Masks in Sight and Sound: Exploring Music–Art Relationships through Crossmodal Aesthetic Responses

Abstract This study explores the intersection of visual art and music, focusing on masks as a profound artistic element. It addresses three core objectives: how viewers interpret artistic masks, how classical music featuring masks corresponds with visual mask imagery, and how listeners express their responses through self-drawn masks inspired by Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (No. 7). Thirty-one adults without formal training in art or music participated in three phases: mask viewing, art–music pairing, and audiographic mask drawing. The viewing phase revealed diverse and often speculative interpretations of unseen elements. Some participants’ music–mask pairings diverged significantly from the researcher’s, highlighting subjective and varied interpretive strategies. Drawings evoked by Schönberg’s piece predominantly expressed repulsion and negative emotion. Overall, the study highlights the educational value of integrating visual and musical art forms, showing how crossmodal engagement can foster emotional insight, creative expression, and interpretive openness in diverse learning contexts.