Milena Petroviæ1, Gordana Aèiæ2, Vera Milankoviæ3
1,3 Fakultet muzièke umetnosti Beograd, 2MŠ „Dr Vojislav Vuèkoviæ“ Beograd
MUSICIANS’ FREE ASSOCIATIONS ON THE GIVEN MUSIC CONCEPTS
Izvirni znanstveni èlanek / Original Scientific Article
Abstract
Free association is a mental connection or relation between thoughts, feelings, ideas or
sensations. Association is an important and effective principle that is active in all instances
of learning through accumulated experience. There is a considerable number of studies
that deal with music stimuli provoking different associations. Therefore, association is the
mechanism that connects music motif with extra musical description. Our aim was to
induce associations in musicians, provoked by the given verbal music stimuli within group
of musicians. We tested 184 musicians and used 30 verbal stimuli of music theory and
history. The results show three categories: cognitive, emotional and sociological (CES). In
cognitive associations we included frequently obtained metaphorical associations. In this
paper we are interested in presenting the richness of metaphorical associations triggered
by different music stimuli: harp, cello, adagio, dolce, staccato, crescendo and ritenuto.
Metaphorical association stereotype is notable for Mozart and piano, while the identical or
similar associations have been found for rhythmic and metric stimuli. There’s a frequency
in associating 3/4 as waltz, 7/8 as folk and siciliana as geographical origin. The
domination of social associations for rococo and jazz was expected.
Keywords: associations, music terms, metaphors, verbal music stimuli, meaning in music
Izvleèek
Svobodne asociacije glasbenikov na dane glasbene koncepte
Svobodne asociacije so mentalne povezave ali odnosi med mislimi, idejami ali obèutji.
Asociacije so pomemben in uèinkovit princip, temeljeè na zbranih izkušnjah, ki je dejaven
pri vsakem uèenju. Številne študije se ukvarjajo z glasbenimi spodbudami ki izzovejo
razliène asociacije. Asociacije so torej mehanizmi, ki povezujejo glasbeni motiv z
dodatnim verbalnim glasbenim opisom. Cilj raziskave je bil z danimi verbalnimi
spodbudami sproiti ascociacije pri razliènih skupinah glasbenikov. Pri testiranju 184
glasbenikov smo uporabili 30 verbalnih spodbud s podroèij glasbene teorije in zgodovine.
Rezultati so kazali tri kategorije asociacij: kognitivno, emocionalno in sociološko (CES).
Med kognitivne asociacije smo vkljuèili pogostokrat izraene metaforiène zveze. V
prispevku predstavljamo bogastvo metaforiènih asociacij, sproenih z razliènimi
glasbenimi pojmi, kot so harfa, èelo, adagio, dolce, staccato, crescendo in ritenuto.
Razviden je metaforièni asociativni stereotip med besedama Mozart in klavir. Identiène in
zelo podobne asiciacije so bile izkazane pri ritmiènih in metriènih verbalnih spodbudah.
3/4 takt je bil pogostokrat asociiran z valèkom, 7/8 takt z ljudsko glasbo, siciliana pa z
geografskim izvorom. Sociološke asociacije za rokoko in jazz so bile prièakovane.
Kljuène besede: asociacije, glasbeni pojmi, metafore, verbalne glasbene spodbude,
pomen v glasbi
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Milena Petroviæ, Gordana Aèiæ, Vera Milankoviæ: MUSICIANS’ FREE ASSOCIATIONS ...
Associations and Meaning in Music
Meaning in music is a field which attracts a lot of attention of researchers and is an
important theoretical base for our research. Since the same associations for specific music
concepts have been used in continuity for over five centuries1 , they have become a part of
western culture. At the same time, associations have also become universal and have led to
the creation of inherent associations between musical expression and emotion (Cooke,
1959). Some researchers equate emotions produced by music with musical meaning
(Meyer, 1956; Cooke, 1959), while others do not view them within the context of meaning
(Juslin and Sloboda, 2001).
