When Sound Becomes Meaning

When Sound Becomes Meaning is a philosophical inquiry into the nature of musical interpretation for flutists.

Emerging from decades of performance, teaching, and sustained reflection, this work examines interpretation not as the amplification of feeling, nor as the display of personality, but as the disciplined shaping of sound within structure. It considers proportion, temporal awareness, and artistic coherence as the foundations upon which meaning is formed.

Rather than offering exercises or technical prescriptions, the book invites thoughtful engagement with deeper questions:

What gives direction to sound?

How does structure guide expression?

At what point does sound acquire significance?

Through carefully articulated reflection, Yulia Berry proposes that interpretation is an act of orientation — toward time, toward form, and toward responsibility.

When sound is guided by awareness rather than impulse, it acquires direction. When direction is sustained, meaning becomes possible.

Designed for serious students, performers, and teachers, this volume offers a framework for artistic thinking that extends beyond style and period into the core of musical consciousness.

First Edition • MMXXV
Published by Flute Almanac Editions