alegoria na música barroca

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Allegory in Baroque Music Author(s): Manfred Bukofzer Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 3, No. 1/2 (Oct., 1939 - Jan.,

1940), pp. 1-21Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750188Accessed: 17-04-2015 15:59 UTC

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ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC By Manfred Bukofzer

It is common knowledge that baroque art shows a great predilection for emblems and allegories. So far this has been studied chiefly in painting and sculpture, and in poetry. In music the question has not attracted the attention of many students, apart from scholars like Schering,1 who have devoted their attention to special aspects of the problem. It is even sometimes denied categorically that music can make any use of symbol and allegory at all; for these are means of indirect expression which associate pictures and attributes with abstract ideas, and since, however, abstract concepts do not enter into music, it might be maintained that it cannot possibly make any use of allegory. To be sure, music cannot represent abstract concepts directly; but that does not imply that allegory is absolutely excluded from music. Nor can painting represent abstract concepts directly : if it shows us a woman with bandaged eyes and a sword and a pair of scales, our recognition of this woman as Justice depends upon an intellectual convention which has nothing essential to do with painting. Allegory, therefore, implies a mental act, namely understanding. But even if this act is not performed, the representation remains to this extent intelligible, that we see a woman with particular attributes, which from an artistic point of view can be made more or less convincing. The allegory can be misunderstood, or indeed not understood at all, without the picture becoming thereby altogether senseless. A painting supplies in the first place a sensuous impression, then a meaning is superimposed on this impression by the interpreter. The difficulty lies precisely in this second process, since the interpretation is not subsequent to the visual impression, but coincides with it and even sometimes precedes it.2 In the same way, music supplies primarily a sensuous impression of tone and rhythm; is it not possible, then, to superimpose an intellectual significance upon this sensuous impression?

Those who refuse to admit this might argue that music cannot represent anything definite, in the sense that painting represents a house, a flower, or a woman. But music has definite, specifically musical objects, such as rhythms and melodies. It betrays a very superficial view of the matter to distinguish music from painting or poetry by asserting that it cannot represent a house or a flower. This implies a false application of pictorial standards to music. It would be equally false to require painting to represent specifically musical objects, such as a definite melody or musical rhythm. It is more to the point to inquire whether or not a specifically musical or a specifically pictorial object can be furnished with a meaning which does not reside in it from the start. This is the case with painting, and there is no

1 Arnold Schering : "Die Lehre von den musikalischen Figuren," Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch, I9o8. "Bach und das Symbol," Bach-Jahrbuch, 1925 und. 1928. "Geschicht- liches zur 'ars inveniendi,' " Jahrbuch Peters, 1925.

2 There can be no doubt that the spectator, knowing the meaning already in advance, has quite a different attitude toward the work and actually sees more at the first glimpse than a man lacking this knowledge.

I


2 M. BUKOFZER

fundamental difference between painting and music in this respect. If, for instance, an allegory of war is embodied in a painting of the god of war, Mars, it would be possible in the same way to make a musical allegory of war in the form of a particular march rhythm. Our capacity to understand such a march as an allegory of war is on the same level as our capacity to interpret our warrior as no mere warrior, but rather as an allegory of war.

Before we examine our problem more closely, we must be perfectly clear about the meaning of the terms we employ. In common parlance, symbolism is understood as the mode of substitution, of figurative expression. That is to say, things are represented not immediately, but by means of certain ambiguous expressions which are in themselves something other than what they mean. From this point of view allegory, metaphor, simile and symbol would all be cases of a general symbolic procedure which employs signs. For our purpose this indiscriminate use of terms is completely valueless.

The only possibility of arriving at a clear and unambiguous nomenclature will consist in an attempt to discover the relation, in each case, of the sign to its meaning. For in every case we are concerned with signs and meanings; the difference lies in the relation of the intuitive to the mental side of the process.

It is convenient to differentiate between three kinds of relation. The first is a purely conventional and accidental one. The sign "red light" means "stop". That is a convention; the colour might just as well be different. Sign and meaning have nothing to do with each other :they are divergent.

In the second class, the sign and the meaning are somewhat more closely connected. The sign has something in common with the meaning. For example, a triangle in a church can signify the Trinity. The common element here resides in the numerical correspondence. In this case the relation between the sign and its meaning is not arbitrary. Intuition and comprehension hang together : they are coherent.

Coherence is recognised by means of an intellectual act. But it is not always certain whether the spectator performs this act properly. He may misread the meaning. A triangle, for instance, might be a traffic sign. In this case the meaning is arbitrary; sign and meaning diverge.

Where sign and meaning converge, the problem arises whether the sign is to be understood in its literal sense or figuratively. If I see a picture of a lion, I cannot tell whether I have before me merely a picture of a lion or an allegory of courage. The distinction between literal and figurative understanding can only exist in the case of signs with coherent significance, for in the case of signs with divergent significance the form of the sign is completely immaterial so far as the act of interpretation is concerned.

The possibilities of coherence are limited to relatively few common notions. The connection lies either in a common property, or analogy (triangle-Trinity), or in a comparison (brave as a lion), or in the notion


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 3 of a part standing for the whole (the sword means war, the violin music). Almost all signs with a coherent meaning can be attributed to these three concepts. In each case we proceed by means of a mental act from the external character of the sign to the figurative meaning.

