[cornelis]

If a performer loses that narrative thread, the music goes flat. I'm hoping you don't mean that the narrative is only carried through words.

[tsomer]

I'm hoping you don't mean that the narrative is only carried through words.

No, I don't mean that. I think of narrative in a broader sense--a communication of an experience of some sort, and words are only one way to express it.

People relate to art by perceiving in it a common experience--either by interpreting or superimposing they're experience over it. The latter is pretty important and I think most good artists deliberately weave a little fog to engage their audience.