Determinants of listeners' enjoyment of a performance

Abstract

A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the relationship between 22 variables that could influence a listener's enjoyment of a performance of classical music. A total of 264 musicians and concertgoers participated in the survey, and an exploratory principal components analysis was used to reveal relationships between the variables. This analysis suggested that the data could be described according to a simpler set of six underlying components, which, in turn, might form the basis of an empirically testable model of affective responses. Difficulties with the existing data and directions for future research are discussed.