On the other hand, sign and meaning can be related in yet a third way. Instead of proceeding from the appearance of the sign to its meaning, and linking them together, we find that the meaning is actually bound up with the appearance. In all coherent signs it is possible to express the meaning in words without the help of signs. In this case it is not so. A lyrical poem consists of words with a definite meaning which can be looked up in a dictionary, but this will not give us the meaning of the poem. The exact meaning of it is something which cannot be transposed into other words. Therefore the meaning is directly bound up with the words and is accessible through them alone, yet it is not completely given by the words as such. If I arranged the words in a different order, I should destroy the poem. In this type, where the sign and its meaning are amalgamated, it is no longer a question of whether something is to be understood literally or figuratively. The sign is now absolutely inseparable from its meaning. In contradistinction to divergent and coherent signs, the significance of these signs is inherent.

An example from music will make this quite clear. We say that a melody is a succession of tones; let us take then a succession of tones.

Ex. I.

We have here a succession of tones, but not a melody. We call such a conglomeration of tones senseless or meaningless. What gives a melody meaning is something specifically musical, which cannot be expressed in words; the specifically musical meaning lies in the music itself.' The tones are now signs of a spiritual significance which cannot be released without the assistance of these signs. In this sense, what a symphony means for us cannot be expressed verbally; if it were possible to do this, there would be no need to compose the symphony.

This inquiry into the relationship of sign and meaning has led us then to consider three different kinds of figurative expression. We have now to consider what we should call these three forms. In the first case, that of divergence, we may call them signs. In the second case, that of coherence, we may call them allegories; and in the third case, that of inherence, we may call them symbols.

Signs are applied arbitrarily without regard to their external form; allegories must be chosen and interpreted understandingly, since the sign and the meaning must hang together in some intelligible way; symbols

1 Cf. Manfred Bukofzer, "Hegel's Musik- et de Science de l'Art, Paris, I937, Vol. II, aesthetik," Report of the Congres d'Esthldtique p. 32.


4 M. BUKOFZER are bound up with the intuitive apperception. They interpret themselves in the very act of appearing; their meaning is not to be formulated in abstract terms without regard for the intuitive process.

This distinction must underlie the whole of our argument. We have already seen that we are not so much concerned with the fact that signs have meanings as with the essential distinction that lies in our definition of the relation between the sign and the meaning. Divergence, coherence and inherence are therefore the three different possibilities of figurative expression. As the theme of this paper is musical allegory, I shall deal chiefly with coherence.

We find in the music of the sixteenth century on almost every occasion when the text reads "descendit de coelis" a descending melody, and when the text reads "ascendit in coelum" a rising melody.' These analogies are generally called tone symbolism,2 but this is only correct if the word symbolism is so broadly used that it embraces all signs. In point of fact, what we have before us is a musical allegory. The descent, which is directly expressed in the word "descendit" and which therefore requires no further figurative transformation, is embodied in the descent of the melody.

It should be noted that the descending melody is not an emotional expression of the textual phrase "descendit de coelis"; for these musical figures have nothing expressive about them. They express no emotion or feeling, since the shape of the melody is not defined and may equally well be a descending third, a descending scale, or simply a few descending notes. As far as the allegory is concerned, this is immaterial, as is, for example, the shape of the scales in an allegory of justice; the point is that there must be a pair of scales.

What is embodied, then, in the figure for "descendit de coelis"? Not the descent from heaven, but simply the abstract notion : descent. The same figure can be, and has been, used to illustrate the words "descendi in hortum" from the Song of Songs. In both cases the allegory conveys an abstract idea, just like in painting. It is clear, however, that the medium of imagery is different in music and in painting, and predestines them for different types of allegory. The most suitable subjects for musical allegory are notions associated with the idea of movement-speed, slowness, ascent, descent, height, depth, jumping, stepping, duration, shortness, etc.

The theoretical writers of the baroque period had already begun to puzzle their heads about the sort of words which lent themselves to musical allegory, and various systems were proposed.3 From the large number of baroque treatises at our disposal,4 I will choose that of Andreas Herbst,

1 Examples of descending motifs can be found in nearly every Mass of the I6th century; they seldom occur, however, in the Gregorian chant. 2 So Arnold Schering, H. J. Moser and others.

s The theorists borrow their terms almost always from the writers of rhetoric. A long list of instances could be quoted,

beginning with Ellipsis, Suspensio, Antithesis, Epistrophe, etc.

4 Glareanus, ADAEKAXOPAON, 1547. Adrian Petit Coclicus, Compendium musices, 1552.

G. Zarlino, Istituzioni Harmoniche, 1558. C. Schneegass, Isagoges Musicae, I591. S. Calvisius, MEAOIOIIA sive Melodiae con-

dendae ratio, I592.


