The semantic field of the artist’s emotional memory phenomenon

The phenomenon of memory is studied across multiple disciplines (philosophy, sociology, psychology, musicology, etc.), but the psychological dimensions of the professional musician’s memory have received limited specialized attention. Music is primarily an emotionally driven medium; effective musical communication therefore relies on performers’ emotional responsiveness, which in turn depends on robust emotional memory. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework that integrates philosophical and psychological discourse into musicological inquiry, this paper investigates the semantic field of musicians’ emotional memory. Using a synthesis of historical-functional and genetic musicological principles, dialectical-materialist reasoning, hermeneutic interpretation, and structural-semantic analysis, the study maps key components of the phenomenon: (1) the performer’s semantic memory as access to compositional intent, (2) the proposed concept of the “affectual pocket” as an accumulator and generator of affective material, (3) the role of precedent meanings in creative re-signification, and (4) the dialectic between objective reading and cultivated subjectivity that enables interpretation. The paper argues that emotional memory is both repository and creative resource, feeding imagination and enabling the transition from responsible performance to distinctive interpretation. Implications for pedagogy, interpretive practice, and future empirical research are discussed.