The Perception of Music Textural Aspects on Modern Orchestral Music: A Case Study

In this study, researchers explore the challenges faced by common listeners when it comes to understanding contemporary classical music. They aim to determine what aspects of this music attract or repel the listener and how different types of musical gestures are perceived. The study involves human subjects reacting to brief musical excerpts from musical orchestral works by composers such as Penderecki, Ligeti, Xenákis, Haas, and Ruzicka.
A multimodal approach, including auditory, visual, tactile, and emotional aspects, is used, and semantic descriptors and visual icons are employed. The focus is on textural elements such as "sound masses" and sound continuums in orchestral works from the last fifty years. The study draws conclusions from data collected through an online survey involving subjects of diverse age groups and musical knowledge, shedding light on how people perceive the meanings in the orchestral music of these composers.