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 5 although his "Musica Poetica" is not in fact very original, since it is compiled from many earlier treatises.' But for this very reason it displays the general tendency of the age, which makes it particularly relevant for our purpose. This work, which dates from I643, is a brief manual of composition. Herbst devotes a special chapter to "words and text". He distinguishes between res and verba, which are susceptible of musical allegory. Res is the subject matter, and verba refers to the so-called "meaning of the words" ("Verstand der Worte"), a concept which recurs over and over again in the musical theory of this period. An example of "res" is the general mood of sadness. In that case, the composer must choose a key which corresponds to that mood. The idea that each of the twelve modes expresses a certain character of passion goes back to ancient music, which, however, did not invent, but only systematized these correspondences. It is unnecessary in my present context to enter into this much discussed problem; suffice it to say that these coordinations have cosmological, not musical reasons. Certain strings and tones were coordinated with certain planets, and the attribution of corresponding effects to music is due to astrology. This musical astrology is not confined to the ancient world, but is also found in China, Babylonia, India, and Java. In the baroque period these cosmo-musical associations of different characters have already become conventional rules which have lost much of their original connotation and are retained merely as part of the general humanist equipment.

Far more important than these modal coordinations is the doctrine of tropic expressions and of the so-called loci topici (figures of space). These are technical terms of rhetoric which have been transferred as far as possible to music by allegorizing the words of the text.2 Herbst in his survey of the Verba Motus et Locorum, enumerates the words associated with movement and rest, after having mentioned the locus topicus: stare, currere, saltare, ascendere, descendere, coelum, abyssus, montes, profundum, etc. To these he adds the adverbia temporis, such as : celeriter, velociter, iterum.

Much more comprehensive than Andreas Herbst's is Johannes Mattheson's account of the loci topici.3 Writing in the first half of the I8th century,

L. Zacconi, Prattica di Musica, 1592. (11. I622).

S. Calvisius, Compendium Musicae, I594. J. Burmester, Hypomnematum musicae poe-

ticae, 1599. S. Calvisius, Exercitationes duae, I6oo00. J. Nucius, Musices poeticae, I6I3. M. Praetorius, Syntagma musicum III, 1619. J. Criiger, Synopsis musica, 1624. Volupius Decorus (Wolfgang Sch6nsleder),

Architectonice musices universalis, 163 I. Chr. Bernhard, Tractatus compositionis aug- mentatus, about I650.

J. C. Printz, Phrynidis Mytilinaei . . .I, 1696.

Chr. Caldenbach, Dissertatio musica, 1664. D. Speer, Grundrichtiger ... Unterricht oder

vierfaches musikaliches Kleeblatt, 1697.

J. Heinichen, Neu-erfundene ... Anweisung zum Generalbass, I7II. M. Vogt, Conclave thesauris magnae artis musicae, 1719-

J. Mattheson, Critica Musica, I725. J. Mattheson, Der vollkommene Capellmeister,

I739- A. Scheibe, Critischer Musicus, I743. 1 Herbst himself gives a list of ten authors

of whom he made use. The passage in question is derived from Calvisius.

2 Cf. Arnold Schering, "Bach und das Symbol" (second study), Bach Jahrbuch, 1928. Schering's rendering of Scheibe's account of the tropic expression is not quite correct.

3j. Mattheson, Der vollkommene Capell- meister, Part II, Ch. IV, Von der melo- dischen Erfindung, ? 20.


6 M. BUKOFZER

he takes a critical view of musical allegory, although he still accepts the standards of baroque music. He criticizes the term locus topicus as a pleonasm and suggests that it should be replaced by locus dialecticus. He regards music as a language of tone (Tonsprache) or speech of sound (Klang- rede), which is to vie with the art of oratory in affecting and arousing the listener: "Der Musik Endzweck ist, alle Affekten durch die blossen T6ne und deren Rhythmum, trotz dem besten Redner rege zu machen."' He discusses at length the locus notationis and the locus descriptionis. The former signifies the elaboration of a composition by imitating the purely musical elements in the form of inversions, canons, fugues, etc. The locus descriptionis, on the other hand, is for him "die sicherste und wesentlichste Handleitung zur Invention." The "passions" (Afekte) must be "described" or "depicted" ("beschrieben oder abgemalet"). The manner in which such description must be imagined may be learnt by reference to baroque music itself. I shall choose my examples chiefly from the music of Bach, in which these tendencies are found in their most extreme concentration; so numerous indeed that even Bach's contemporaries criticized them as excessive.

That Bach constantly made use of musical allegory has been observed and stated by Albert Schweitzer2 and Andre Pirro.3 These two authors, however, make no difference between allegory, symbol, simile, and metaphor, and use these words side by side as though they were synonymous. On the other hand, we are indebted to them for the compilation of a vocabulary of musical phrases which Bach repeatedly uses for the illustration of certain words in the text. Let us take a few classic examples. First, one from a predecessor of Bach's, Buxtehude-an example of the allegory of sinking. The text runs: "I sink in deep and bottomless mire."4 To this text Buxtehude writes a melody which descends to the deepest abysses of the bass.

Ex. 2. Ich ver- sin- ke im tie- fen Schlamm wo kein Grund ist

6 6 6 76 3 3 5

In a similar way Bach describes night and darkness. The intervals spring downwards, particularly on the words "still more darkness."5

1J. Mattheson, op. cit. (after Neidhardt : Vorrede zur Temperatur).

