The doctrine of the affections, also known as the ''doctrine of
affects'', ''doctrine of the passions'', ''theory of the affects'', or by the German term Affektenlehre (after the German ''Affekt''; plural ''Affekte'') was a theory in the
aesthetics
Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
of painting, music, and theatre, widely used in the
Baroque era
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...
(1600–1750). Literary theorists of that age, by contrast, rarely discussed the details of what was called "pathetic composition", taking it for granted that a poet should be required to "wake the soul by tender strokes of art".
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...
, cited in The doctrine was derived from ancient theories of
rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
and
oratory. Some pieces or movements of music express one ''Affekt'' throughout; however, a skillful composer like
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...
could express different affects within a movement.
History and definition
The doctrine of the affections was an elaborate theory based on the idea that the passions could be represented by their outward visible or audible signs. It drew largely on elements with a long previous history, but first came to general prominence in the mid-seventeenth century amongst the French scholar-critics associated with the Court of
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
, helping to place it at the centre of artistic activity for all of Europe. The term itself, however, was only first devised in the twentieth century by German musicologists
Hermann Kretzschmar
August Ferdinand Hermann Kretzschmar (19 January 1848 – 10 May 1924) was a German musicologist and writer, and is considered a founder of hermeneutics in musical interpretation and study.
Life and career
Born in Olbernhau, Kingdom of Sa ...
,
Harry Goldschmidt
Harry Goldschmidt (17 June 1910 in Basel – 19 November 1986) was a Swiss musicologist.
Life 1910–1949: Basel, Weimar Republic, France, West Africa, Switzerland
Goldschmidt was born in Basel on 17 June 1910, the second child of Siegfried ...
, and
Arnold Schering
Arnold Schering (2 April 1877 in Breslau, German Empire – 7 March 1941 in Berlin) was a German musicologist.
He grew up in Dresden as the son of an art publisher. He learned violin at the from which he graduated in 1896. Thereafter he studied ...
, to describe this aesthetic theory.
René Descartes
René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...
held that there were six basic affects, which can be combined into numerous intermediate forms:
# ''Admiration'' (
admiration
Admiration is a social emotion felt by observing people of competence, talent, virtuous actions, or skill exceeding standards.Algoe, S. B., & Haidt, J. (2009). Witnessing excellence in action: The ‘other-praising’ emotions of elevation, grati ...
)
# ''Amour'' (
love
Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...
)
# ''Haine'' (
hatred
Hatred or hate is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger, contempt, and disgust. Hat ...
)
# ''Désir'' (
desire
Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of affa ...
)
# ''Joie'' (
joy
Joy is the state of being that allows one to experience feelings of intense, long-lasting happiness and contentment of life. It is closely related to, and often evoked by, well-being, success, or good fortune. Happiness, pleasure, and gratitu ...
)
# ''Tristesse'' (
sorrow)
Another authority also mentions sadness, anger, and jealousy. These were attributed to the physiological effects of humors. Lorenzo Giacomini (1552–1598) in his ''Orationi e discorsi'' defined an affection as "a spiritual movement or operation of the mind in which it is attracted or repelled by an object it has come to know as a result of an imbalance in the animal spirits and vapours that flow continually throughout the body". Descartes also proposed that the affections were reliant upon humors. Contemporary beliefs were that the humors' consistency or location could be affected by external factors. This allowed for an expectation of contemporary art to have an objective physical effect on its consumer.
"Affections are not the same as emotions; however, they are a spiritual movement of the mind".
A prominent Baroque proponent of the Doctrine of the Affections was
Johann Mattheson
Johann Mattheson (28 September 1681 – 17 April 1764) was a German composer, critic, lexicographer and music theorist. His writings on the late Baroque and early Classical period were highly influential, specifically, "his biographical and the ...
.
Examples for affects and corresponding musical figures
The following table cites instructions from Johann Mattheson on how to express affects.
References
Citations
Sources
* Aristotle (1959). ''Ars rhetorica'', edited and translated by William David Ross. Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis. Publisher: Oxford: Clarendon Press.
