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Classical Rhetoric in Baroque Music
Classical Rhetoric in Baroque Music
Konstnrlig Masterexamen
Institution fr klassisk musik
Classical Rhetoric in
Baroque Music
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PREAMBULUM
Rhetoric is the art or the discipline that deals with
the use of discourse, either spoken or written, to
inform or persuade or motivate an audience, whether
that audience is made up of one person or a group of
person. Broadly defined in that way, rhetoric would
seem to comprehend every kind of verbal expression
that people engage in. But rhetoric has traditionally
been concerned with those instances of formal,
premeditated, sustained monologue in which a person
seeks to exert an effect on an audience. This notion
of an effect on an audience gets at the very essence
of rhetorical discourse. The classical rhetoricians
seem to have narrowed the particular effect of
rhetorical discourse to persuasion. Aristotle, for
instance, defined rhetoric as the faculty of
discovering all the available means of persuasion in
any given situation. But when one is reminded that
the Greek word for persuasion derives from the Greek
verb to believe one sees that Aristotle's definition
can be made to comprehend not only those modes of
discourse that are argumentative but also those
expository modes of discourse that seek to win
acceptance of information or explanation. But whether
we are seeking to enlighten the understanding, to
please the imagination, to move the passions, or to
influence the will, we must adopt and adapt those
strategies that will best achieve our end. Strategies
is a good rhetorical word, because it implies the
choice of available resources to achieve an end. It is
no accident that the word strategy has military
associations, for this word has its roots in the Greek
word for army. Just as a general will adopt those
resources, those tactics, which are most likely to
defeat the enemy in a battle, so the marshaller of
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language will seek out and use the best argument, and
the best style to win an audience.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
RHETORIC AND THE ANCIENT WORLD
For the birth of rhetoric it is possible to establish
a precise place and a precise time. In 467 b.C. the
long domination of the tyrants Gelon and Geron in the
Greek city of Syracuse (Sicily) came to an end. Since
this had been a period of numerous expropriations,
many citizens brought charges in order to get back
their confiscated properties, and they did it in
court, armed with words. In this context, it seems
that the first one to give lessons about eloquence was
the philosopher Empedocles from another Greek city,
Agrigentum. He was immediately imitated by his
Syracusan pupils Corax and Tisias, who wrote the first
manuals of rhetoric and who were payed for their
teaching.
However, Cicero asserts that rhetoric was known in
Sicily well before Corax and Tisias; so we can assume
that their merit lies in having theorized with a
scientific method a practice that had existed for
centuries. According to what Plato tells us, the core
issue of their art is the concept of verisimile
(eiks), i.e. everything that cannot be considered
true or false in absolute terms, which they made
object of a rigorous and scientific method. Although
these theories of a scientific rhetoric became very
popular in Sicily, an opposite current of irrational
rhetoric emerged inside the Pythagorean school, based
on the seduction that the word exercises on the soul
(psicagogia). The Pythagoreans distinguished the
arguments according to the type of audience and made
large use of antithesis. They also theorized for the
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RHETORICAL FIGURES
As we have seen, one of the main aspects of a
rhetorically effective speech is to disseminate it
with something that I might call formulas, groups of
words which bear an extra-meaning because of the way
they are put together and that arouse emotions in the
audience. We can divide most of these figures in three
main groups: figures of repetition, figures of
contradiction, figures of silence. I will now explain
in depth the most common rhetorical figures. A more
complete list of them (in connection to their use in
music) is offered in the appendix at the end of this
paper. Most of these figures carry ancient Greek or
Latin names even in modern languages because of the
huge influence of classical rhetoric in this field.
FIGURES OF REPETITION
This kind of figures requires the repetition of a
single word or of a group of words again and again in
a discourse, like in the figure called anaphora. In
many cases the repetition signifies a progressive
intensification of an idea or a feeling, therefore
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that they consist in up-words (anabasis) or downwords (katabasis) scales. A particular kind of
katabasis is mentioned by Caccini in his Nuove
musiche, and therefore called
"cascata cacciniana". With no doubt it must be played
with a huge acceleration down-words. I have been
talking about dynamical choices depending on the
rhetorical message carried by a figure, however, if
the instrument used is a harpsichord, the dynamic
element will be substituted by other typical
harpsichord expressive means such as, as we have seen,
agogic and also touch. Personally I believe that the
alternation of a more legato touch with a more
detached one can help in underlining the dramatic
value of a rhetorical figure. For example, one might
choose in a climax to play more and more legato, or
more and more detached. Or else in an anaphora one
could start with more legato, gradually shifting
towards a more detached touch, and then ending with a
more legato again. There are not general roles but we
know from original sources, such as Francois Couperin,
that touch on the harpsichord is an important
expressive tool.
