Doctrine of the affections
The doctrine of affections goes back to ancient Greece and says that emotions such as joy, sadness, or pain can be expressed musically and the music can evoke such emotions in the listener.
The doctrine of affections is an area of music theory of the Baroque period, which deals with the relationship between the affective and the possibilities of representation in music. It is due to the adoption of a common basis of language and musical language (Musica Poetica ) closely linked to the doctrine of affections of rhetoric.
Origin of the word emotion:
- Latin affectus, state, condition, feeling, passion, desire, affection, love
- Latin afficere, affectum: treat, brought to a condition, stimulate the mind, agree
History
The roots of the doctrine of affections extend to ancient Greece back ( ethical evaluation of music in Plato ).
Already in the Renaissance and early Baroque madrigals comes in the affective content of the text by means of musical expression. These stylistic devices are also used in the instrumental music, and especially in the opera house.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the doctrine of affections in music theory works by Michael Praetorius (Syntagma Musicum, 1619) Marin Mersenne ( Harmonie universelle, 1636), Athanasius Kircher ( Musurgia universalis, 1650), Johann Mattheson ( The perfect conductor, 1739 ) are shown. A systematization and canonization of the doctrine of affections has made Frederick William Marpurg ( 1718-1795 ). How far apply these theoretical concepts to the musical practice of his contemporaries, is controversial and has caused misunderstandings in the earlier research. From such an intimate interrelationship between theory and practice as it existed in the 19th century, then, can not be assumed.
Was particularly investigated intensively the musical realization of the emotions with Johann Sebastian Bach ( Albert Schweitzer: Bach, 1908 Immanuel Comforter: .. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1984)
The doctrine of affections seems to the present day, and had more recently may have a greater impact on the practice in the Baroque period. The pursuit of " direct " expression since the late 18th century was directed against baroque formulas and thus to the emotions and character education. Currents of music in the 20th century as the neoclassicism contrast evaluated the symbolic representation of emotions doctrine of affections again to judge against increased expression of late Romanticism.
Affects
- Plato divides the emotions into four categories: pleasure, pain, desire, fear
- Aristotle characterizes eleven affects, which is nothing but a mixture of pleasure ( pain) and pain are: lust, anger, fear, courage, envy, joy, love, hate, desire, jealousy and pity.
- René Descartes (1596-1650), describes in his work Traité des passions de l' âme (Paris 1649) six basic types of emotions, which can be combined with numerous intermediate forms together:
Implementation in music
Quintilian (~ 35 to ~ 100 AD). Considered vocal music on the basis of structural similarities as equal discipline in addition to the rhetoric. He saw analogies between intonation in speech and melody in music. During the Renaissance, the acquisition of language design principles in music began to support the affective content of the text.
There are two options:
- The musical doctrine of affections
- The musical figure doctrine
Motif and melodic structure
Motives and melodies are designed according to the affective content of the entire text or of certain important words ( keywords). Examples:
- Apocope in the word " fear " in Soprano I, II and tenor Representation of scaring by interrupting the melody line ( apocope ) in the word " fear "
- Descending tetrachord for the representation of grief as in the lament, epitomized the Lamento d' Arianna of Monteverdi.