* A. Schweitzer, J. S. Bach, le Musicien- Poite, 1905.

3 A. Pirro, L'Esthitique de J. S. Bach, 1907.

4 D. Buxtehude, Denkmdler deutscher Ton- kunst, XIV, p. 61.

6 Ausgabe der "Bach-Gesellschaft" (BG) 20, p. 75.


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 7 Ex. 3-

Noch viel Fin- ster- nis

6 2

or, "here all is night" :1 Ex. 4-

ist ja lau- ter Nacht

Finally, "this is the darkness."1 Ex. 5-

es ist die Dun- kel- heit

6 5

We see here that different words such as "night" and "darkness" on the one hand, and "sinking" and "abyss" on the other, are illustrated by the same musical device.

Now an example of distance. When the text reads "so far," Bach writes an interval in which the tones are widely spaced.

Ex. 6.3 Kommt es doch so weit

6 7b 6 4 5

Here Bach writes an augmented octave or diminished ninth. Similarly with the words "wandered far and wide."4

1 BG 5, P. 30. 2BG I, p. 170.

3 BG 5, P. 222. 4 BG 18, p. 274.


8 M. BUKOFZER Ex. 7-

Ach, ich ir- re weit und breit

36 2

Whereas here the musical allegory reposes simply on a spatial analogy, Bach uses diminished ninths in a quite different sense when he wants to allegorize anger and horror. For instance, in the words "the raging Herod."x

Ex. 8. Und wenn der written-de He- ro- des

75 6 5 2

This is a musical phrase which we have already heard as a setting to the words "so far." But the diminished ninth is used here not for the sake of distance, but on account of its harmonic sharpness. The point of comparison is that an angry man is wont to utter loud and hideous cries. This is even clearer in a passage where deeds of horror are spoken of.

Ex. 9.2

dem Greu- el an hei- li- ger Stlt-te

u ,- " " i z , ', . . F.

-

b,

Here again Bach does not use the ninth because of the distance but because of the harmonic dissonance. It sounds as horrible as the horrors Bach wishes to allegorize.

The same interval can acquire still a third meaning. Where the text says "my soul's ardent desire"3 this diminished ninth appears once again.

1 BG 12, 2, p. I40. 2 BG 20, I, p. 211.

3 BG 32, p. 64.


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 9 Ex. Io.

wo mei- ner See- le briin-sti- ges Ver- lan-gen

6 72 6 2

Here the meaning is dependent upon the harmonic relation just as in the scene of "horrors" or in the case of the "raging Herod." We see, then, how the same interval may allegorize three distinct notions with different emotional associations. This is only possible because the musical allegory is not expressive: that is to say, it does not convey its meaning through the emotions.

These examples prove that musically similar motifs can allegorize different things. The unambiguous interpretation of the allegory is only possible with the text before us. Since the ninth is an interval with a great stretch, and is also harmonically a strong dissonance, it can appear both as an allegory of distance and as an allegory of horror. The decisive factor is the intellectual point of departure.

* * *

We see, then, that there can be no unambiguous allegories in music, just as in visual allegories one and the same figure can have very different meanings.

Music does not plainly imitate what is allegorized. It produces an event in the musical sphere which is analogous to an event in the spiritual sphere. When Mattheson speaks of "depicting the passions" (Abmalung der Affekte), he does not mean imitation of expression, but figurative analogy which is produced by the intellect alone. It is often very difficult to establish an analogy between the two realms of the sensuous and the spiritual. Hence, the point of comparison appears to us often very far fetched. From the way in which the analogy is contrived we can learn a great deal about the style of a given period.

The analogies in music may refer only to one voice or to all the voices, to the rhythm alone, to the harmony alone, to the setting and instrumentation alone, or simply to the intensity of sound. It is also possible to combine some or all of these elements. When, for example, the word "fall" is to be represented by a musical allegory, the orchestra might run from the top- most heights to the deepest depths in a wild downward rush, as for example Richard Strauss might manage it. In this case voices, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation would all be involved. In a prelude of Bach to the chorale "Through Adam's fall debased,"' the fall of Adam is allegorized by means of plunging intervals in the bass, but these intervals are at the same time diminished sevenths, and therefore contrasting dissonances which here allegorize Adam's degradation, precisely in the same way as the scenes of horror were described before by sharpened octaves.

1 BG 25, 2, Orgelbuichlein.


Io M. BUKOFZER

Ex. IIa.

This figure runs through the whole prelude. It is not episodic, therefore, as it would be in Strauss, but plays a structural part in the whole composition. Moreover, the other voices move in a strictly chromatic way against the given choral melody in order to allegorize Adam's ruin.

Ex. iib. (Durch A- dams Fall ist ganz ver- derbt)

This prelude of Bach's is an instrumental composition which dispenses with the use of words. It is not quite correct, therefore, to say that only music with a verbal text can make use of allegory. Absolute music can do so too, if there is any extra-musical reason which can be brought to bear upon it. Here, in the case of the chorale prelude, there are indeed no words, but they are implied, as the listener is expected to remember the words when he hears the music; otherwise both allegories-that of the Fall and that of Adam's degradation-would be quite unintelligible.

