To make matters worse, this statement ("that was unmusical") is presented as declarative fact, but is subjectively grounded. It gets even more complicated when you leave contexts like classical music in which the notes are dictated and "the expression" is supposed to be added: what does someone mean if an improvised jazz solo is "unmusical"? That it has too many notes? too few? That it takes too little heed of the underlying changes? That it panders to the specific idioms of the instrument, or that it ignores them? And the speaker can't or won't enumerate all these "unwritten rules" that you're overlooking, and uses the one word "musicality" to stand in for "awareness of these common expressive practices and the ability to notice places for them in the music." It might be that they don't simply want you to invent random expressions on a whim, but that they're speaking of conventions and practices that are often associated with certain musical gestures-as you approach a cadence you might delay its arrival just a bit if you have a suspension you might emphasize the dissonance and relax on the resolution. Perhaps the speaker wants to see more ebb and flow of tempo, perhaps a greater dynamic range. They may mean that you played all the right notes, but did so "robotically," as a virtual instrument might if given the same sheet music. These often boil down, in the crudest terms, to volume (dynamics, articulation, etc) and timing. "Musicality" is usually used for "expressive" aspects of the performance. so move your fingers faster." Or "project more," or "use better posture," or "play more in tune." (These things might also be true-and might stand in the way of the "musicality" they're looking for-but are probably not what they're driving at.) They probably don't mean "It's unmusical. This word is seldom used about the technical aspects of performance. They're probably not talking about technique.
1 If someone says "That performance was lacking in musicality," what do they expect you to change? (Note: the fact that we have to ask at all, and the trouble we're about to have nailing them down, suggests that this is not terribly useful advice.) But we can close in on it by establishing what they don't mean.įirst of all, let's confine the context to talking about the "musicality" of a musical performance. "Musicality" is a very vague and subjective word, and many who use it might be hard-pressed to explain what they mean by it.
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