| Music is often regarded as being similar to language. Both music and language are capable of communicating affective information through changes in "tone of voice." This study examines the communication of a sarcastic tone of voice in a musical context. It was hypothesized that the cues of sarcastic music would be similar to the cues of sarcastic speech. The first study investigated the acoustical cues used by instrumentalists to encode a sarcastic tone of voice. These cues were found to include: a noisy timbre, staccato-like articulations, relatively shorter durations, and relatively greater intensity. The second study investigated the acoustical cues used by listeners to decode a sarcastic tone of voice. These cues were found to include: a noisy timbre, staccato-like articulations, relatively shorter durations, and relatively lower pitches. It was further hypothesized that listeners would be able to identify sarcasm in a musical context. In a matching task, listeners were able to distinguish a sarcastic tone of voice better than any of the other seven affective tones of voice (i.e. sadness, joy, sincerity, anger, mysterious, tenderness, neutral) used in the study. In order to test for demand characteristics, a free-response study was devised and found that contextual clues are an important factor in hearing a sarcastic tone of voice in instrumental music. |
