Honors Projects

Abstract

This study compares the prosodic acoustic characteristics between different emotional expressions in speech and clarinet playing and evaluates the similarities in prosody between these two domains. The prosodic features analyzed include pitch, loudness, and duration, which are the psychoacoustic terms referring to fundamental frequency [fo], intensity, and rate of time. The American folksong “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” was both spoken and performed with three emotions: neutral, sad, and happy. The first comparison was how each prosodic characteristic compared across the three different emotions within each domain, and then prosody was compared across the two domains within each emotion. Results indicate that across domains, fo was higher for happy and lower for sad, and rate of time was quicker for happy and slower for sad. There was very little correlation in intensity between speech and clarinet, but perhaps a more comparable, intensity-focused study may yield different results. Ultimately, prosodic features of emotional expression were found to have a substantial influence on how emotion is expressed and interpreted across different domains, and while there were some key differences between speech and clarinet playing, the similarities arguably outweigh the differences to determine the domains to be comparable. The information gathered in this study may be beneficial to those who seek to understand how emotion is communicated through sound.

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Major

Communication Sciences and Disorders

First Advisor

Ronald C. Scherer, Ph.D.

First Advisor Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Second Advisor

Jonathan Waters

Second Advisor Department

Music Education

Third Advisor

Madi Smith

Third Advisor Department

Honors Program

Publication Date

Fall 12-8-2025

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