Expressive Qualities in Music Perception and Music Education

This paper seeks to extend the significance of musical expressiveness in music education through the consideration of Gestalt perceptual concepts. The concept of expressive quality is discussed and two defining characteristics identified. First, the presence of expressive qualities, as phenomenal attributes, is indicated when emotional terms are applied to perceptions. Second, expressive qualities are determined by the structure of the percept to which they belong and are thus products of perceptual organization. The theoretical implications of the concept for music are explored and the classic objections of Hanslick reconsidered. The empirical support for extending the concept to music draws on studies showing listener agreement on emotional attributions to music and work on melodic perception that shows that music does have the kind of perceptual structure required by the concept. An expressive method, based on the relation of expressive qualities to music structure, is suggested as an educational device. An illustration of the method is given and its advantages for the student are summarized.