Name: Gong Ye Shun
Class: 4.11 Stephen
POD Reflection: What is the role of emotion in music?
Music in layman terms is a rhythmic organization of sound, and is made up of different components, such as genre, type, instrumentation, audience, and the list goes on. However, the role of emotion is questioned in music over other more important aspects of music such as rhythm or genre or intonation, and hence we shall further develop an idea of a specific role emotion has to play in music in this essay.
But first let me define “music with emotion”. Take for example written music: a composer rarely writes down every single detail a player or singer has to accomplish in order for the music to have a feel or sound good. The player or singer has to read the score and add in a feel minor details during the process of playing or singing the music to evoke feelings in the audience, much like icing on a cake. Examples of emotion evident in music are application of musical concepts taught: vibrato, direction (intensification), phrasing, variety of articulation based on different genres and dynamics, even body language, just to name a few. Emotion in music is much like emotion in language; music with emotion is like talking in a monotone, dull and boring. Music with emotion, however, adds to the pleasure of hearing it and definitely makes the process more delightful and meaningful.
Emotion can even promote interpretation of the music to a certain extent; a music composed with emotion would be easily interpreted by the audience. What makes Mozart and Beethoven stand out from the other famous composers is the amount of emotion they pour into their music when they compose it, and hence when we listen to the music we can almost empathize with the composers.
In my opinion, emotion is more of a necessity than a prerequisite for something to be considered music. An example to illustrate this point would be a mother would think whatever her ten year old daughter sings (with or...