Rachel+Staffin+RP+Post+5

We spent a lot of time this year talking about different rhetorical strategies to use when writing. I'm really interested in music, so I decided to research the different rhetorical strategies music composers use to communicate with their listeners.

A composer's job is to convey a message to his/her listener, and I through my research, found many musical strategies that are commonly used to effectively express emotion:


 * Lyrics- composers use them to tell the listeners in words what they should be getting out of the piece
 * Lack of lyrics- instrumental composers tend to believe that lyrics force a message upon their listeners, so they communicate solely with music, trying to give their listeners a certain general feeling in hopes that the message means "something relevant and important, in that moment, to them."
 * the listeners pull out of the music is one that will mean the most to them at that time
 * Keys- different emotions are associated with different keys. Christian Schubert offers that every key has a very specific emotion. While the website I found says that " in general, these classifications of key relate to most people," I am still not thoroughly convinced that the emotions are accurate, considering it is hard to measure emotion and due to the fact that some of them are bizarre descriptions.
 * Modulations- create a sudden change in character
 * Dissonances- create tension/ uneasiness
 * Suspensions- create tension/ uneasiness
 * Resolutions- create a feeling of relief and harmony

I am also putting the lyrics and link to a piece in my paper. I am going to ask my reader to listen to the piece while I talk them through an analysis of the key modulations and lyric choices. (Ex. the phrases that end in the words "must die" are in a minor key, while the phrase that ends in "chiefly lives" ends in a major key)

Many people many not be interested in this topic because they "don't get" music or because they find it boring, but it is really just another language to understand-- but one that is not hard to understand. It just needs to be felt