Interpretation is the expression a performer brings when playing an instrument or singing. Just as there is no means by which a dramatist can write their play so as to indicate precisely how the actors should speak their lines, so there is no means by which a composer can indicate to a performer the precise way in which the music is to be sung or played – so that no two performers will adopt the same speedings up or slowings down (see rubato), the same degree of emphasis on an accented note, and so on.