Event overview
J.S. Bach, vital materialism, and the circulation and folding of musical affect
This talk will rethink the baroque “doctrine of the affections” through current philosophies of affect. From Massumi’s affect theory to Bennett’s vital materialism, philosophy has considered affect a crucial aspect of human and inhuman interaction. Such contemporary studies of affect are based on the writings of Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, whose philosophies informed baroque worldviews. The paper will discuss music’s “capacity to affect and be affected” (Bennett) as a meta-historical perspective on what musicology tends to isolate historically under the umbrella of a rigid doctrine. I will trace the origin of this doctrine to a misunderstanding of early twentieth-century music philosophy. Replacing the myth of the doctrine with a musical negotiation of vital materialism, I will analyse J.S. Bach’s work as an early modern form of the musical circulation – and, in Deleuze’s terms, folding – of musical affect.
Professor van Elferen is the Head of Performing Arts and Director of the Visconti Studio at Kingston University, London.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 4 Dec 2018 | 5:30pm - 7:00pm |
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