Definition of "expressivity" [expressivity]

• The quality of being expressive. (noun)
• Genetics The degree to which an expressed gene produces its effects in an organism. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This suggestion raises the specter of an ˜error theory™ of music's expressivity, that is, a theory that all claims of emotional expressivity in music are strictly false."
• "This range of moods, from exaltation to the slough of despond, is entirely appropriate for the 24 Preludes and Fugues — a kind of expressivity rarely matched by the Russian pianists who recorded excerpts from the work, from the overimposing monumentality of Sviatoslav Richter to the dignified, restrained lyricism of Emil Gilels."
• "While the exhibition catalogue rhapsodizes about the "expressivity" of the paintings of scenes of battle, hunting and fishing, seeing these items is the visceral equivalent of learning that Greek and Roman statues and temples were originally painted in bright tones."