Musical form is often understood as a large-scale repetition pattern. For example, rondo forms are defined by a recurring refrain that alternates with episodes. Contrasting episodes reduce inattention, functioning as dishabituation stimuli; meanwhile, the increasingly familiar refrain enhances processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure (Huron, 2013; Margulis, 2014; see also, Reber, Schwarz & Winkielman, 2004). In this account, the refrain primarily engenders veridical expectations (not schematic ones), the formal structure is theoretically independent of content, and rondo and sonata movements “almost certainly do not evoke different listening schemas” (Huron, 2006, p. 208). Yet historically, rondos were identified with a particular mood: “gay, lively, and brilliant” (Czerny, 1848, p. 81; see also, Cole, 1964). Listeners, then, might develop schemas for sonata and rondo movements via stylistic or affective features. In a corpus analysis, we examined paired sonata and rondo movements from 180 instrumental works, composed between 1770 and 1799. Rondos had significantly higher average pitch height and higher average attack rate. These results are consistent with prior research on acoustic cues for happiness in music and speech (Schutz, 2017). There were also significant differences related to meter and dynamics. We then conducted experiments involving 20 participants with at least 5 years of musical training (Exp. 1) and 20 participants with less than 6 months of musical training (Exp. 2). In both experiments, participants listened to 120 15-second audio clips, taken from the beginnings of movements in our corpus. After a training phase, they attempted to categorize the excerpts (2AFC task). D-prime scores were significantly higher than chance levels for both groups. In post-experiment questionnaires, participants identified musical traits that were highlighted in our corpus study, and they reported that rondos sounded happier than sonata movements. This suggests that classical formal types can be indirectly recognized, because of distinct stylistic and affective tendencies.
