Zagadka emocji muzycznych : czym są, jak powstają i czy są podatne na zmiany?

Why is music present in so many aspects of our lives? One potential answer lies in the emotions we feel in a variety of situations when listening to and experiencing music. In response to music, we cry, we laugh, we shiver; we feel sadness and nostalgia, but also joy and ecstasy. However, the areas of study that analyze these diverse aesthetic experiences raise interesting questions. Are these experiences emotions? If so, what kind of emotions are they? How do these emotions arise? In order to solve the puzzle of musical emotions, it is important to first understand how emotions in music are understood by musicologists and psychologists. These different approaches constitute the starting point for a conversation about emotional experiences and the ways in which they are evoked when listening to music. The models of the mechanisms of emotional reactions to music discussed in this work allow us to understand the complexity of this fascinating phenomenon. Moreover, the monograph includes the author’s own model, which integrates previous knowledge on the emergence of emotions in musical experience and its empirical verification. In the conducted research, the proposed basis of emotional response to music is affect, and the richness of various emotional experiences occurring while listening to music is linked to the cognitive factor, which results from the experience of the situational context.