Recent research has shown how different instruments have different emotional characteristics and how these emotional characteristics change with pitch and dynamics on instruments such as the piano and Western bowed strings with isolated notes. This thesis investigates the difference in emotional characteristics of the Chinese erhu and violin using musical excerpts from the Butterfly Lovers Concerto. We conducted two listening tests. The first listening test was an absolute test, where subjects rated Arousal, Valence, and emotional intensity of four emotional characteristics: Romantic, Joyful, Agitated, and Bittersweet. It was found that the violin had higher overall Valence and Arousal scores than the erhu. The violin also had higher emotional intensity for Romantic, Joyful, and...[ Read more ]

Recent research has shown how different instruments have different emotional characteristics and how these emotional characteristics change with pitch and dynamics on instruments such as the piano and Western bowed strings with isolated notes. This thesis investigates the difference in emotional characteristics of the Chinese erhu and violin using musical excerpts from the Butterfly Lovers Concerto. We conducted two listening tests. The first listening test was an absolute test, where subjects rated Arousal, Valence, and emotional intensity of four emotional characteristics: Romantic, Joyful, Agitated, and Bittersweet. It was found that the violin had higher overall Valence and Arousal scores than the erhu. The violin also had higher emotional intensity for Romantic, Joyful, and Agitated excerpts, while the erhu had higher emotional intensity for Bittersweet excerpts, though the differences were not statistically significant. The second listening test considers the violin and erhu using relative comparisons and the same musical excerpts. The results show that the violin was statistically stronger in emotional intensity for all four emotional categories. The erhu performed was relatively stronger on Bittersweet excerpts. The results suggest that the violin has a wider range and dramatic expression than the erhu, at least for this piece.