A Brilliant, but Problematic Study: What do the Results of Frank (et al.) signify?

Abstract

Frank (et al.)'s article, "Exploring the variability of musical-emotion expression over historical time" is a thoughtful, creative attempt to tackle the thorny problem of reconstructing the historical cognition and perception of music. The article is a pleasure to read, owing in large part to the brilliant design of using musical excerpts composed by Johann David Heinichen to explicitly express particular emotional states. These descriptions serve as a ground truth for a modern empirical study. The study produced negative results, which are always tricky to interpret. This review explores some of the methodological choices of the study that may have contributed to the negative results. The review then questions the interpretations of the negative results suggested by the authors in light of some of the problematic methodological decisions of the study, especially the claims that the results suggest that the perception of musical affect has changed over the past 200 years. Finally, the review proposes what conclusions are appropriate to draw from the study in light of its design and framing.