic contours are embodied schemas that provide relationships between physical and figurative domains. Melodic contour is the most important element in the emotional expression of music, because it has formal similarities with the expressive structure of the experienced emotions and is related to the estimates of tension. Through the prism of multimodality, metaphorical connotation of melodic contour can be recognized and understood in the context of personal emotions and general determinants of culture. The aim of this research is to show whether melodic contour alone, devoid of any other musical parameters, can induce basic emotions among music students. Students of different departments at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade (n=106) listened to five melodies of different contours (descending, ascending, arch, static, interval) of the same tempo, without key, rhythm and dynamics, played on white keys only. The results show that the emotion of surprise prevails in the perception of the ascending and interval melodic contour; fear and anger in the perception of the descending and static; happiness in the perception of the arch melodic contour.