The same figures which Bach used to describe footsteps, haste, or grief, also occur in his instrumental music. This makes it possible for him to parody his own works by converting instrumental compositions into cantatas. Thus, the slow movement from the piano concerto in D minor also appears in the cantata "We have to pass through much grief."

Again it is important to observe that the pain and weariness are not expressed here by purely emotional means. The music is not sad; it merely indicates sadness. Like footsteps and other abstract suggestions of motion, sorrow is systematized by allegorical musical figures. The most frequent device for this purpose is the so-called passus duriusculus,l that is to say, chromatic motifs which prefer melodic progression in semitones. This figure is very old. It occurs in Italian madrigals of the I6th century and frequently in the I7th century in the works of Schiitz. When the text reads "miserere" the figure is almost stereotyped.

1 Cf. Chr. Bernhard, Tractatus compositionis, i I, 29 (J. Miiller-Blattau, Die Kompositions- lehre Heinrich Schiitzens, 1926).


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC ix Ex. 12.1

mi- se- re- re, mi- se- re- re mi- se- re- re no- bis

or with Bach in the St. John's Passion to the words "and wept bitterly." Ex. I3.2

und wei- - ne- te

4 6 b 6- s6q 6 45 6 6 2 5 5M 4

The same figure occurs with the word "Uebelta'ter" (malefactor). Ex. 14.3

ein Ue- bel- ta. ter

---FL At I

It is, however, also possible that the chromatic progression should have quite a cheerful meaning as in the aria of the St. John's Passion "Ich folge Dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten" ("I follow Thee also, my Saviour, with gladness." Here the figure appears with the word "schieben" (push).

Ex. 15.4 zu schieben

... . c0, Thus the chromatic progression has three different meanings in the Passion of St. John alone.

1 Andr. Hammerschmidt, Missae, I668 (after Pirro, op. cit., p. 83).

2Bach, St. John's Passion, Eulenburg's Miniature Score, p. 48.

3 Ibid., p. 59- Ibid., p. 39. The English versions of this aria demonstrate conclusively that the translation of Bach's Cantata texts cannot correctly be done without paying attention to musical allegories. The aria begins with the words "Ich folge Dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten," (which means literally 'I follow thee also with joyful footsteps'). In the very beginning three different allegories are superimposed. Firstly, "I

follow" represented by the threefold imitation of the initial motif in the basso continuo, the tenor voice and the instrumental upper part. The fugato here signifies following. Secondly, the word "joyful" coincides with a slurred, vivacious motif of the tenor, often used by Bach to indicate joy. The "footsteps," finally, are represented by the peculiar conduct of the bass with its sudden rests-a typical figure for steps. A translation not regarding this triple allegory destroys the point. The "classical" English version by the Rev. J. Troutbeck is correct only as far as the allegory of following is concerned. It coordinates the word "Saviour" with the


S2 M. BUKOFZER

These examples are particularly instructive, since they show how the notion of what is 'painful' in music has changed since the time of Bach. Precisely at this point where the false impression might prevail that music must always express the feeling of pain in the same way, it is necessary to remark that the so-called "passions,"' which baroque theoreticians of music discuss, are not to be confused with our feelings. They are rather to be described as a group of typified and fairly static attitudes of mind represented by corresponding figures. The dynamic interpretation of emotion would be as false here as in other allegories where the intellectual character is more obvious.

The intellectual element is most evident where the allegory is addressed not only to the sense of hearing but also to the sense of sight. Again the analogy of 'falling' is a characteristic instance. The movement of something falling from above to a place below is by no means identical with the movement from the higher to the lower note. High and low, as far as notes are concerned, are merely spatial metaphors which must not be taken literally. In many periods and countries the tones are not called high and low, but heavy and light or sharp (gravis and acutus, grave and aigiie).

The musical allegories which address themselves to the senses of sight and sound are particularly frequent in Bach. Let us take three examples. In the cantata Hercules am Scheidewege the words "for the snakes which tried to seize me with their lullaby"2 are represented by winding figures in the bass.

Ex. 16. denn die Schlan- gen so mich woll- ten wiegend fan- gen

To be sure, one hears this rise and fall, but the allegory of winding appears in its clearest shape only in the musical notation. The bass is of course motif of joy and pays no attention to the footsteps (I follow thee also, my Saviour, with gladness). Thus, both motifs, that of joy and that of the footsteps, become musically absurd and meaningless. A modern translation by J. Atkins : "I follow, I follow with gladness to meet thee", is better from one point of view. It takes account of the allegory of joy by putting the word "gladness" to the motif ofjoy. It misses, however, the allegory of footsteps. Atkins connects in bar 63/64 the above-mentioned chromatic progression which indicates 'pushing,' with the word "urge." This is, indeed, far better than the classical version, which actually reverses the cheerful meaning of the motif

by putting to it the word "sadness." It would require a whole book to discuss all the blunders of the different translations of Bach's oratorios and cantatas.