* .
* . London: Macmillan Publishers.
* .
* .
*
*
*
* .
*
* .
* .
*
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...
(1920–22). ''The Instituto Oratoria of Quintilian'', edited and translated by
Harold Edgeworth Butler
Harold Edgeworth Butler (8 May 1878 – 5 June 1951) was a British classicist. He was Professor of Latin at University College, London in succession to A. E. Housman from 1911 until his retirement.
Butler was the son of the Rev. Arthur Gray ...
, 4 vols.
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...
124–27. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: W. Heinemann.
* .
*
Further reading
* Bayreuther, Rainer (2005). "Theorie der musikalischen Affektivität in der Frühen Neuzeit". In ''Musiktheoretisches Denken und kultureller Kontext'', edited by Dörte Schmidt, 69–92. Forum Musikwissenschaft 1. Schliengen: Edition Argus. .
* Bartel, Dietrich (2003). "Ethical Gestures: Rhetoric in German Baroque Music". ''The Musical Times'' 144, no. 1885 (Winter): 15–19.
*
Campe, Rüdiger. ''Affekt und Ausdruck. Zur Umwandlung der literarischen Rede im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert'' (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1990).
* Bartel, Dietrich (2003). "Ethical Gestures: Rhetoric in German Baroque Music". ''The Musical Times'' 144, no. 1885 (Winter): 15–19.
* Clark, Andrew (2013). Making Music Speak. In ''Speaking of Music: Addressing the Sonorous'', edited by Keith M. Chapin and Andrew Clark, 70–85. New York: Fordham University Press. ; .
* .
* Fubini, Enrico. 2003. "La musica e il linguaggio degli affetti". In Et facciam dolçi canti': Studi in onore di Agostino Ziino in occasione del suo 65° compleanno'', 2 vols., edited by Bianca Maria Antolini, Maria Teresa Gialdroni, and Annunziato Pugliese, 2:1467–76. Lucca, Italy: Libreria Musicale Italiana (LIM). .
* Harriss, Ernest. 1986. "Johann Mattheson and the Affekten-, Figuren-, and Rhetoriklehren". In ''La musique et le rite sacré et profane'', 2 vols., edited by
Marc Honegger, Christian Meyer, and Paul Prévost, 517–31. Strasbourg: Association des publications près les Universités de Strasbourg. .
*
Vol. 1Vol. 2
Facsimile reprint, with a foreword and indexes by Ulf Scharlau, 2 vols. in 1. Hildesheim and New York: G. Olms, 1970.
* .
* Koch, Klaus-Peter. 2010. "Das Malen bei Telemann mit Hilfe von ''Gattungen der Melodien und ihren besondern Abzeichen''". In ''Telemann, der musikalische Maler: Telemann-Kompositionen im Notenarchiv der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin'', edited by Carsten Lange and Brit Reipsch, 114–25. Telemann-Konferenzberichte, no. 15. Hildesheim: Georg Olms. .
* Krones, Hartmut (2002). "Johann Gottfried Herder: Die Affektenlehre und die Musik". In ''Ideen und Ideale: Johann Gottfried Herder in Ost und West'', edited by Peter Andraschke and Helmut Loos, 71–88. Rombach Wissenschaften: Reihe Litterae 103. Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach Verlag. .
* Lachmirowicz, Ewa. 2010. "Technika wyrażania afektów według Francesca Geminianiego i Giuseppe Tartiniego". ''Muzyka'' 55 No. 4:219: 21–44.
*Lippman, Edward A. (ed.). 1986. ''Musical Aesthetics: A Historical Reader''. Volume 1: "From Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century". Aesthetics in Music 4. New York: Pendragon Press, ;
* Mackensen, Karsten. 2008. "Sinn und System: zur Auflösung der Topik in der Erfahrung bei Johann Mattheson". In ''Musiktheorie im Kontext'', edited by Jan Philipp Sprick, Reinhard Bahr, and Michael von Troschke, 357–72. Berlin: Weidler. .
