The Voice of Angels?

Abstract

The previous chapters outline a number of musical features that may be used to express emotions, such as happiness and tenderness, and show that these features have certain characteristics that constrain their use. This chapter explains why and how the features come to denote emotions in the first place. Such an account can help resolve the second paradox of music and emotion. Some authors regard musical expression as something ‘subjective’ and ‘ambiguous’, whereas others as something that involves a great degree of inter-individual agreement. Exploring how musical expression actually ‘works’ shows that there is some truth to each of these perspectives.