Central auditory processing. Are the emotional perceptions of those listening to classical music inherent in the composition or acquired by the listeners?

Conclusions: There is seemingly some inherent component in selected musical compositions that elicits specific emotional perceptions, feelings, and physical conduct. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to determine if the emotional perceptions of those listening to classical music are inherent in the composition or acquired by the listeners. Methods: Fifteen kindergarten students, aged 5 years, from three different sociocultural groups, were evaluated. They were exposed to portions of five purposefully selected classical compositions and asked to describe their emotions when listening to these musical pieces. All were instrumental compositions without human voices or spoken language. In addition, they were played to an audience of an age at which they were capable of describing their perceptions and supposedly had no significant previous experience of classical music. Results: Regardless of their sociocultural background, the children in the three groups consistently identified similar emotions (e.g. fear, happiness, sadness), feelings (e.g. love), and mental images (e.g. giants or dangerous animals walking) when listening to specific compositions. In addition, the musical compositions generated physical conducts that were reflected by the children's corporal expressions. Although the sensations were similar, the way of expressing them differed according to their background.