* .
* Facsimile reprint of the copy preserved in the Bibliothèque des arts et métiers, with annotations by the author, with an introduction by François Lesure
François Lesure (23 May 1923 – 21 June 2001) was a French musicologist and librarian. He specialized in the life and works of Claude Debussy, but also wrote numerous bibliographies, studies in the sociology of music, and historical French top ...
, 3 vols. Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1963.
* Neu, Ulrike (1995). ''Harmonik und Affektgestaltung in den Lautenkompositionen von Silvius Leopold Weiss''. Europäische Hochschulschriften. Reihe XXXVI, Musikwissenschaft; Publications universitaires européennes. Série XXXVI, Musicologie; European university studies. Series XXXVI, Musicology 141. Frankfurt am Main and New York: P. Lang. .
* Pečman, Rudolf (2001). "C.Ph.E. Bach und die Affektenlehre: Bemerkungen zur Aufführungspraxis". In ''Rudolfu Pečmanovi k sedmdesátinám/Rudolf Pečman zu seinem 70. Geburtstag'', edited by Peter Macek, 17–22. Musicologica brunensia: Sborník prací Filozofické Fakulty Brněnské Univerzity. H: Řada hudebněvědná, 50–51(36–37).
* Pontremoli, Alessandro (ed.) (2003). ''Il volto e gli affetti: Fisiognomica ed espressione nelle arti del Rinascimento''. Biblioteca dell'Archivum Romanicum. I: Storia, letteratura, paleografia 311. Florence: Leo S. Olschki. .
* Pozzi, Egidio (2009). "Il primo Settecento e la Melodielehre di Mattheson, Riepel e Kirnberger". In ''Storia dei concetti musicali. III: Melodia, stile, suono'', edited by Gianmario Borio, 53–70. Rome: Carocci. .
* .
* Rathey, Markus (2012). "Johann Mattheson's 'Invention': Models and Influences for Rhythmic Variation in ''Der vollkommene Capellmeister''". ''Dutch Journal of Music Theory''/''Tijdschrift voor muziektheorie'' 17, no. 2 (May): 77–90.
*Seedorf, Thomas, and Christian Schaper. 2013. ''Händels Arien: Form, Affekt, Kontext: Bericht über die Symposien der Internationalen Händel-Akademie Karlsruhe 2008 bis 2010''. Veröffentlichungen der Internationalen Händel-Akademie Karlsruhe Bd. 10. .
* Selfridge-Field, Eleanor. 2013. "Associative Aspects of Perceived Musical Similarity and Their Intersections with Seconda-Prattica Affetti". In ''À Fresco: Mélanges offerts au professeur Étienne Darbellay'', edited by Georges Starobinski and Brenno Boccadoro, 433–52. Bern: Peter Lang. .
*Siegmund, Bert (ed.). 2003. ''Gestik und Affekt in der Musik des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts: XXVIII. Internationale Wissenschaftliche Arbeitstagung, Michaelstein, 19. bis 21. Mai 2000: gewidmet dem Gedenken an Günter Fleischhauer
Günter Fleischhauer (8 July 1928 – 12 February 2002) was a German musicologist.
Life
Born in Magdeburg, Fleischhauer attended the . From 1947 to 1952, he studied classical philology with , music education with Fritz Reuter (composer), Fritz ...
''. ichaelstein Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein; Dössel: J. Stekovics, ; (Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein); (J. Stekovics).
* .
* ..
*Stoll, Albrecht D. 1981. ''Figur und Affekt: zur höfischen Musik und zur bürgerlichen Musiktheorie der Epoche Richelieu'', second edition. Frankfurter Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 4. Tutzing: H. Schneider. .
* .Ulrich Thieme
Ulrich Thieme (31 January 1865 in Leipzig – 25 March 1922 in Leipzig) was a German art historian. He was the son of the industrialist and art collector Alfred Thieme (1830–1906), brother of the publisher Georg Thieme (1830–1906) and gr ...
* .
* .
{{Authority control
Baroque music
Johann Mattheson