1 The strict meaning of the word "passion" (Affekt) deserves further investigation. It is a fundamental notion of baroque psychology, the history of which is not yet written. The "Traites des Passions" written for painters, ought to be correlated with those of the musical theorists, not to speak of the definitions and deductions in the "systems of the passions" produced by contemporary philosophers. 2 BG 34, p. 147-


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 13 not an emotional expression of the snakes, but indicates them by its reference to their convolutions. The melody, however, also indicates the word "wiegend" by constantly representing the stereotyped figure of a lullaby. Here we have two meanings superimposed : the snake in the bass and the lullaby in the vocal line.

In the text of the Sermon on the Mount : "And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again,"' Bach used the image of the scales as an allegory of the correspondence of earthly action and heavenly atonement.

Ex. I7. Denn wie ihr messt wird man euch wieder

mes- -sen

denn wie ihr messt wird man euch wie-der

mes- -sen

-F

This is the meaning of the melodic inversion, which is a well-known device of counterpoint. Those parts of the melody which go upward in the first period, turn downward in the second period and vice versa. The inversion is strictly carried out, so that the visual effect is that of absolute symmetry.2 It should also be noted that Bach used the introductory figure not only in an inversion but also in a retrograde movement. He used the same sequence of notes from back to front in order to emphasize the contrast still more sharply. The visual construction of this image is already astonishing, but it becomes even more complicated.

Ex. I8. Denn wie ihr messt wird man euch wieder mes- -sen, denn

_ _ _

I ,1 1.--I- -

76 4 4 2

1 BG 37, p. io8. 2 Another example : the words "einer zur

Rechten und einer zur Linken" are illustrated by Bach again by a melodic inversion. The same text had already been allegorized by

Schtitz in a far more primitive fashion, by splitting the choir into halves, one of which sings "einer zur Rechten" and the other "einer zur Linken".


14 M. BUKOFZER

denn wie ihr messt wird man euch wieder mes- -sen

6Z 75 6 g 6 7 9 5 5 25 5$ 2

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Here you see the relevant bass which is constructed on precisely analogous lines. The inversion here is just as strictly carried out; but, apart from the scales, the combination of the two voices as a fugue has a still further meaning. All passages of the Bible which are of dogmatic importance and contain a general commandment are set by Bach almost without exception in fugue or canon form.' In these instances the fugue and canon are evidently an allegory of law, since the fugue and the canon are the most rigid forms of musical composition. That is why Bach has set the whole thing as a fugue. Again two meanings, the scales and the law, are superimposed.

More primitive examples of visual allegory may be seen in the so-called eye-music (Augenmusik). It consists in altering the notation to suit certain words. For example, the notes to the words "nox" and "tenebrae" are coloured black in the notation, also the notes to the Song of Songs' : Nigra sum. The musical effect is a faster singing of the notes, since the black filling of the notes indicates rhythmical acceleration. Andreas Herbst had already expressed some scepticism about this procedure : "Weil aber dieses nicht ffir die Ohren, zu welcher Delectation solches billig geschehen sollte, sondern allein fuir die Augen angenommen ist, also 1asst man es in seinem Werth oder Unwerth beruhen." Another form of eye-music is to be found in the manner of rhythmic notation. J. Handl (Gallus) illustrates the word "confundantur" in a motet by giving for each voice a very complicated rhythmic notation, so that the rhythm appears very complicated to the eye, though it is musically very simple. In this context we may also mention those cases in Bach where he sharpens the notes when the word "cross5" appears, because the German word for sharp is Kreuz. Especially in the so-called "Kreuzstabcantate" we find this allegory used constantly.

Though all these examples are relatively simple, many more complicated ones might be adduced. In the words "For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted":3

Ex. 19. Wer sich selbst er- h6- -het der S .

IJ iIki"-F ,

1 Cf. also the chorus of the Jews in the St. John's Passion "We have a law" (p. 99) set as a strict fugue.

2Cf. Alfred Einstein, "Augenmusik im

Madrigal," Zeitschrift der Int. Musikgesell- schaft, XIV. 3 BG Io, p. 246.


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 15

soil er- nie-dri- get wer- den und wer sich selbst er nie-

- dri- get der soll er-h6- - het wer- den.

Bach uses here the spatial analogy of a rising and falling line corresponding to exaltation and abasement. That is quite simple. But he implies a second allegory in that he sharpens the notes in the rising line in unexpected places and flattens them in the descending melody, since in German "erhiihen" and "erniedrigen" are also musical technical terms meaning to sharpen and to flatten. This twofold allegory turns out to be more or less a pun, like that on the word "Kreuz," which is intelligible only in the German language, and which appears only in the musical notation.

If we wish to see how far it is possible to carry the combination of every conceivable sort of allegory, we have only to look at the beginning of the cantata "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God".1 Ex. 20. See p. 16, 17.

The text quotes the first Commandment, which lays down the law of love as the foundation of the Christian faith. The whole composition is carried through in strict imitation. The fugue here signifies the quotation of a dogmatic sentence from the New Testament. As we have already seen, the fugal form allegorizes law. To the words of the first Commandment the trumpet plays the chorale "These are the Holy Ten Commandments." The quotation itself points, like the finger in pictures of the Crucifixion, at the Commandment. The text is taken for granted as commonly known, and the melody represents the meaning of the text. The bass of the chorus takes up the melody of the trumpet, though in a special form-namely a canon in augmentation. All the values are doubled, and thereby the ten Commandments are made the basis of the whole, just as they are the basis of human life. The chorale melody is played by the trumpet, the instrument which Bach always uses as the allegory of the majesty of God, often to the point of representing the voice of God himself.

