A PHILOSOPHY OF MUSICAL INTERPRETATION FOR FLUTISTS
When Sound Becomes Meaning
When Sound Becomes Meaning is an inquiry into the conditions under which musical sound acquires coherence, direction, and responsibility.
Rather than treating technique and interpretation as separate domains, the book examines their structural interdependence — asking how intention, form, and ethical awareness converge in mature artistry.
The Central Question
What transforms sound into meaning?
This book argues that meaning in music does not arise from emotion alone, nor from technique alone, but from structural clarity joined with conscious listening.
Drawing on performance practice, historical thought, and decades of pedagogical experience, the work explores:
• Structure as orientation
• Rhetoric as musical thought
• Listening as ethical act
• Interpretation as responsibility.
Why This Book Was Written
For performers, teachers, and serious students of music, the book proposes a shift:
From expressivity as instinct
to expression as structured awareness.
It invites the reader to reconsider:
- How we shape phrases
- How we hear form
- How we assume responsibility for musical time
Intended Audience
This is not a method book.
It is written for:
- Advanced students
- Professional performers
- Pedagogues
- Readers interested in the philosophy of musical interpretation
ON INTERPRETATION
Sound, Structure, and Responsibility
This work emerges from decades of performance, teaching, and sustained reflection on what it means to interpret responsibly.
Interpretation is not the amplification of feeling, nor the display of personality.
It is the shaping of sound within structure — an orientation toward time, proportion, and coherence.
When sound is guided by awareness rather than impulse, it acquires direction.
When direction is sustained, meaning becomes possible.
“Sound becomes meaningful when it is no longer produced for effect, but shaped in awareness of structure, time, and responsibility.”
Yulia Berry, DMA