In baroque music we find often sudden pauses to create
surprise or a strong dramatic effect, as in the
aposiopesis. Pauses can occur in the middle of a
phrase or sometimes at the beginning of a new one, as
to underline a dramatic change. When the performer
individuates such a pause, he or she will be able to
stress its rhetorical meaning by taking more time
before and after it. In the tmesis the break consists
in a pause between two contiguous phrases. An other
kind of silence is the unexpected omission of a
consonance or of a conclusion (ellipsis). Also in this
case it is possible to express the rhetorical value by
altering the dynamic, the agogic and also, in the
harpsichord, by using an expressive touch, such as the
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DOUBTING RHETORIC
At this point of our discussion one thing needs to be
mentioned: no one of the Italian sources from 15001600 dealing with the relation between music and
rhetoric refers to the expression "rhetorical figure".
Moreover, in these sources - Monteverdi included - we
find no more than few references to some of these
musical figures I have been describing. Why then
stressing the importance of something that Italian
theoreticians and composers didn't seem to bother
about? Why cataloguing all rhetorical figures, giving
them names, discussing their influence on performance
of Italian music from 1600? Well, to start with an
answer that doesn't appear less paradoxical, all these
figures were catalogued many years later, and not even
in Italy, but in Germany, by authors such as J.N.
Forkel (in Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik, 17881801) and G. Bernhard. They put them in explicit
relation to Italian music from 1600 and give practical
examples from musical works. However suspicious this
might seem to some, it has been shown by eminent
scholars and performers such as harpsichord player and
scholar Emilia Fadini that the reason why the Italians
didn't explicitly mention the rhetorical figures is
simply this, that they did not bother to do it because
they considered them such an intrinsic part of the way
of composing and thinking of musicians and listeners
alike, that it was not necessary to write it down.
Later on, while studying and admiring Italian baroque
music, the Germans felt the need to systematize that
world.
Besides these explanation, I believe that the strong
presence of rhetoric in Monteverdi, Frescobaldi and
many other composers of the period - actually also
outside Italy - is so clear that it doesn't need
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this sonata for BIS (The Father, The Son and the Godfather, performed by
Paradiso Musicale for BIS 2011. All copyrights reserved). A longer paper on
this subject will be hopefully published soon.
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reflected also in the mood. After the overlycomplicated and tormented first movement, we thus rest
in the simple Siciliana of the Largo e dolce, but in
the background, a syncopated rhythm and broken chords
full of tension instil a sense of anxiety. In the
final movement, although the form a fugue followed
by a gigue becomes more elaborate, the piece seems
to stabilize and the struggle between formal and
emotional elements reaches a diminuendo, governed by
the intellect: the incessant rhythm of the finale is a
dance written just for the mind.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper I have tried to describe what classical
rhetoric meant for the composers and the theoreticians
of the baroque era. I have also insisted on the fact
that studies and investigations of the way rhetoric
has influenced music in the past should ultimately aim
at improving our performance practice as musicians.
In the past 25 years there have been some interesting
contributions to this discussion. However, still a lot
must be done to promote this rhetorical approach, for
example in the work of Italian baroque composers such
as Frescobaldi and of JS Bach. This is true both for
what concerns musicological analysis as well as
performances. Besides, in a Europe where classical
culture is threatened once more it happened once
before during the "dark ages" of the barbaric
invasions of ancient Rome - it is important in my
opinion to arouse in the young generations of
musicians the interest in knowing more about the
ancient culture that so much gave to the wonderful and
unique civilization developed in the Western side of
the world. Without this research in the past, we would
miss not only a good deal of what most of baroque
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parallelism).
circumlocution: "playing around" a theme by
substituting or adding
notes, as in periphrasis
climax: Arrangement of notes in order of increasing
intensity commoratio: Repetition of an idea, reworded
ellipsis: Omission (of a consonance, of a cadence, of
a conclusion) epanalepsis: Repetition of the initial
note or notes of a phrase at
the end of the phrase epistrophe: Repetition of the
same note or group of notes at the end
of successive phrases. The counterpart of anaphora
(also known
as antistrophe)
euphony: Opposite of cacophony - i.e. pleasant
sounding exclamation: An emphatic addition, involving
an emotional response.
Usually it exploits a different intonation, a jump, a
note which
is taken from a third or a fourth below.
irony: for instance, use of a text that conveys a
meaning opposite to
that of the music that supports the text
isocolon: Use of parallel structures of the same
length in successive
clauses
hypotyposis: lively description of an action, event,
person, passion, etc.
non sequitur: Statement that bears no relationship to
the context preceding
onomatopoeia: use of notes that imitates a real sound
(e.g. bells or chirps, etc.)
parallelism: The use of similar structures in two or
more clauses
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MODERN BIBLIOGRAPHY
- J. A. Birnbaum, repr. vers. in A. Scheibe, "Der
critische Musikus, Hamburg 1745, p. 841.
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