Music causes emotion based on acoustic qualities and styles of instrument playing,
individual state of mind of the listener, as well as the context under which music is
performed and consumed (Scherer, 2001). Listeners often remember past emotional
experiences, which are something that findings, concerning activation of the hippo
campus while listening to music causing the feeling of nostalgia, try to address (Juslin and
Vastfjall, 2008). Freud was the first to speak of emotions as an important factor which
affects memory and free association (Jones, 1964). Following the trail of associations, we
come to the root of experience and sensation which has been caused by the first sensation.
And so, the musical piece which we listen to can remind us of an event or person from the
past because associative processes enable us access to unconscious areas of our
personality. Because of this, not every listener will react in the same way to the same
music, nor will the same person always experience the same music in the same way
(Meyer, 1956).
Many therapeutic techniques in psychology involve activities which resemble those from
art. Associative thinking is one of those techniques. Beyond the therapeutic context,
associations are mentioned for the first time in English philosopher John Locke’s 1690
essay – An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, only to be accepted much later as a
common psychological principle related to the phenomenon of memory and recollection.
In learning theory, they represent a process of creating mental connections between
various sensations, ideas, or memories in connection with similarity, subtlety or
resemblance, but also on the basis of pleasure (Thorndike, 1931). Last but not least,
associations represent an important and effective principle in the learning process because
it encompasses accumulated experience and can be used to stimulate the learning process
(Ebbinghaus, 1885).
The associative technique of learning often uses metaphors. Some scientists consider
metaphors to be rooted in human experience and in turn they are also means to
comprehension and organization of experience (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003). The
description and experience of music is founded on concepts from non musical fields of
human experience (Eimer and Timmers, 2010), and so the connection between musical
and visual context has been thoroughly researched (Cook, 1998). Hanslick has written that
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GLASBENOPEDAGOŠKI ZBORNIK, 26. zvezek
1 In the period between 1400 and 1950, positive emotions were connected to major chords, and negative
emotions to minor chords (see Meyer, 1953).
the metaphor is the only solution when describing sound and motion and that musical
analysis is, in its essence, metaphorical (Hanslick, 1957). Musical meaning is hidden in
metaphors (Zbikowski, 2002), and so metaphorization appears as a basic mechanism in
the conceptualization of musical elements (Antoviæ et al., 2016).
When talking about verbal description of the musical experience, we risk relying on two
different approaches: some scientists think that language is insufficient to explain the
essence of musical expression, meaning and experience (Karbusicky, 1987), while others
claim that words themselves transform hidden meaning into musical meaning (Cook,
1998). The use of verbal information within the listening capabilities is present in many
methodological studies. The verbal description of music offers researchers rich sources of
information (Haack, 1992): “Language communication is based on many musical
elements, while the description of personal reactions caused by music is located in the
center of learning music and the musical experience” (Flowers, 2002: 45). Sometimes,
researchers group and systematize received verbal responses from subjects, and received
affective and associative responses could be used as ideas for creating new instructions for
music listening (Johnson, 2003). In contemporary theory, the meaning of associations
which have been received can be intra-musical, musical genetic and extra-musical
(Koelsch, 2013), and can so be perceived in the context of inherent and arbitrary
associations (Antoviæ et al., 2016). With inherent meaning, the symbol and marker belong
to music (Green, 2010), so understanding of the inherent meaning depends on the
listeners’ competence.
Research Methodology
Differing from investigations which deal with associations caused by music stimuli
(listening to music), in literature we do not find investigations which examine free
associations received from verbal stimuli which relate to music concepts. In this very fact
we found the inspiration for our research. Considering that the quality and type of
associations in this case are significantly affected by the listeners’ competence, the
specimens of this research could only have been musicians (professionals and amateurs).
Therefore, testing non musical subjects would result in a completely different quality and
reach of associations which, for us, would not be relevant in the given context of research.2
The aim of the research was to affirm the array, richness and nature of associations on
music concepts in different groups of musicians.
Procedure
The act of investigation encompassed free association test subjects with a total of 30
proposed music concepts which were grouped in 6 areas: 1) Musical instruments (piano,
guitar, saxophone, harp, cello), 2) Rhythm and time signature (3/4, syncope, 7/8,
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Milena Petroviæ, Gordana Aèiæ, Vera Milankoviæ: MUSICIANS’ FREE ASSOCIATIONS ...
