Rhetoric, Affect and Passion: Performing Emotion 1700-1840 - MUS00187H

«Back to module search

Module summary

An exploration of emotion and meaning in musical performance from the Baroque to the early Romantic period. 

This module explores the performance practices and cultures associated with the music and musicians of these periods through primary and secondary sources, critical discussion of pertinent theories and ideologies, and performance workshops.

This module will be taught through a combination of lectures, set reading and listening tasks, group discussions, practical exercises, and performance coaching.

 

Related modules

Students must have a good knowledge of Western Classical Music theory and performance.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2026-27

Module aims

‘A musician cannot move others without himself being moved. He will have to feel all the emotions he hopes to call up in his audience, since by showing his own mood he will rouse a similar mood in the listener’ (C.P.E. Bach, 1753).

The portrayal of emotion and the creation of a shared emotional experience were central to the performance of what we now call Western Classical music during the Baroque, Classical and early Romantic periods. 

This module explores the performance practices and cultures associated with the music and musicians of these periods through primary and secondary sources, critical discussion of pertinent theories and ideologies, and performance workshops. We will explore topics including the principles of rhetoric, the doctrine of affections, topic theory, the embodiment of ‘the passions’, Empfindsamkeit, the relationship between music and acting, and the relationship between composition and performance. We will link to these ideas the ‘toolkit’ of performance practices that singers and instrumentalists used to move their audience, including phrasing, ornamentation, rhythmic alteration, rubato, and harmonic sensitivity, as well as the expressive qualities of 18th and early 19th-century instruments. You will have the opportunity to hear, try, or work with instruments including clavichord, harpsichord and fortepiano, baroque bows and strings, and some early wind instruments. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the taught part of the project, you should be able to:

• Understand and discuss key themes relating to emotion and expressivity in performance cultures 1700-1850

• Identify relevant aspects of 18th and early 19th-century performance practices and aesthetics as they are conveyed through written and sounding sources

• Evaluate a variety of source types, including pedagogical texts, manuscript and early printed scores, and written documents

• Analyse music from the perspective of extra-musical ideas such as rhetoric, affect and topic

• Demonstrate a critically engaged approach to incorporating historical evidence and understanding into the preparation of a live performance or written discussion of relevant topics

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Option A: An 3000 word essay on a topic of your choice (100%)

Option B: A performance including 10-12 minutes of music (70%) together with a 1200 word research report (30%). 

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.

Indicative reading

Primary Sources:

Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments (Part One: 1753; Part Two: 1762), 2nd edition. Edited and translated by William John Mitchel. London: Cassell, 1951.

Couperin, François. The Art of Playing the Harpsichord (1716), 2nd edition. Edited and translated by Margery Halford. Alfred Publishing, 2008.

Hill, Aaron.  The Art of Acting. Deriving Rules from a New Principle for Touching the Passions in a Natural Manner. London: Osborn, 1746. 

Mozart, Leopold. A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing (1756), 2nd edition. Edited by Editha Knocker with a preface by Dr. Alfred Einstein. London: Oxford University Press, 1951.

Tosi, Pier Franceso. Observations on the Florid Song: Or Sentiments on the Ancient and Modern Singers (Bologna, 1723). Translated by John Ernest Galliard (1742) with new foreword, annotations and index by Gregory Blankenbehler. [n. p.]: Pitch Perfect Publishing Company, 2009.

Quantz, Johann Joachim. On Playing the Flute: The Classic of Baroque Music Instruction (1752), 2nd edition. Edited and translated by Edward R. Reilly. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1985.

Vandenhoff, George. The Art of Elocution. London: Wiley and Putnam, 1846. 

 

Secondary Sources:

Haynes, Bruce. The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Hefling, Stephen. Rhythmic Alteration in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Music: Notes Inégales and Overdotting. New York: Schirmer Books, 1993.

Kivy, Peter. ‘Concepts of Authenticity’. In Authenticities¿: Philosophical Reflections on Musical Performance. London: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Muns, Lodewijk. ‘Concert Song and Concert Speech around 1800’. Music & Letters 98, no. 3 (2017): 365–93.

Tarling, Judy. The Weapons of Rhetoric. St Albans: Corda Music, 2005.

Torbianelli, Edoardo. ‘Playing with Images: Character and Emotion in the Age of Romanticism’. In Ohne Worte¿: Vocality and Instrumentality in 19th-Century Music, edited by William Brooks, 15–40. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2014.

Toft, Robert. Bel Canto¿: A Performer’s Guide . New York¿: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Watkins, Holly. ‘Music and Romantic Interiority’. In The Cambridge Companion to Music and Romanticism, edited by Benedict Taylor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 

Wentz, Jed. ‘“And the Wing’d Muscles, into Meanings Fly”: Practice-Based Research into Historical Acting Through the Writings of Aaron Hill’. European Drama and Performance Studies: Historical Acting Techniques and the 21st Century Body 19, no. 2 (2022): 157–96.

Young, James O. ‘Authenticity in performance’. In The Routledge companion to aesthetics, pp.
452-461. Routledge, 2013.