There seem to be two different schools of technique in acting, or rather
two extremes in a continuum.  One extreme says that the actor should
immerse him/herself in the part to the extent that s/he actually feels
the emotion s/he is trying to display, his/her natural reactions to this
emotion taking care of the required vocal inflection, body language, facial
expression, and so on required to convey the emotion.  The other extreme
requires an actor to be familiar with the vocal inflexions, etc needed for
various situations and to - cold-bloodedly - imitate these as needed.  It
seems to me there may be parallels to this in music.

Do composers, for instance, need to feel sorrowful to write sorrowful
music, festive to write festive music, or seeking for God to write
seeking-for-God music? Many of the contributors this forum seem to think
that they do.  I find it hard to believe.  So many compositions switch
smoothly from one motion to another, that it seems most likely that
composers are aware of the note sequences, rhythms, inflections and
whatever else composers use, which convey different emotions to *those
schooled in our type of music* and apply them as they believe suitable.
Does what I call sorrowful music seem sorrowful to the inhabitants of the
PNG highlands, I wonder? I know that what I call glorious music leaves one
of my sons unmoved, or perhaps bored.

Similarly, do performers need to feel the emotions they seek to convey? I
know that many of them appear to do so, but is this merely a device - in
some of them at least - to reinforce the musical means they are using.  If
it is a device of this kind, do they continue to use it in the recording
studio? If so, is this force of habit?

So we come to listeners.  I know that a listener is not going to convey
much emotion to others by the way he listens, but does he convey emotion to
himself.  I believe that many of us feel the emotions we are led to expect
to feel.  The "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" was, I believe, so
named as a marketing exercise.  And yet I have read comments about how well
it evokes the horror of that sorry event.  I have heard of people equally
praising Copland's "Appalachian Spring" for evoking the end of winter, as
a clear small stream.  I believe that it was named after it was written.

I would like to hear comments from composers and performers as well as
from listeners on these musings of mine.  (I would also like to know
which meaning of the word "spring" Copland intended.)

Alan Dudley
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