what does it mean to describe music as "very musical"?

i read this a fair bit in jazz criticism, but it also turns up in writing about classical music and even some rock (especially art rock). it's generally used to describe playing/performance rather than composition, but not always.

it often seems equivalent to "melodic" or even "easy on the ear" (i.e. not grating/difficult). but not always.

so what on earth does it mean?

or is this one of those "if you have to ask..." questions like What does it mean for a piece of music to "rock"?

https://www.google.com/#q=%22playing+is+very+musical%22

About 123,000 results (0.14 seconds)

In classical (or jazz I guess) performance, describing something as "musical" usually means it had a lot of feeling, was nuanced and dynamic -- quite distinct from a "technical", cold (or simply inept) performance. Believe it or not, performing "musically" isn't the first thing most musicians do, or are even taught how to do!

ah, i see. in that sense its close to "lyrical"

there's a weird circular dimension to these adjectives: musical, lyrical, poetic. because often they will be applied to non-musical or non-poetic phenomena in such a way that it can mean "like music" or "like poetry" -- but that often begs the question of what qualities of music or poetry are being evoked. which is why it seemed doubly circular (?) when applied to musical performance itself.

lyr·i·cal
ˈlirik(ə)l/
adjective
1.
(of literature, art, or music) expressing the writer's emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way.
"the poet's combination of lyrical and descriptive power"
synonyms: expressive, emotional, deeply felt, personal, subjective, passionate, lyric
"lyrical love poetry"

yeah, you definitely hear "lyrical" applied in music a lot as well, especially for, say, an instrumental solo. To play lyrically is to play smoothly, with a beautiful tone, where each note seems to lead naturally to the next, and the phrase itself is shaped beautifully, leading a listener up, down and through an emotional journey. It's a pretty abstract thing to get ahold of, as is "playing musically". Because of that, it's something most music students either don't ever grasp, or don't have to, because they posess that innate thing that makes them do it without even thinking.

(on a technical note, I always conceived of "playing lyrically" as if I was playing my instrument like it was a human voice, where notes will more naturally flow into each other, and you can express yourself with greater range and subtlety, and more easily than on an external instrument)

agreed. i also i hear it in reference to electronic music (and say it a lot too), when something is composed or arranged in a way that sounds like the producer has a solid background in theory (or maybe a lot of pop/indie/songwriting experience). you know, music-y music. something that could be transcribed and played back and still work rather than something that depends on the recording/texture/performance.

xp to dominique

yeah, i think i've heard it applied in a way that implies "soundness" as in "this composition is very structurally sound"/"has a structural integrity."

and yeah the fact that i'm using the word "sound" is not lost on me! it's funny how these things work.

i think 'musical' playing is often highlighted by listeners/critics in music in (sub-)genres where certain widespread expectations make them otherwise ok with just, like, bashing it out, throwing a beat under something, letting a primary element like a riff or hook or the interest of the vocal performance or the songwriting carry things. you can usually hear it not just in terms of lyricism, sensitivity to dynamics, etc., but also in the voicing of the parts by all musicians involved, their interplay and cooperation.

i don't think much structure or compositional achievement is needed for a performance to be highly musical. difference between nina nastasia (often very musical, i feel) and laura marling (more papery, composed, blocked out or structured, comparatively), say.

the band seems pretty musical to me on the new iceage album - an effect of a lot of recent communication, practice and performance, no doubt. i think the new lee ann womack shows a lot of musicality, compared to other recent country i've liked, even things i've been crazy about like kacey musgraves (where the music as a whole, a dynamic combination of etc etc, seems to be pretty well subordinated to the pop-effectiveness of the songwriting/performance). the aeternus album from last year shades off more toward the technical, not surprising given that it's death metal, but compared to other death metal i think the playing is notable for its musicality. (but, say, although the playing on the origin album this year is obviously highly accomplished, technical, and listenable, something about it does not seem to invite talk of 'musicality'. down to the conceptual difference between a sound being 'voiced' and a sound being 'made', i suppose.)