Theory of musical equilibration

Overview

Bernd Willimek initially explored the idea of musical equilibration in his 1987 thesis, Das musikalische Raumphänomen (The musical space phenomenon). The thesis was based on concepts introduced in Ernst Kurth's 1931 book, Musikpsychologie. In that book, Kurth hypothesizes that music is first physically experienced and must undergo an "internal translation" before listeners can perceive the frequencies as music. Kurth suggested that listeners can identify the physical potential energy of the music using "pure feeling". Willimek challenged that idea by suggesting that listeners identify with musically encoded processes of the will (or volitional content) in the music rather than physical potential energy. He also noted that listeners identify with a desire to keep leading notes unchanged. This again differs from Kurth's hypothesis, which suggested that there are "pulling forces" between notes that elicit changes in pitch. Willimek first presented the theory during lectures at the Karlsruhe University of Music and the University of Rostock in 1997. The theory was published for the first time in 1998.

Beginning in 1997, Bernd Willimek and his wife and fellow theorist, Daniela Willimek, further developed the theory. The primary idea behind the theory of musical equilibration is that music itself cannot produce an emotional effect but that listeners can identify with the abstract volitional content of the music to derive emotion. Different chords can produce different emotional reactions depending on the volitional content that is present. For instance, a major tonic chord often causes listeners to identify cheerfulness whereas a minor tonic chord might cause them to interpret the tones as sad (when played softly) or angry (when played loudly).