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  • Profile picture of PiPoe

    PiPoe posted an update 5 years, 2 months ago

    This short paper helped me understand Affektenlehre (Doctrine of Affections) better.
    https://batch.libretexts.org/print/url=https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Music/Book%3A_Music_Appreciation_II_%28Lumen%29/10%3A_The_Baroque_Era_J._S._Bach/10.05%3A_The_Doctrine_of_Affections.pdf

    One of the keys not listed is F; can someone tell me why? Thank you.

    • Profile picture of Tom
      Tom replied 5 years, 2 months ago

      Thanks for that, very interesting.

      • Profile picture of Dash Rendar
        Dash Rendar replied 5 years, 2 months ago

        Not to delve into too much musical theory, but the paper lists 14 separate keys. So “E flat major” and “E minor” and “E major” are three separate keys. When a musician says “the key of E” that’s just shorthand for “E major” specifically. So, this paper’s list is not just missing F major, but it’s also missing a whole bunch of other common keys like B major, F minor, A flat major, and C sharp minor.
        The list of keys is odd. For example, it lists G flat minor but that’s just the key of F sharp minor, they are identical. G flat minor would be very painful to write and read music in, anyone sane would just write the notes down on the sheet music with F sharp minor key signature.
        I’m not sure where this paper got the list of keys from, it cites the Wikipedia page for the “Doctrine of the affections” but I don’t see that list there. I’d guess the list is incomplete, and I’m not sure why they use a weird unused equivalent key for F sharp minor. I don’t see any pattern to the missing keys. I see no reason based on my knowledge of music theory why the keys not listed wouldn’t also convey affections.