TÄNA AJALOOS, 28. juuli ⟩ Hiinas toimus 20. sajandi suurim maavärin

Musical expression is the art of playing or singing with a personal response to the music.^[1]

At a practical level, this means making appropriate use of dynamics, phrasing, timbre and articulation to bring the music to life.^[1] Composers may specify these aspects of expression to a greater or lesser extent in the notation of their musical score.

The nature of musical expression has also been discussed at a theoretical level throughout of the history of classical music. One common view is that music both expresses and evokes emotion, forming a conduit for emotional communication between the musician and the audience. This view has been present through most of musical history, though it was most clearly expressed in musical romanticism.^[1] However, the role of emotion in music has been challenged on occasion by those like Igor Stravinsky who see music as a pure art form and expression as an irrelevant distraction.

Mimesis and rhetoric

In the Baroque and Classical periods of music, music (and aesthetics as a whole) was strongly influenced by Aristotle's theory of mimesis. Art represented the perfection and imitation of nature, speech and emotion.^[1]^{: History before 1800}

As speech was taken as a model for music, composition and performance in the Baroque period were strongly influenced by rhetoric. According to what has become known as the doctrine of the affections, a musician was expected to stir feelings in his audience in much the same way as an orator making a speech in accordance with the rules of classical rhetoric. As a result, the aim of a piece of music was to produce a particular emotion, for instance joy, sadness, anger or calm. The harmony, melody, tonality, metre and structure of the music worked to this end, as did all the aspects under the performer's control such as articulation and dynamics.^[2]

As Johann Joachim Quantz wrote in 1752,

Romantic era

Around the start of the 19th century, the idea of music as a kind of 'ultimate language of the emotions'^[1]^{: History – After 1800} gained currency. The new aesthetic doctrine of Romanticism placed sublime, heightened emotion at the core of artistic experience, and communicating these emotions became the aim of musical performance. Music was expected to convey intense feelings, highly personal to the vision of the composer. As the 19th century developed, musical nationalism extended these emotions beyond the personal level to embodying the feelings of entire nations.^[5]

This emphasis on emotional communication was supported by an increasing confidence in using more complex harmony, and by instruments and ensembles capable of greater extremes of dynamic. At the start of the 19th century, dynamic markings like "pp" and "ff" were most commonly used, but by the late century, markings like "pppp" and "ffff" began to appear on the score. Romantic composers also made increasingly detailed use of expressive markings like crescendos and diminuendos, accents and articulation markings.^[5]^: 16–17

Against expression

After the increasing dominance of expression and emotion in music during the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a backlash.^[1]

Stravinsky wrote in 1935, "Most people like music because it gives them certain emotions such as joy, grief, sadness, and image of nature, a subject for daydreams or – still better – oblivion from 'everyday life'. They want a drug – dope - ... Music would not be worth much if it were reduced to such an end. When people have learned to love music for itself, when they listen with other ears, their enjoyment will be of a far higher and more potent order, and they will be able to judge it on a higher plane and realise its intrinsic value."^[6]

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kovaleff Baker, Nancy; Paddison, Max; Scruton, Roger (2001). "Expression". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.09138. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership required)
↑ Wilson, Blake; Buelow, George J.; Hoyt, Peter A. (2001). "Rhetoric and music". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.43166. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership required)
↑ Johann Joachim Quantz (1966) [1752]. On Playing the Flute. Translated by Edward R. Reilly. Faber and Faber. ISBN 9780571066988.^{[page needed]}
1 2 Tarling, Judy (2000). Baroque String Playing for Ingenious Learners. Tring: Corda Music. pp. 4–6. ISBN 978-0-9528220-1-1.
1 2 Hugh Macdonald (2002). Burton, Anthony (ed.). Performer's Guide to Music of the Romantic Period. London: ABRSM. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-86096-194-6.
↑ Igor Stravinsky (1975) [1935]. An Autobiography. Calder and Boyars. p. 163. ISBN 9780714510828.