2 The potential width and quality of associations of the non musicians could be the subject of a different
focus in the research of free associations which would, by its nature, belong to the field of semiotics
(general theory of meaning).
siciliana), 3) Composers (Mozart, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Mokranjac, Schoenberg), 4)
Style (Rococo, Classical, Romanticism, Jazz, Expressionism), 5) Tempo (adagio,
ritenuto), character (dolce) dynamics (crescendo), articulation (staccato), 6) shape – form
(sonata, scherzo, concert, solo song, symphony).
Researchers wrote down the answers of the subjects from the List of Free Associations,
which contained the given music concepts, category of subjects (see specimen catalog), as
well as their answers. The examination was released between October and December of
2015.
The associations that were received were put to quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Considering the exploratory nature of this research, the data treatment pertained only to
frequencies. The quantitative analysis pertained to the total number of various
associations on a given music concept, as well as the number of subjects which had the
same association to the given concept. In the qualitative analysis we grouped the delivered
associations into three basic categories, based on the theoretical model we proposed.
Having considered the received answers from the subjects, we decided to group them into
three basic categories: cognitive, emotional and sociologically conditioned associations
(CES). This division stems from the nature of the music experience, which is by its
characteristics, always a combination of cognitive, emotional and sociological
components of the human experience. We assorted the received metaphorical associations
into the group of cognitive associations, because they were previously determined by
knowledge. Emotional associations are prompted by emotions caused by memories of
music which correlates to verbal stimuli (up until now, emotions have been explored in
connection to auditive music stimuli, see Juslin and Sloboda, 2001). Sociological
associations have been culturally conditioned in advance.
Participants
Having sampled a total of 184 musicians we have had 75 professors of different profiles
on all levels of music education, 97 students from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and 12
music amateurs, meaning self taught musicians-performers, without formal music
education. The structure of the participants is located in Chart 1.
Chart 1. Structure of participants
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GLASBENOPEDAGOŠKI ZBORNIK, 26. zvezek
The group of professional musicians consists of teachers and professors of solfeggio (33)
and instrument teachers (42), and non performing students (54) (music education, music
theory, musicology, ethnomusicology, composing) and students of the performance
departments (43) (instrumental, jazz, conducting). The structure of tested subjects is
shown in Chart 2.
Chart 2. Structure of examined subjects
Results
For the first group of music concepts, in which there are five musical instruments (piano,
guitar, saxophone, harp and cello), cognitive associations are most often attained, with a
lesser number of emotional and sociologically implied associations. It is interesting to
emphasize the growing number of metaphorical responses in relation to the type of music
instrument: piano and guitar got the least number of responses, while the cello and harp
got the most metaphorical responses (Chart 3). The progression of metaphorical
associations concerning different musical instruments can be viewed in Table 1.
Chart 3. The procuration of metaphorical responses for music instrument
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Milena Petroviæ, Gordana Aèiæ, Vera Milankoviæ: MUSICIANS’ FREE ASSOCIATIONS ...
Table 1. Representation of metaphors for musical instruments
Number of
delivered
metaphors
Piano
9
Guitar
9
Saxophone
15
Harp
30
Cello
32
woman,
elephant, I,
height-depth,
white-black,
zebra, flower,
crystals, love
woman, pear,
Spain, skiing,
dismal, warm,
hole, gentle,
freedom
man, sex, sexy,
sensual,
loneliness,
gold, yellow,
black, greasy,
wood, wine
glass, beak,
alphabet, noise,
Lisa Simpson
sea, lake, river,
aquarium,
swimming,
woman, girl,
fairy, siren,
hair, angel,
heaven,
cherubs,
psalms, church,
fresco, divine,
wealth, calm,
never land,
wind, sky,
cloud, bird,
Orpheus, lyre,
Ancient,
Ancient
Greece,
triangle, fan
woman,
femininity,
female body,
body (4)3, pear,
sex, subtle
eroticism,
passion, warm,
big man,
height, sky,
depth (7),
water, sorrow,
mist (2), dark
(2), livid,
brown, soft,
bear, elephant,
snail, swan,
tree, wine,
wind, feather,
nail, furniture,
nasal
congestion,
boredom
It is interesting that, in the answers of the questionees of different groups on music
instrument concepts, we find associations to women (piano, guitar, harp, cello), while
associations to men are only found in the saxophone term (sex, sexy, sensual), and the
stimulus received from cello brings somewhat moderate sexual associations (femininity,
the female body, sex, subtle eroticism, passion; Table 1).