This high estimation of the trumpet is shown also in its social aspect, when we remember that trumpeters were the most respected and most highly paid of all musicians. It is amusing to note that Bach always puts the trumpet at the top of the score, as a kind of spatial allegory of God's supremacy.

Finally, it appears during the course of the movement that the chorale

1 BG 18, p. 235. Cf. the analysis of Pirro and especially Schering, Bach-Jahrbuch, (op. cit. p. 154 f.), Schweitzer (op. cit., p. 442) 1925.


16 M. BUKOFZER

Ex. 20.

Dominica 13 post Trinitatis. ,,Du ot(L1t ott, beinen ferren,tiben".

Tromnba da tirarsi.

Melodie:,,Dias sind die hei 'E zeh n Gebot

I) sollst Gott dei e,

Her- re, liebeuvo. ga.eni,

M.. ..

a .

-_. . . . . ..0 . .. . . . . . I

-A i . ... .

f M

v, INV

6 ,_.... . . ..

, , , ,1 ... .... D o , ..... .. . . ....rren


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 17

ollsto itt, dei.ane Her.rem, lie.Ac n gapzem Her . ..

D sollt ott, dl Herren, lie. ben yoa ganzem Her .

lie ben ron ganzem Her "-.

. . . .- - . . . zen;

zen, do sollstGott,drinen Herrcn, lie.be rn gazem Her . . . -en;

. zen, du sollstOot~ dinHern HesiniIWb0n n ganzm BrH;


18 M. BUKOFZER

melody is deliberately divided up in such a way that it recurs ten times, in allusion to the tenfold number of the Commandments. Here we have a play on numbers.

In this cantata, therefore, there are five different allegories superimposed : first, the Commandment "Thou shalt love thy Lord" allegorized by means of a fugue; then the quotation from the chorale "These are the Holy Ten Commandments," as a tacit allusion to the Commandments; thirdly, the augmented bass melody, which turns the Commandments into a fundamental law by means of canon form, the most rigid of all melodic accompaniments; fourthly, the trumpet as the allegory of the voice of God; and fifthly, the tenfold entrance of the chorale melody as a mystical allegory of the number ten.

Here it may truly be said that there is nothing in this movement without a definite meaning, just as in baroque pictures of allegories every line has a positive figurative sense. But the most important point of all is that the music is real music. The allegories have a concrete reality and are no pale constructions invented for the nonce. This fivefold overlay takes place simultaneously, as can happen only in music, without breaking through the artistic unity of the piece. For the movement is a self-contained affair. When we recognize the fivefold complex of meaning and hear it as a simultaneous musical unity, we experience a feeling of immense richness. As we listen, it is as though we were perpetually leaping from one meaning to another. This multiplicity in unity, this combination of spiritual and purely aesthetic pleasure, appears to me unique in its intensity.

Examples of this type might be repeated indefinitely. The objection that these meanings are interpreted into the piece by ourselves is not valid, since the same devices recur repeatedly. The key to these meanings is given us by a comparison of the cantatas. As Schweitzer says, they interpret each other mutually, though it must be confessed that his whole attitude to these devices is fundamentally false. Like Pirro, Schweitzer interprets these allegories as a sort of tone-poetry. Pirro alludes expressly to Wagner.' The title of Schweitzer's book is significant : Bach, le musicien-poete. To be sure, Schweitzer contrasts what he calls the "tone symbolism" of Bach with that of Wagner; but it is not made clear that in the one case we are dealing with allegories and in the other with naturalistic psychology.

It may perhaps be objected that we have been discussing so far only a particular form of programme-music. But programme-music, in our sense of the word, always and inevitably implies a psychological programme; it expresses the feelings of the composer in the presence of some special event. As Wagner says: "The language of music expresses nothing if not feelings and emotions."2 But allegories are fundamentally unpsycho- logical; they are intellectual. Programme-music, in the strict sense, begins

1 Pirro closes his book with the words : "Ils reconnaitront alors sous l'habit s6vere du cantor, le maitre expressif, le pr6curseur farouche et v6h6ment de Beethoven et de

Richard Wagner." 2

"Oper und Drama", Gesammelte Schriften IV, p. 234-


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 19 only when certain sounds, whose meaning is exactly defined, are reproduced upon an instrument : e.g. cuckoo-calls, fanfares, the tinkle of bells. Strictly speaking, this is only the adoption of an already existing tune. This is quite rightly observed by an undeservedly neglected musical theorist called Chabanon,1 who wrote about 1780 : "it is simply a question of lending to one melody the character of another." A very elaborate account of programme-music is given by a predecessor of Bach's, J. Kuhnau,3 in his Vorstellungen einiger biblischen Historien (1700). He distinguishes in his preface between two kinds of programme-music. In the first something in nature or art is 'presented' :

und dieses geschieht entweder also, dass der Zuhdrer die gehabte Intention des Komponisten bald merken kann, auch wenn sie mit Worten nicht angedeutet worden ist. Wenn man z.B. den Gesang der Vogel, das Glockengelaiute, den Kanonenknall oder auf einem Instrument das andere nachahmt; wie man auf dem Klavier die Trompeten oder Pauken imitiert.

