<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Incongruent film music is a soundtrack, either diegetic or nondiegetic, which expresses qualities that stand in contrast to the emotions evoked by the events seen. The present article aims at covering two interconnected areas; the first is comprised of a critical recapitulation of available theoretical accounts of incongruent film music, whilst the second part of the paper offers an alternative, embodied-cognitive explanation of the audio-visual conflict which arises from this particular type of incongruence. Rather than regarding it as a phenomenon that works through disrupting conventions, we stress a perceptual-cognitive reason behind incongruence’s emotional strangeness. </p></abstract>

Incongruent film music is a soundtrack, either diegetic or nondiegetic, which expresses qualities that stand in contrast to the emotions evoked by the events seen. The present article aims at covering two interconnected areas; the first is comprised of a critical recapitulation of available theoretical accounts of incongruent film music, whilst the second part of the paper offers an alternative, embodied-cognitive explanation of the audio-visual conflict which arises from this particular type of incongruence. Rather than regarding it as a phenomenon that works through disrupting conventions, we stress a perceptual-cognitive reason behind incongruence’s emotional strangeness.

Unsettling Melodies: a Cognitive Approach to Incongruent Film Music

The University of Groningen (the Netherlands)

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

{"article-title":"Unsettling Melodies: a Cognitive Approach to Incongruent Film Music"}

Incongruent film music is a soundtrack, either diegetic or nondiegetic, which expresses qualities that stand in contrast to the emotions evoked by the events...

Unsettling Melodies: a Cognitive Approach to Incongruent Film Music

Published Online: May 30, 2014

Page range: 169 - 183

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2014-0022

Keywords
film music, affective congruence, polarization, incongruence, cognitive-ecological theory

© 2014

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Unsettling Melodies: a Cognitive Approach to Incongruent Film Music

Published Online: May 30, 2014

Page range: 169 - 183

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2014-0022

Keywordsfilm music, affective congruence, polarization, incongruence, cognitive-ecological theory

© 2014

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords
film music, affective congruence, polarization, incongruence, cognitive-ecological theory