automatic translation,
may not be accurate
may not be accurate
What is Affektenlehre, the Language of Emotion in Baroque Music?
In the Baroque era (roughly 1600–1750), music was not simply a succession of beautiful sounds—it was a language of emotion.
Affektenlehre—the “Doctrine of the Affects”—was the idea that music could move the listener’s soul by evoking specific passions (Affekte): joy, sorrow, anger, devotion, longing. Each emotion had its musical fingerprint, its rhetorical gesture, its tonal setting.
Baroque musicians saw themselves as orators addressing the heart. Just as a skilled speaker uses rhythm, emphasis, and gesture to persuade, composers used melody, harmony, rhythm, and key to awaken emotion.
Keys were not interchangeable: each had its own color, weight, and expressive climate. A minor key could convey tenderness or tragedy; D major might blaze with triumph or brilliance.
Affektenlehre—the “Doctrine of the Affects”—was the idea that music could move the listener’s soul by evoking specific passions (Affekte): joy, sorrow, anger, devotion, longing. Each emotion had its musical fingerprint, its rhetorical gesture, its tonal setting.
Baroque musicians saw themselves as orators addressing the heart. Just as a skilled speaker uses rhythm, emphasis, and gesture to persuade, composers used melody, harmony, rhythm, and key to awaken emotion.
Keys were not interchangeable: each had its own color, weight, and expressive climate. A minor key could convey tenderness or tragedy; D major might blaze with triumph or brilliance.
Where Did the Doctrine Come From?
The roots of Affektenlehre go back to Classical antiquity, to Aristotle and Cicero’s reflections on how speech and gesture move the passions.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, several major thinkers reimagined these ideas for music.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, several major thinkers reimagined these ideas for music.
Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650) represents one of the first systematic attempts to explain how music moves the soul. Drawing on theology, philosophy, and early acoustics, he proposed that musical intervals and modes correspond to specific passions, reflecting divine harmony in nature. Kircher’s approach is more symbolic and cosmological than practical, but it set the stage for later theorists by presenting music as an ordered language of affects rooted in the structure of the universe. |
In Règles de composition (ca.1690), Charpentier annotated the emotional qualities of each key, describing them in concise, almost poetic phrases. His list, probably written for his students, is one of the earliest attempts to link tonality with feeling. Charpentier’s French perspective is valuable because it connects musical expression to classical rhetoric, theatre, and dance — central pillars of French Baroque style. |
Although his work, Der General-Bass in der Composition (1728), focuses on harmony and continuo practice, Heinichen also comments on how keys and chord progressions influence expression. He bridged the technical and the emotional, showing how a composer could use tonal design to guide listeners through contrasting affects. His writing represents the high point of German theoretical thought before Quantz and C.P.E. Bach shifted attention toward performance and expression. |
In Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), Mattheson described how each musical key, rhythm, and interval could express a distinct emotional “affect.” His goal was to make music a form of persuasive speech, mirroring human emotions with clarity and proportion. Mattheson’s key descriptions are among the most detailed of the period and have shaped how later generations understand the expressive vocabulary of Baroque tonality. |
Keys, Affects, and the Traverso
In this page, you’ll find a comparative overview of how Baroque theorists associated particular affects with specific keys.
From the complete circle of fifths, we have selected only the tonalities actually used in Baroque flute literature—the ones most relevant to our daily practice on the traverso.
From the complete circle of fifths, we have selected only the tonalities actually used in Baroque flute literature—the ones most relevant to our daily practice on the traverso.
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To this core we’ve added the thoughts of Johann Joachim Quantz, even though his he did not assign affects systematically to keys. His perspective in his Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen (1752) remains essential, as it links the theory of affects directly with the expressive and technical nature of the Baroque flute—its tone, fingerings, and temperament.
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This makes the collection historically grounded and practically meaningful for every flutist seeking to translate the colors of emotion into sound.
For today’s Baroque flutists, Affektenlehre offers a bridge between theory and feeling.
Knowing the emotional associations of each key helps shape how we breathe, phrase, and articulate. Modulations become expressive journeys rather than harmonic necessities; ornamentation gains purpose; tone color becomes rhetoric.
And because the traverso’s unequal temperament and acoustical asymmetry make every key sound and feel different under the fingers, the instrument itself becomes a living embodiment of the Baroque idea that each tonality carries its own affect.
For today’s Baroque flutists, Affektenlehre offers a bridge between theory and feeling.
Knowing the emotional associations of each key helps shape how we breathe, phrase, and articulate. Modulations become expressive journeys rather than harmonic necessities; ornamentation gains purpose; tone color becomes rhetoric.
And because the traverso’s unequal temperament and acoustical asymmetry make every key sound and feel different under the fingers, the instrument itself becomes a living embodiment of the Baroque idea that each tonality carries its own affect.
Explore The Circle of Affects
👉 Click on a key in the picture below to reveal how Baroque theorists described its emotional character.
Sources describe affects through different frameworks (rhetoric, modality, harmony, performance practice). Kircher writes in modal terms that modern editors sometimes map to keys; Quantz gives performance-based remarks rather than a key-affects table. Wording here is modernized and conservative, based on primary texts and scholarly summaries.
Sources describe affects through different frameworks (rhetoric, modality, harmony, performance practice). Kircher writes in modal terms that modern editors sometimes map to keys; Quantz gives performance-based remarks rather than a key-affects table. Wording here is modernized and conservative, based on primary texts and scholarly summaries.
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From Theory to Practice
Taken together, these writers reveal how the idea of the affects evolved across the Baroque era—from Kircher’s cosmic symbolism to Mattheson’s musical rhetoric, from Charpentier’s emotional shorthand to Heinichen’s harmonic logic, and finally to Quantz’s focus on expressive performance. Each theorist viewed music as a living language, capable of awakening emotions and shaping character. For today’s performers, these sources remind us that technique and affect are inseparable: every key, articulation, and gesture can serve the greater goal of moving the listener’s heart — the true purpose of Baroque art.
📄 Download the full Comparative Table of Affects (PDF) below
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