MUSICAL EXPRESSION: LESSONS FROM THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY?

This article outlines a number of potential contributions that a consideration of early eighteenth-century conceptions of musical expressivity might make to certain present-day philosophical and psychological accounts of musical emotions and their expression. Taking as its central case study a perfo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Eighteenth-century music 2020-03, Vol.17 (1), p.53-72
Main Author: VARWIG, BETTINA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
18th century
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750)
Genre
Music
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article outlines a number of potential contributions that a consideration of early eighteenth-century conceptions of musical expressivity might make to certain present-day philosophical and psychological accounts of musical emotions and their expression. Taking as its central case study a performance by Christian Gerhaher in Peter Sellars's 2014 staging of J. S. Bach's St John Passion , the article calls for closer attention to both the historical specifics of music's expressive capacities and the corporeal dimension of performance (past and present). It argues that a more sustained engagement with these domains can productively complicate some fundamental assumptions that underpin current approaches to musical expression.
ISSN:1478-5706
1478-5714
DOI:10.1017/S1478570619000447