I recently came across an illustration of a relationship between dynamic markings in music and the emotions they may elicit. These relationships were presented in a table which I’ve included below.  I immediately realized that all of the “suggested emotions” were positive. There was no anger, or fright, or grief. Are the only emotions we experience in music ones that feel good? Where would Italian opera or Mahler symphonies be if this were so? What of the opening of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s ninth symphony? That is fortissimo, but it is angry, even raging. Not at all victorious or elated. Or what of the beginning of the Dies Irae in Verdi’s requiem? That fortissimo is terrifying. I understand that in a table such as this, not every possible emotion can be named, but there is a lack of emotional range in these suggestions. Why not indicate a range of possibilities, like victorious/angry, elated/terrified? Why limit what one expects from a musical dynamic to only one side of the emotional spectrum?

The same is true of pianissimo. Bach’s “Arioso” surely is enrapturing, but the profound quiet that precedes the storm in Beethoven’s sixth symphony is neither enraptured or awe-striking. It is expectant, anticipatory, worrisome; a foreboding warning of imminent danger. Enraptured and awe-struck are enjoyable emotions, but they alone do not represent the emotion of very quiet music. 

Then there is another important question to be asked. Can the emotions a listener or performer experiences when hearing or performing at a given dynamic be universalized or prescribed? Isn’t emotional response to a large degree part of interpreting music beyond whatever clues the composer has left through dynamic markings? What musical elements interact with dynamics to shape the emotion of the dynamic? For example a fortissimo dissonance might express anger or pain, whereas a fortissimo consonance might indeed express victory or elation. A fortissimo vivace  might express elation, whereas a fortissimo lento might express longing and despair. The emotional content of a musical dynamic cannot be understood apart from other musical elements such as harmony and tempo.

As a musician, before I decide how to approach performing a fortissimo, I need to understand the musical context in which it exists. As performers, we cannot decide what emotional meaning we are going to give to the music simply by looking at a dynamic marking. When teaching, I cannot tell a student that because they are going to play a passage fortissimo, that it must be victorious, or elated. It might be, but how do we know just from the dynamic marking? Can we know? Before even suggesting an emotion, the musician must learn exactly what is to be played or sung fortissimo, and how it fits in with what’s going on in the music at that moment, and how that fits in with what has come before it and with what will follow. Rather than suggest anything right from the start, I would rather the student hear the music and decide what emotion they experienced when they heard it. 

Are there are instances in music where the emotion of a dynamic marking is explicitly clear? The fanfare that precedes the triumphant march in Aida must be resoundingly victorious, just as suggested in the table above. If I were conducting Aida, that’s just how I’d want it played. How do we know that fortissimo demands a triumphant sounding interpretation? Is it simply because it is marked fortissimo? No. It is because of the context of what’s going on in the opera at that moment. It is context dependent. Change the context and/or the content, and the emotion may change. Another example is the impassioned and loud outbursts so frequent in Mahler’s symphonies. They must be despairing, and mournful, and not at all elated. The music as written demands it. But even so, there are circumstances where even these interpretations of which we are so sure and so convinced that they are right, are perhaps not ones with which everyone will agree.

Emotion is not a response to a prescriptive stimulus, it is the by-product of an interaction between a person and an environment. The music one hears or performs interacts with what sense we make of it in a cognitive process, and that forms an emotional response. Elements that are mixed into this perception and cognition include not only the music itself, but the experiences of the listener/performer, and the social context in which the music is perceived. For any given listening experience, one or more elements may be common to all individuals. For example, a population of people might share the social setting (audience, classroom, or other gathering of people) in which the music is being experienced.  At the same time, other elements may be unique to each person in the listening population. 

For example, each listener and performer will have their own life experiences which connect them to the music in different ways. This can cause what sounds triumphant to one to sound tormenting to another. Consider on listener who loves opera and immediately becomes excited and joyful upon hearing that fanfare that introduces the triumphant march in Aida. Then consider another person who heard that same fanfare played to announce the procession of the bride at a wedding; the marriage of their mother to a man they haven’t accepted as their “new father” after their biological father tragically passed away only six months ago. To this person, that fanfare is painful, unwelcome prodding. The same fortissimo in the same music packs entirely different emotional punch for each person, and explicit clarity goes right out the window.

If we even just suggest a particular emotion be attached to a particular musical dynamic, we are asserting that the evocation of emotions is something musical content prescribes; that a given emotion is a predictive symptom of a certain kind of musical event, much like a sore throat can be regarded as a symptom of the common cold, or of the flu. Whereas many times, that is what a sore throat indicates, even that is not universal. It might just be a dry throat, or the result of sitting in a dentist’s office, mouth wide open, for too long. The meaning of the sore throat, like the emotional meaning of a musical event, in this case a dynamic indication attached to a musical event, can change because of other interactive factors. 

When teaching students, let’s explore the emotional possibilities. One of music’s greatest attributes is the freedom it allows to interpret, to give personal meaning. While this is done within the boundaries of a composer’s expressive intent, music is simply to abstract to attempt to give anything in it a definitive, universal meaning. Music universally appeals and benefits everyone, but those benefits are fully realized when open interaction between people and the music is freely allowed.