In relation to this, we should mention investigations that deal with the relationships
between musical instruments and gender. In one of them, stereotypes dealing with the
relationship between gender and choice of musical instruments were investigated (Abeles
and Porter, 1978). Certain instruments are experienced as male (for instance – trumpet,
trombone and percussion instruments), and female (flute, violin and piano), while some
are perceived as gender neutral (saxophone and cello; Crowe, 2010). Investigations deal
with answering the question if and how the color (timbre) of an instrument effects the
listeners emotional perception of assigned melodies (Hailstone et al., 2009), but also with
the connection between the selection of musical instruments and timbre preferences,
character traits and gender (Payne, 2010).
The largest number of metaphorical answers received is from the tempo and its
micro-modifications (ritenuto), character (dolce), dynamics (crescendo) and articulation
(staccato) (Chart 4). An inspection of delivered metaphorical associations can be found in
Table 2.
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GLASBENOPEDAGOŠKI ZBORNIK, 26. zvezek
3 Numbers adjacent to associations indicate the number of subjects which associated to the same term.
Chart 4. The amount of metaphorical responses regarding tempo, character, dynamics and
articulation
Table 2: Metaphors regarding tempo, character, articulation and dynamics
Number of
metaphors
Adagio
27
Dolce
29
Staccato
35
Crescendo
38
Ritenuto
39
sorrow (2)4,
dream (2),
composed, old
age, ghastly,
funeral
procession,
mourning day,
melancholy,
pain, calm sea,
peace, lazy,
turtle, flatland,
tide, stretched
out, pondering,
meditation,
timeless, car,
middle, pink,
blue,
aristocratic,
pizzeria
I, nice, love,
baby, heart,
sympathy,
being in love,
apple, carousel,
childlike, little
doll, ice cream,
pie, candy,
chocolate,
sugar, coffee,
soft, thin, load,
emptiness,
tenderness,
motherly
affection,
elegant,
clothes,
gabbana, vita,
dolce vita,
perfume
I, in effect,
direction,
flickering,
jump, jumping,
hopping,
bouncing, over
leap, rope
jumping, goat
jumping,
chopping, step,
standing on
toes,
ouch-ouch hot,
short, tiny, dot,
sharp,
imperious,
cracking,
jerking,
happiness, joy,
children,
waking up,
asphyxiation,
bells, sizzle,
gay, prodding,
pins,
porcupine,
raindrops, rain
hitting a
drainpipe
stormy (2),
strength, lift
off, rush,
tension,
forward,
Charge!,
scream,
neurotic,
excitement,
condensation,
growth,
passion,
anxiety,
enlargement,
raising of
dough, slide,
gradual,
turning the dial
on the radio,
energy,
enlargement,
lifting,
running, angry
woman, wind,
alcohol,
expression,
wavy hair,
wave, rough,
tide,
announcement,
freedom,
development,
culmination,
inspiration
delay (2), relief
(2), dying, the
end, tiredness,
the fall, the
dusk of life,
disappearance,
watering down,
pause, halt,
holding off,
tightening,
pausing, stop, a
train slowing
down, calming,
steps,
breathing,
sleeping, rest,
bed, journey to
space, smell,
sudden, abrupt,
unnecessary,
exaggeration,
limping,
tripping, ice
skating,
Vojvodina,
width,breaking,
getting ready,
dimming, fear,
life
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Milena Petroviæ, Gordana Aèiæ, Vera Milankoviæ: MUSICIANS’ FREE ASSOCIATIONS ...
4 The numbers in brackets next to associations indicate the number of subjects that associated the same
term.
Expected and predictable associations in our research have been acquired for stimuli
which are connected to the second group of concepts – meter and rhythm. The waltz was
the most common answer for the 3/4 concept. The 7/8 time received the largest amount of
answers which point to geographical descendancy – Macedonia, Balkans, Kosovo,
Southern Serbia, Vranje, Niš and so on, as well as belonging to an ethno or folk sound.
