This essay poses the question of whether music, especially as regards its succession of expressive properties or states, is fruitfully thought of as a narrative of some sort. The answer returned is guardedly negative, and the attractions of an alternate model, one owing to the musicologists Anthony Newcombe and Fred Maus, of expressive music as dramatized rather than narrated emotion, are touted instead.
Keywords: instrumental music, musical narratives, dramatized emotion, musical representation, Anthony Newcombe, Fred Maus