Aesthetics and the Art of Musical Composition in the German Enlightenment: Selected Writings of Johann Georg Sulzer and Heinrich Christoph Koch (Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis)

Can an abstract theory of Empfindsamkeit aesthetics have any value to a musician wishing to study composition in the classical style? The eighteenth-century German theorist and pedagogue Heinrich Koch showed how this question could be answered with a resounding yes. Starting with the systematic aesthetic theory of the Swiss encyclopedist Johann Sulzer, Koch was creatively able to adapt Sulzer's conservative ideas on ethical mimesis and rhetoric to concrete problems of music analysis and composition. In this collaborative study, Thomas Christensen and Nancy Baker have translated and analysed selected writings of Sulzer and Koch respectively, bringing to life a little-known confluence of philosophical and musical thought from the German Enlightenment. Koch's appropriation of Sulzer's ideas to the service of music represents an important development in the evolution of Western musical thought.

The writings of Sulzer and Koch represent a significant confluence of philosophical and musical thought from the German Enlightenment. Koch creatively adapted many of Sulzer's abstract philosophical ideas to concrete questions of musical pedagogy, showing how they could be usefully applied to the teaching and analysis of musical composition. This collaborative study and translation of the texts will be of interest to all historians of music, music theory, and historians of eighteenth-century German aesthetic thought.

Pt. 1. General Theory Of The Fine Arts : (1771-4), Selected Articles / Johann Georg Sulzer -- Pt. 2. Introductory Essay On Composition : Vol. Ii (1787) / Heinrich Christoph Koch. Edited By Nancy Kovaleff Baker [2nd Work] And Thomas Christensen [1st Work]. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. pt. 1. General theory of the fine arts : (1771-74), selected articles / Johann Georg Sulzer pt. 2. Introductory essay on composition : vol. II (1787) / Heinrich Christoph Koch. "Can genius suffer to be shackled and imprisoned by rules?"