Italy, Sicily, pizza, spaghetti and so on, were the largest amount answers for the term
siciliana. The term upbeat most often was associated to: inhaled breath, breath or air, as
well as breathing, strange breathing, suffocation, time, waiting, immediately, a swing,
flight, takeoff, bird, preparation, greeting, oops, ugh, tennis, work out, step, pounce,
exclamation mark, ledge. Syncope resulted in metaphorical answers among the
questionees, such as: stone, lady, drama, gondola, footstep, extension, leap, spiral, shorter
leg, hiccups, arrhythmia, chopped, apple, hoe, rest, Hungary, Africa. At the same time,
this group of concepts resulted in the least metaphorical associations.
The associations concerning composers are dominated by mainly conventional
metaphorical associations: Mozart – balls, wig, hair, child, heavens, Vienna, Salzburg,
Austria. The least conventional and unusual – more individual – metaphors relating to
Tchaikovsky – blue, fear, suffering, sulking, darkness, night, snow, stairs, porcelain tea
set. Styles of music, as stimuli, produced the most sociologically conditioned associations.
Rococo is in the lead here – cleavage, powder, dress, pantaloons, wig, lace, declamatory,
kitsch, artificial, costumed movies, ballerinas, cake, flower, pearl, bird, saloon, parrot, the
sound of a kiss (a very rare onomatopoeic answer), furniture, cathedral, building, baroque,
tragedy, stone (we assume this is a metaphor which is conditioned with the translation
from the English word rock). The most common associations with jazz are also
sociologically conditioned: blacks, party, club, smoke, night, life, freedom, Statue of
Liberty, challenge, but also boredom.
Among the answers to the given music concepts which pertain to shape and form (sonata,
scherzo, concert, lied, symphony), the most metaphorical answers were received for the
term scherzo: violet, dress, grasshopper, turn, speed, devilish, impertinence, addition,
pepper, croqui, arlecine, joke, jest, witty, funny, good mood, hanging out, toys, but also a
forced joke and – everything but a joke. The term concert did not produce a large number
of metaphorical answers among the questionees. They responded mostly with
sociologically conditioned responses, probably duo to the doubly meaning of this term:
Kolarac5, smell of the tree at Kolarac, elegant attire, tuxedo, black shoes, dismay and so
on.
Conclusion
The abundance of received material on the basis of the results offers possibilities for many
analysis and deeper investigations. However, the authors of this investigation were, at this
moment, much more interested in displaying the received metaphorical associations.
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GLASBENOPEDAGOŠKI ZBORNIK, 26. zvezek
5 A famous concert hall in Belgrade, Serbia.
Metaphors are frequently used in education to explain a concept, assist in the analysis of
data, aid in the understanding of new ideas and for clarifying complex systems. Teachers
naturally use metaphors to make new and unfamiliar concepts more meaningful to learners
by connecting what is already known to what is being learned. According to Conceptual
Metaphor Theory (CMT; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), metaphors consist of mappings
between a concrete, source domain and a more abstract, target domain. They are,
accordingly, one of the best ways to examine how people conceptualize experiences,
things and events in music.
The amplification of metaphorical association has been established in the answers to
verbal stimuli of harp and cello (Table 1 and Chart 3). The answers often implicated that
musicians identify with their instruments, they personify them – give them traits, a look
and shape of a human: a woman is a common association for the piano, guitar, harp, cello,
while the saxophone is associated with a man. Expected and conventional metaphors for
stimuli were received, such as 3/4 (waltz), 7/8 and siciliana (answers for these two terms
are most often related to their geographical background). Frequent occurrences of
sociological metaphors were noticed in the answers of the questionees concerning stimuli
such as jazz and rococo, while a stereotype of metaphorical associations was observed in
the answers to verbal stimuli piano and Mozart. The largest number of metaphorical
associations was received for music terms which relate to tempo, character, articulation
and dynamics (Table 2). We assume that the reason for such a result is the possible relation
of these terms with a particular movement which can be found in everyday human activity
(Giordano et al., 2014). The opposite case can be noticed in the relationship with the
interpretative (non)maturity of the stimulus scherzo: the range of associations goes from
“joke” to “forced joke”, as well as “prank” to “all but prank”. An amplified ego was
noticed in a small number of questionees in the answer to the verbal stimuli piano and
concert (“me”, “that’s me”). Finally, regardless of the small number of tested amateur
musicians, a more expressed metaphorical association was noticed compared to the
students.
