What is Musicality?

Excellent posts and refreshing to see musicality discussed as it relates to the music and not just some abstract, and usually mistaken, description of the sound of equipment. A couple of thoughts re some recent comments:

I think that it's important to remember that music affects our emotions in two different ways. There is an important distinction between perceived emotion in music and emotion that is felt. For instance, sometimes a performance is so rapturous and heart-felt, or so in-synch with what the composer intended, that the listener cannot help but be moved by it; it is felt. Then there are works and/or performances that are intended to evoke a certain emotion (fear, for instance) and the listener can understand this, or perceive this without actually feeling that emotion. I do agree that, as Learsfool points out, emotions are part of music. Once a work leaves the printed page (in the case of non-improvised music), the performer's emotions are an integral part of it; it is not simply organized sound. At that point listener personality becomes an important component of the "mix". Listeners of certain personality types react to certain music and certain performance styles differently than other listeners; and react (or not) differently to the expressed emotion in a performance.

Musicality is when you turn around to see who's there when you're convinced someone said something or made a noise.

HUH? You just said something, but it ain't musical. I must be deaf.

Frogman,

with all due respect and fully agreeing with the distinction you make between perceived emotion and emotion that is felt as well as apologies for being a nitpicking old curmudgeon, I still insist, that emotion is NOT in the music. It may be in the composer, who translates it into his score, it may be in the interpreter, who through his training, his artistry, his concept of the score and perhaps, but by no means always, by his being moved emotionally by the composer's score, translates it into sound, which again in the listener may or may not cause emotions. In a way, I don't like what I am saying, I love music, but I also try to stand for what I at least think is precise.

To be honest, it is only when I envisage this amazing chain of events, of how the magic of what is music evolves, that I stand in awe of the mystery what music is and what it can do to us.

Detlof wrote,

"HUH? You just said something, but it ain't musical. I must be deaf."

Do you by any chance have an English translation?

;-)

Cheers