# resemblance convention and musical expressiveness **Opening (not a real abstract):** Between them, Peter Kivy and Stephen Davies have developed an influential and convincing account of what features of music cause listeners to hear it as expressive of emotion. Although their accounts differ in detail, they share an essential core: music is expressive of some emotion when it resembles human expressive behaviour. I will call this generic view of musical expressiveness the resemblance theory. Neither Kivy nor Davies believes that the resemblance theory can account for all of musical expression. Some features of music, they believe, are expressive of emotion because of conventional associations. In recent years, Kivy has rejected the resemblance theory without adopting an alternative. Davies has continued to adhere to the view that musical expressiveness is to be explained in terms of resemblance and convention. This essay will argue **Authors:** [[James O Young]]