Interestingly, a small number of onomatopoeic responses was received (ouch-ouch hot,
the drumming of rain on a drain, the sound of a kiss), because it may be possible that an
onomatopoeia is not relevant to the formation of meaning (see Antoviæ et al., 2016). No
physically conditioned association was received (such as, for instance – shivering, see
Lerdahl and Jackendoff, 1983), probably because questionees were given verbal, and not
concrete music stimuli. The aggravated verbalization of two professional performers was
most probably created due to their primary emotional experience of music. Only a few
questionees expressed anxiety with free associations, believing that their answers would
be “wrong”, “inappropriate” or that they would reveal some aspects of their personality.
Implications
In a contemporary education, there is a change of focus from behavioral and cognitive
paradigm to more humanistic one, which emphasizes the role of emotions in mental
processing. This research enlightens the latter, since it explores associations that are
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Milena Petroviæ, Gordana Aèiæ, Vera Milankoviæ: MUSICIANS’ FREE ASSOCIATIONS ...
colored with emotions. It is important that music education begins with accenting the
experience which music causes, so personal emotions caused by listening to and
performing music should be discussed. Students need to go from understanding the
material as presented to generating their own thoughts about it. The dominant school
practice implies students as passive receivers of information that had been packaged and
predigested by teachers and textbooks. But, learning is primarily an activity which arises
from the personal experience and though the scientific systematization of human
experience presents the highest attainment in the evolution of the mind of man. Learning
becomes personally meaningful only if the educational process is a constant
reorganization and transformation of experience. We assume education could grow only
when combining past with present experiences in order to receive and understand future
experiences.
The authors of this research assume that rich associative thinking, metaphoric associations
and a personal relationship associating to music terms could create better music
understanding. Thus the educational process should consist of social and emotional
learning that is intimately linked with cognitive development. Or to put it another way,
only cognitive activities combining social and emotional learning pave the way for better
academic learning and make learning meaningful.
During the analysis of the results – verbal answers of the quesionees based on the
proposed music concepts, we received some insights which provide basis for future
consideration of the problem of music concept, music theory, history and music education.
Our idea for the future is that received verbal metaphors can be used to enhance
motivation, attention and understanding through a particular form of associative thinking
concerned with metaphorical reasoning. The logical consequence is the integrative
learning that can involve usefully blending knowledge and skills from different
disciplinary areas as a catalyst for teaching across curriculums. The ability to think
broadly across disciplines is becoming an increasingly critical component of a
quality 21st century education. Music may well be the most powerful and effective
educational tool to meet this educational need, providing students with quality
integrated learning opportunities.
The results of this research inspired the authors to think about the benefits of an integrative
approach to learning music from early stages of education (Petroviæ and Milankoviæ,
2013). This approach to learning involves the integration of auditive, visual, kinesthetic
and a tactile way of learning, which would comply with the activation of all senses in
perception and cognition of music. As the music experience moves from the right into the
analytical intellectual left hemisphere, we think that all music terms and concepts, during
the process of music education, should be introduced in the following order: sound ›
student as a recipient and emotional music processor › translation and re-connection of the
emotional experience with the cognitive treatment (a phase of understanding and
cognition) › participation of all modalities of senses in the reproduction of the experienced
and learned (visual-spacial and tactile-kinesthetic sensory modalities). This approach,
from experience to cognition, is not only important because it connects the hemispheres
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GLASBENOPEDAGOŠKI ZBORNIK, 26. zvezek
and enhances their cooperation, but associative learning can induce stimulus-specific
plasticity and drive their changes very early in sensory systems. Thereby, the associative
thinking presents a possible method of teaching that could bridge school activities and life
experiences of the child.
