Where is Expression Found in Music?

This story starts with a key question: Given that great composers across history dedicated their lives to learning, perfecting, and inventing our expressive language of music, and took such great care in shaping their expressive intentions into each moment of their musical compositions, then what is it that we should look for in music to figure out a composer’s expressive intent? Baroque composer Francois Couperin shared this precise concern in saying,

I am always surprised, after the pains I have taken to indicate the ornaments appropriate to my pieces…to hear persons who have learnt them without heeding my instructions…Therefore I declare that my pieces must be performed just as I have written them.[i]

The question is how to identify, sort out, and translate composers’ intentions back into expressive music arrangements, editions, rehearsals, performances, and audience experiences. In search of an answer, we journey through various ways expression in music has been described and defined.

Creative Questions About Creativity

Since returning to live classes after teaching online or mixed live/online, I’m noticing a big shift in student willingness–and perhaps eagerness–to take risks to explore their creativity. A pre-COVID reluctance in students I am sure was tied to a social stigma common to a generation, who remarked when asked to do creativity lessons they felt embarrassingly “thrown under the bus” or “outed” in front of peers. It was harsh criticism to take.

However, this kickback sparked a creative critique of my own about the very nature of creativity. Here are my ponderings.

A Guide to the Adolescent Male Singing Voice

Would you believe me if I were to say that every adolescent from upper elementary to high school can learn to sing? Following facts and procedures worked out across the past century, it is assuredly possible.

Meloidia Chronicles: Music’s Role in Nationalism

Meloidia Chronicles is a blog series on historical choral expressions of text (Greek melos as a series of pitches and oidia as a poetic ode meant to be sung). This article tells of the role of music conservatories and Romantic composers in creating nationalism.

Meloidia Chronicles: Music Expression á la Mode

Meloidia Chronicles is a blog series on historical choral expressions of text (Greek melos as a series of pitches and oidia as a poetic ode meant to be sung). This article presents rules of expression defined in richly-varied cultural patterns of pitch and rhythm called modes.

Discovering Human Expression in Choral Music

Expression. Across history, the highest standards and aims of music have been described in various translations, synonyms, and derivatives of this one single word. Intricate vocabularies and illustrations to describe a musical composition, conducting gesture, performance, or audience response all boil down to a search for its underlying expression. Efforts to deny the importance or existence of expression in music—whether by philosophical argument, compositional design, or analytical theory—still underscore the central role of expression in musical thought and practice, and in their denial, express a select intention nonetheless.

Meloidia Chronicles: Ancient Roots of Musical Expression

Meloidia Chronicles is a blog series on historical choral expressions of text (Greek melos as a series of pitches and oidia as a poetic ode meant to be sung). This article tells a story of our common musical language, rooted the same in our ancient past within the physical laws of our shared earthly existence.

The role of loudness dynamics in human perception: Age-old musical patterns in a new scientific discovery

A new discovery of the role of loudness in comprehending speech is reported in Science Advances. The discovery is described in musical and acoustical terms of tones, dynamics, intensity, and amplitudes, yet without mention of its musical nature.  Though called a discovery, the facts of the study serve to corroborate a history of musical settings of text back to ancient times.

Musication: Homemade music instruments for kids at home

Wondering how to engage children with music instruments at home? Can’t afford a starter instrument or get one from school to home? Here is a compilation of homemade solutions that incorporate math, science, language arts, and arts and crafts.

Free Deep-Learning Posters for Music Ensemble Directors

As a music social psychologist I have always drawn my research from practical experiences in teaching and conducting music. As a music teacher and conductor I have sought to inform and improve my practical experience through research. In the process I developed posters and overviews that I share freely for use in your music teaching and conducting.