The Empfindsamkeit existed as a style of composition (eg. CPEBach), as well as a style of performance (say, the Baron anegdote). It's helpfull to see it as two diferent phenomenons. The first one is quite easily recognizable or even quantifiable (form, harmony, texture), the other one might have been a very subjective case… Now we can only speculate, as on all this HIP.
J ---- On 2010-10-23, at 17:07, Christopher Wilke wrote: > Yes, there is definitely something to it and it has always been part of music > history. The ancient Greeks believed that the various modes could incite > anger, lust, insanity, etc. In the renaissance, Bernardino Cirillo called > upon composers to set aside the cantus firmus and write Masses in using > similar methods as the ancient Greeks to incite piety, supplication, praise, > etc. (The modes he knew were not the same as the Greeks', however!) > > I see Empfindsamkeit as a sort of hyper-extension of the baroque doctrine of > the affections. It really uses super-affectation, with moods changing > unexpectedly almost violent contrasts every other moment. Thus, confident, > martial music might suddenly dissolve into a section featuring the most > tender lyricism and then explode into mood of a frenetic nervousness. This > is really what's meant by calling the music "sensitive" - quite the opposite > of an overly precious manner. Unfortunately, few performers go out on a limb > and play this repertoire with correctly exaggerated interpretation nowadays. > For me, though, it represents virtuosity of total control. > > Chris > > > > > Christopher Wilke > Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer > www.christopherwilke.com > > > --- On Sat, 10/23/10, G. Crona <kalei...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> From: G. Crona <kalei...@gmail.com> >> Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Galant definition >> To: baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu >> Date: Saturday, October 23, 2010, 4:34 AM >> PS. At the same time I have to say >> that extreme cases of use of Minor - Mayor can definitely >> trigger feelings of sadnes and joy respectively in me, so >> there has to be something in the Affekt theory... >> >> G. >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Wilke" >> <chriswi...@yahoo.com> >> To: <baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>; >> "G. Crona" <kalei...@gmail.com> >> Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2010 3:30 AM >> Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Galant definition >> >> >>> Are you speaking of Affekt? Mattheson goes into >> great detail about the moods associated with each key, but I >> don't believe that this is really more a part of the baroque >> aesthetic and not typical of the gallant style. >>> There is the famous story about how Baron was made to >> look foolish for believing in the then somewhat >> unfashionable (and un-gallant) idea of music's power to >> excite the passions directly. >>> >>> Chris >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > > > > >