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GLASBENOPEDAGOŠKI ZBORNIK, 26. zvezek
Povzetek
Prispevek uvodoma obravnava vlogo asociacij pri razumevanju glasbenih konceptov,
pomena glasbe in emocij, ki jih sproa glasba. Asociativno mišljenje je obravnavano kot
temeljni princip uèenja. Uporablja se tudi kot psihološka terapevtska tehnika. Posameznik
gradi asociacije na osnovi akumuliranih preteklih izkušenj. Pri asociativni tehniki uèenja
se vedno uporabljajo metafore. Hanslick (1957) je menil, da zvok in glasbeni potek lahko
opišemo le metaforièno in da je glasbena analiza v svojem bistvu metaforièna. Tudi
Zbikowski (2002) in Antoviæ idr. (2016) pravita, da je glasbeni pomen skrit v metaforah in
da osnovni mehanizem pri konceptualizaciji glasbenih elementov temelji na metaforiki.
V literaturi ne zasledimo raziskav, ki bi preuèevale svobodne asociacije, sproene z
verbalnimi spodbudami: z glasbenimi koncepti in pojmi. V raziskavi, izvedeni od oktobra
do decembra 2015, smo preuèevali vrste in bogastvo asociacij ter njihovo naravo glede na
akumulirane izkušnje pri razliènih skupinah glasbenikov. Testiranih je bilo 184 oseb, med
katerimi je bilo 75 profesorjev glasbe in 97 študentov glasbe s Fakultete za glasbo v
Beogradu ter 12 glasbenih amaterjev. Uporabljen je bil test svobodnih asociacij, ki je
vkljuèeval 30 verbalnih spodbud – glasbenih pojmov in konceptov s šestih podroèij: 1.
glasbeni inštrumenti; 2. ritem in taktovski naèini; 3. skladatelji; 4. glasbeni stil in zvrst; 5.
tempo, karakter, dinamika, artikulacija, 6. glasbena oblika. V raziskavi je bil uporabljen
Seznam svobodnih asociacij, ki je vkljuèeval dane glasbene pojme in koncepte z
navedenih kategorij in ponujene odgovore. Zbrani povezani pojmi so bili obdelani s
kvantitativno in kvalitativno analizo. Pri kvalitativni analizi so bile asociacije razvršèene v
tri kategorije: kognitivno, emocionalno in sociološko.
Rezultati so pokazali bogastvo metaforiènih asociacij, sproenih z razliènimi glasbenimi
pojmovnimi spodbudami. Odgovori na verbalne spodbude, povezane z glasbenimi
inštrumenti, so pokazali, da se glasbeniki identificirajo s svojimi inštrumenti. Pripisujejo
jim èloveške lastnosti, videz in obliko. Asociacija enske je bila najveèkrat povezana s
klavirjem, kitaro, harfo in èelom, asociacija moškega pa s saksofonom. V skladu s
prièakovanji so bili tudi rezultati, povezani z metaforami, ki jih sproajo 3/4 takt (valèek),
7/8 takt (ljudska glasba, geografsko poreklo), sicciliana (geografsko poreklo). Sociološke
metafore so bile najpogosteje razvidne pri verbalnih stimulih, ki so se nanašali na
glasbeno zvrst in stil (jazz, rokoko). Rezultati so potrdili metaforièni asociativni stereotip
med besedama Mozart in klavir. Najveèje število metaforiènih asociacij so sproile
verbalne spodbude, ki se nanašajo na tempo, znaèaj, artikulacijo in dinamiko.
Pri glasbenem pouku uèitelji pogostokrat uporabljajo metafore za razlago glasbenih
pojmov in konceptov, za analizo podatkov in kot pomoè uèencem pri razumevanju
komplesnih sistemov glasbenega izraanja in novih idej. Uèitelji prek asociacij
povezujejo kar je e znano in usvojeno z novo in uèencem neznano snovjo. V sklepnem
delu prispevka so podani predlogi za implementacijo raziskovalnih rezultatov v
pedagoško prakso.
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Milena Petroviæ, Gordana Aèiæ, Vera Milankoviæ: MUSICIANS’ FREE ASSOCIATIONS ...