Composer Publishes New Theory of Emotion in Life and Music

NEW YORK - Dec. 2, 2014 - PRLog -- For as long as mankind has grappled with the big questions in life, we have faced a unique mystery: the mystery of music. How does it affect us? We speak of this music being serene or that music being joyful or sad. But what does it even mean? What does it mean for music to be emotional?

M. Zachary Johnson, founder of the Character Through Art Forum, introduces his new theory answering this question in a book and course starting January 6, 2015.

Johnson is the composer of the Boston Tea Party Opera, which premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival 2014, and of The Can Opener: A Brief Horror Musical, which premiered to sold-out audiences at the Players Theater NYC Boo Festival for Halloween 2014. NY Theater Now described his work as "refreshingly smart and articulate.... nothing less than beautiful."

His first book, Dancing with the Muses: A Historical Approach to Basic Concepts of Music, garnered a 5-star combined rating on Amazon.com.

Johnson's new science of feeling is based on the concept of the "Psychological Signature" of an emotion, a unique set set of measurable aspects of experience that distinguish one emotion from another. Musically-aroused emotion had previously seemed to have no commonality with ordinary emotion; Johnson's new theory bridges the gap, showing how the two are provably and quantifiably alike.

http://www.characterthroughart.com/