Spectra of Emotion and Kivy

Kivy attempts to use something he calls Contour theory to explain the way that music can have emotional representation. He claims that music can contour to the listener and allow the listener to perceive an emotion that was intended to embodied and conveyed in that piece of music. 

Two obvious concerns strike me from the outset. First, this seems to work easily with emotions like happy or sad. However, how can a musician convey guilt? Or contentment? Secondly, his theory relies  on the listener being a part of the same or similar social traditions that connect an emotion like sadness with slow tempo and minor chords. I suspect that these kinds of musical associations are not universal among differing social systems. This becomes even more problematic when you pair it with my first concern. Contour theory would imply then, that there is some universally accepted association that could be drawn musically between complex emotions and musical themes. This seems an untenable claim.

Do musical-emotional associations vary across cultures?