Sounds as Rhetoric
Like most composers who notate music and indicate with considerable precision what each member of an ensemble is to perform, as I notate, I imagine how each part will sound when performed. And as a work progresses the imagined sounds become increasingly specific. I might notate a phrase as I imagine it sung by a baritone sotto voce in his high register, or notate repeated notes as performed by a violin section using hammered (martellato) bow strokes low on their G string. (While composing I always imagine sounds in terms of classically trained performers.) There are limits, of course, on how much can be notated, and as mentioned in The Thrill of Performances I relish the expressive nuances that fine performers bring to my music.
As listeners we instinctively respond differently to contrasting musical sounds and gestures, just as we respond differently to a whisper versus shouting. The more experience that I have gained as a composer, the more acutely aware I have become of the rhetorical effect of sound. Even subtle differences in the surface qualities of musical sounds can drastically change our aesthetic and emotional responses. I have spent so much thinking about the rhetorical aspect of musical sounds and studying it in the scores of admired composers that an awareness of sounds as rhetoric has become part of my nature. Consequently, some sense of rhetorical and theatrical awareness is an element in all of my music, including music written for the concert hall.