Music is an art form that uses auditory images composed of organized sounds to express people's thoughts, feelings and social reality. It is also one of the most instantly moving art forms. When the melody sounds, people are often unable to resist and immediately fall into the atmosphere of the music. Any art form has its own expressions to express ideas and shape artistic images. For example, dance embodies artistic images through body movements and facial expressions, painting embodies lines, colors, and compositions, and literature embodies artistic images through words, words, sentences, and articles. Usually, people distinguish different types of art based on different means of expression, such as different musical instruments. Music can also show the intentions of the singers.

Language has a conventional semantics, and every sentence or even every word has a specific meaning. This meaning is recognized within the social scope in which the language is used and is a convention; the sound of music is completely different. It is only limited to the scope of art and exists only as an artistic exchange; the sound of music in any music is completely different. Sounds themselves never have a very definite meaning like language, they are non-semantic.

Auditory art

Since music is the art of sound, it can only appeal to people's hearing. Therefore, music is also an auditory art. The principles of directional reflex and exploratory reflex in psychology tell us that among various external stimuli within a certain distance, sound can attract people's attention the most. It can force people's auditory organs to accept the sound, which determines the comparison between auditory art and visual art. Art can more directly affect people's emotions and shock people's hearts.

Music can only be expressed by sound and felt by hearing, but this does not mean that when people create and appreciate music, only the parts of the cerebral cortex corresponding to hearing are excited, while other parts of the brain are excited. All parts are in a suppressed state. In fact, musicians not only use the channel of hearing, but also use their whole body and mind to feel and experience, understand and express life. This is no different from artists in other categories. The difference is that during artistic conception and artistic expression, musicians condense their various personal feelings into auditory images through image thinking, and then express them in specific sound forms.

Therefore, the thoughts and emotions expressed in musical works are not simply auditory feelings, but overall feelings. Similarly, when people appreciate music, although they mainly receive auditory stimulation through auditory channels, due to the role of synaesthesia, they may also cause visual images, generate rich and vivid associations and imaginations, and then arouse strong emotions. Reaction, experience the thoughts, feelings and situations expressed by musicians in their works, gain a sense of beauty and be moved by them.

Emotional Art

Among all art forms, music is the art form that is best at expressing emotions and touching the heartstrings. It uses the medium of sound to truly convey and express and feeling aesthetic emotions. Music is superior to other art forms in conveying and expressing emotions because of the perceptual materials and aesthetic forms it uses - sound is most in line with the nature of emotion and is most suitable for expressing emotions. Some are solemn and solemn, some are passionate and exciting, some are sad and angry, some are lingering and delicate, some are weeping and complaining. Music can express people's emotions more directly, more truly, and more profoundly. So, why can music use organized sounds to express people's emotions? One theory is that the expressiveness of music comes from music's imitation of people's expressive language. Human language uses expression methods such as voice, tone, flow, rhythm, and speaking speed to express meaning in conjunction with semantics, while expression methods such as timbre, pitch fluctuations, and rhythm speed of music can play the same role as language expression methods.

Personally, I believe that there is a similarity between the sound form of music and human emotions, and there is a certain "isomorphic relationship". This is the fundamental reason why music can express human emotions. Music theorist Yu Runyang once pointed out: "The fundamental reason why sound structure can express specific emotions is that there is an extremely important similarity between the two, that is, both display and express emotions in time. Development, a dynamic process with rich changes in speed, intensity and tone. This extremely important similarity is the bridge between the two. "For example, "joy" is a joyful thing. , happy emotional expression. Generally speaking, this kind of emotional movement shows a jumping and upward movement form, with brighter colors and faster movement speed and frequency. Music that expresses the emotion of "joy" generally adopts a similar dynamic structure, such as the folk music "Joyful", which uses faster speed, jumping tones and other expression methods to express people's joyful emotions.

Time Art

Sculptures, paintings and other art forms are solidified in space, making them clear to people at a glance. When we appreciate a work of art, we first see the work as a whole, and then appreciate its details. But music is different. Music should unfold in time and flow in time. When we appreciate music, we first start with the details, starting from the local parts. It is not until the whole piece is played (sung) that it leaves an overall impression on us. It is impossible to obtain a complete musical image by only listening to individual fragments of a musical work. Therefore, music art is also a time art.

As an auditory art, musical imagery unfolds in time, presenting, developing, and ending in movement as time continues.

The so-called "musical image" refers to the artist's thoughts and feelings expressed in the entire musical work and the images or artistic conception evoked in the thoughts and feelings of the listener. For example, "Moonlit Night on the Spring River" uses sweet, comfortable and tranquil tunes to express the feeling of boating on the picturesque Spring River on a moonlit night in the south of the Yangtze River, creating a fascinating musical artistic conception.

Unlike literature or painting, musical works can be directly enjoyed by people as soon as the author completes the creation and the creative process is over. Musical works must pass through the intermediate link of performance in order to convey the image expressed in the work to the audience and realize the aesthetic value of the artistic work. Therefore, music is also a performing art, an art that needs to be further recreated through performance.

When a composer records vivid musical ideas in the form of a score, he has already taken away its soul, and all that is left is a lifeless series of musical notes. The way to bring musical works back to life and turn scores into flesh-and-blood living music is music performance. Without musical performance, a musical work can only exist in the form of a score and never become real music.

No matter which score a composer writes, there is a certain gap between the music score and their musical ideas. To make up for this gap, to discover the musical ideas hidden in the score, and to enrich and supplement things that cannot be recorded in the score, all this depends on the re-creation of music performers. Therefore, music is also a performing art, and musical works can only be accepted by the audience through performance.

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