Noh is a traditional Japanese performing art that has been practiced for approximately 700 years. Unlike Western music, the pitch and timbre of singing and instruments used in Noh cannot be represented using standard Western musical notation, and there is no fixed notion of a “correct” version. As a result, many aspects of Noh, including its acoustic structure and its psychological or physiological effects on audiences, remain poorly understood. Noh is characterized by extremely slow-paced singing, which has been anecdotally associated with inducing a sense of calm or even drowsiness in the audience. However, the mechanisms by which its acoustic features contribute to this relaxation remain unclear. This study aims to clarify how autonomic nervous system activity changes during Noh performances, and which specific acoustic features are involved in such changes. Skin potentials of participants were recorded during Noh performances, and the relationship between acoustic parameters and changes in sympathetic activity was analyzed. The results revealed a tendency for the amplitude modulation components of Noh music to suppress sympathetic nervous activity.
Shunsuke Kidani (Wed,) studied this question.