Doctrine of affect

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The doctrine of affections goes to Greek antiquity back and says himself that affects such as joy, sadness or pain can express musically and music such emotions can cause the listener.

The doctrine of affect is an area of music theory of the Baroque period that deals with the connection between affect and the possibilities of representation in music. Due to the assumption of a common basis for language and musical language ( Musica Poetica ), it is closely linked to the doctrine of affect in rhetoric .

Origin of the word affect :

  • Latin affectus : state, constitution, feeling, passion , desire , affection , love
  • Latin afficere, affectum : treat, put into a state, stimulate the mind, vote

history

The doctrine of affect is rooted in music theory in ancient Greece ( ethical evaluation of music by Plato ).

In the Middle Ages , many affects are reflected in the ethos of the church modes used for Gregorian chant .

Already in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods , the emotional content of the texts in madrigals was expressed through musical means. These stylistic devices are also used in instrumental music and especially in opera .

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the doctrine of affect is used in the music-theoretical works of Michael Praetorius ( Syntagma musicum , 1619), Marin Mersenne ( Harmonie universelle , 1636), Athanasius Kircher ( Musurgia universalis , 1650), Johann Mattheson ( The perfect Kapellmeister , 1739 ) shown. Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718–1795) systematised and canonized the doctrine of affect . How far these theoretical concepts apply to the music practice of contemporaries is controversial and has caused misunderstandings in older research. At that time it cannot be assumed that theory and practice were so closely interrelated as there was in the 19th century.

The musical implementation of the affects in Johann Sebastian Bach was particularly intensively pursued ( Albert Schweitzer : Bach , 1908. Immanuel Tröster: Johann Sebastian Bach , 1984)

The doctrine of affect is effective up to the present day and may have had more recent effects on practice than in the Baroque period. The striving for “direct” expression since the end of the 18th century was directed against baroque formulas and thus also against the theory of affects and figures. Music currents in the 20th century such as neoclassicism , on the other hand, revalued the symbolic representation of emotions in the doctrine of affect in order to counteract the increased expression of late romanticism .

Affects

  1. Joy ( joie )
  2. Hate ( haine )
  3. Love ( amour )
  4. Grief ( tristesse )
  5. Desire ( desir )
  6. Admiration ( admiration )

Implementation in music

Quintilian (≈35 to ≈100 AD) regards vocal music as an equal discipline alongside rhetoric due to structural similarities. He saw analogies between the tone of voice in speech and melody in music. In the Renaissance, linguistic design principles began to be adopted in music in order to support the emotional content of the text.

There are two ways to do this:

  • The musical doctrine of affect
In the doctrine of affect in music, the respective types of affect are assigned very specific musical means of representation. This assignment has the character of a natural law. In the Baroque period, the composer did not try to portray his own feelings, but rather to trigger the desired affects in the listener in a technically mature, well-considered and artful way. This effect depends to the same extent on the performer .
  • The musical theory of figures
In the theory of figures , the compositional means are presented with which objectified affects can be represented. A text should not only be correctly interpreted in terms of declamation (emphasis, accentuation, lowering, length, brevity), but should also clarify the affects contained in the text.

Creation of motifs and melodies

Motifs and melodies are designed according to the affect content of the entire text or individual important words (key words). Examples:

Remarks

  1. ↑ Markus Bautsch: On the Ethos of Church Tones , accessed on November 23, 2014
  2. ↑ According to Descartes' mechanistic view, there is a natural law connection between musical and spiritual movement.
  3. ↑ See on this Johann Joachim Quantz (1697–1773), attempt of an instruction to play the flute traversiere , XI. Main piece On good performance in singing and playing in general
  4. ↑ Recording with musical text

See also

literature

  • Rolf Dammann: The concept of music in the German baroque. Volk, Cologne 1967 (also: Freiburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr.).
  • Corinna Herr: Medea's anger. A “strong woman” in operas of the 17th and 18th centuries. Centaurus, Herbolzheim 2000, ISBN 3-8255-0299-6 ( contributions to the cultural and social history of music 2), (also: Bremen, Univ., Diss., 2000).
  • Burkhard Meyer-Sickendiek : Affect poetics. A cultural history of literary emotions. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3065-6 .
  • Ulrich Michels: dtv atlas on music. Volume 2: Historical Part: From the Baroque to the Present. Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich et al. 1985, ISBN 3-423-03023-2 .
  • Hans-Heinrich Unger: The Relationship Between Music and Rhetoric in the 16th – 18th Centuries Century. Triltsch, Würzburg 1941 ( Music and Intellectual History 4, ZDB -ID 528421-1 ), (At the same time: Berlin, Univ., Diss., 1940), (8th reprint. Olms, Hildesheim et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-487- 02308-3 ).
  • Dagmar Glüxam: "You have to play from your soul ..." About the affect theory in music of the 17th and 18th centuries and its effect on interpretation . Hollitzer Verlag, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-99012-623-3 .

Web links