Dubitatio

Dubitatio (from Latin dubitare: to doubt, to hesitate, to hesitate)

• expresses in rhetoric a doubt about a concrete issue.
• is used in music to express general uncertainty without it being possible or necessary to describe it in more detail.

According to Forkel, the "dubitatio" can be expressed in music in two ways:

1. by a dubious modulation
2. by a standstill at a certain point in a sentence.

Unclear rhythm, as well as unclear connections in the harmony of a sentence or the apparent uncertainty in the melody lead to the "dubitatio". This deliberately misleads the listener. Quintilian, on the other hand, thinks that the character helps to give something credible. Despite these opposing views, figure and affect agree and express the desired emotion. As with the Distributio, the content and meaning of the musical and rhetorical figure also match.

literature

• Bartel, Dietrich Handbook of Musical Figure Theory , Laaber 1985