Analysis of College Students’ Aesthetic Musical Experiences through Debussy’s 「Clair de Lune」

This study was based on the ‘Affect-Space Framework (ASF)’ proposed by Schubert, North, & Hargreaves (2016) to analyze the emotional and affective responses of college students while listening to Debussy’s 「Clair de Lune」 and to deeply explore their aesthetic musical experiences. A total of 125 college students were asked to listen to the piece, and a survey was conducted regarding their emotional and affective reactions. The results are as follows: First, college students had more emotional responses than affective ones when listening to music, with responses based on an internal locus of emotion being the most prominent. Second, only 8.29% of the total responses corresponded to aesthetic emotions. This can be interpreted as most students not having an aesthetic experience while listening to Debussy’s 「Clair de Lune」. Third, there was a significant difference in the affective responses based on an external locus depending on gender. Fourth, groups who had an aesthetic experience tended to focus more on the content expressed by the music, while groups without an aesthetic experience focused more on their internal emotions. In conclusion, the ‘Affect-Space Framework (ASF)’ was highly effective in analyzing the emotional and affective reactions of college students during their listening to Debussy’s 「Clair de Lune」. Through ASF, the researcher was able to explore the deep dimensions of students’ aesthetic musical experiences, especially emotions and affections, and this provided a new direction for music education and psychological research.