This is a mere question of sound : something which can be apprehended by the ear. By the second type Kuhnau means what, in fact, we have called musical allegory :

Oder aber man zielt auf eine Analogiam und richtet die musikalischen Saitze also ein, dass sie in aliquo tercio mit der vorgestellten Sache sich vergleichen lassen. Und da sind die Worte allerdings n6tig.

Kuhnau then procedes to give some typical examples of such allegories. Also praesentiere ich das Schnarchen und Pochen des Goliath

durch das tiefe Thema und das fibrige Gepolter. Die Flucht der Philister und das Nacheilen der Israeliten durch eine Fuga mit geschwin- den Noten, da die Stimmen einander bald nachfolgen. Ebenso praesentiere ich den Betrug Labans durch die Verffihrung des Gehdrs, namlich durch eine unvermutete Fortschreitung von einem Tono zu einem anderen. Und gehort in solchen Faillen eine giitige Interpretation darzu. Kuhnau's programme-music is so interesting precisely because it shows

us how intellectually a composer of the baroque period conceived his musical programme; for instance when he presents the fraud of Laban by a sudden modulation whose only object is to deceive the ear. We realise how totally different programme-music can be at different periods and in different styles. In the baroque period the extensive use of allegory is typical. Chabanon gives a very clear definition of these processes. He remarks that music cannot reproduce images for the ear, but that it must always fall back upon metaphors contrived by the intelligence: "ce n'est pas a l'oreille que l'on peint en musique, c'est d l'esprit qui, plac6 entre ces deux sens, combine et compare leurs sensations."

The notion of musical allegory as a representation communicated by 1 M. de Chabanon, De la Musique considedrie

en elle mime et dans ses rapports avec la parole, les langues, la podsie et le thddtre, Paris, 1785 (second edition).

2J. Kuhnau, Denkm'ler deutscher Tonkunst, IV. Vorrede. The preface is a most important document for Baroque programme- music.


20 M. BUKOFZER the intellect is one which appears, moreover, at the very beginning of baroque music, whose earliest efforts date back to the time of the Counter- Reformation. The Renaissance ideal was melodic beauty, pure and simple, of which the greatest representative is Josquin des Pres (d. 1521).1 In opposition to this there arose a movement which attempted to mirror the words of the text by means of allegories, the so-called "musica reservata" -a kind of secret lore intelligible only to the few. In 1555 Lasso makes an explicit distinction between musica che si domanda osservata and musica che fosse palese a tutti.2 The former type of music is characterized by a friend of Lasso's as follows: music presents its subject in a sort of ocular action, rem quasi actam ad oculos ponendo. Here the words "quasi actam" are especially important. The figurative method is admitted; but the appeal is made, significantly enough, not to the ear, but to the eye. Even the definition of the method already resorts to metaphor.

Another theoretical writer, Sethus Calvisius,3 expresses more clearly what is intended. He too avoids the word allegory, but his whole conception implies it. According to him, "music employs elegant fictions which put the matter before the mind, the eyes, and the ears." The word fictio is of especial importance; and so is the juxtaposition of the eye, and particularly of the mind, with the ear.

We have now spoken at length of allegory in baroque music; and in conclusion we must ask where the symbols are to be found. We have defined the symbol as a sign whose meaning is inherent, and cannot refer to things whose nature we can describe otherwise. The allegories we have described might, in themselves, occur in any musical style, and not merely in that of the baroque period. But, as a matter of fact, allegories occur almost exclusively in baroque music. Programme-music occurs in other styles, but usually in the form of direct imitations (cuckoos, cannon-shot or storms), or else in programmes with a psychological basis-as when Beethoven in the Sixth Symphony says "mehr Ausdruck der Empfindung als Malerei." The important point about baroque allegory is its non-expressive, non- psychological character. This can unfortunately be demonstrated only in negative terms; we are so imprisoned in our own contemporary notion of music that we possess no positive expression for it.

The counterblast to baroque music took precisely the form of the 1 Zacconi, himself a representative of early

Baroque theory, says of the Renaissance composers (he calls them "musici vecchi") that "they intended nothing but the pure and simple performance (pura et semplice modulatione)." The perfect composition of the Renaissance period is said to have been called "absoluta cantilena" by Josquin and his pupils (cf. H. Besseler, "Musik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance," Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft, 1931-34, P- 251). This "absoluta cantilena," however, turns out to be a rather grotesque blunder of translation.

The passage in question taken from Adr. Petit Coclicus' Compendium describes in a most interesting way how Josquin composed "in a sort of inner urge not being able to eat or drink before the composition was finished (ante absolutam cantilenam!) "-I shall come back to this passage in a separate study.

2 Orl. di Lasso, Preface to his book of Villanellen und Chansons, 1555- 3 Cf. K. Benndorf, "Sethus Calvisius als Musiktheoretiker," Vierteljahrsschrift far Mu- sikwissenschaft, X, p. 424.


ALLEGORY IN BAROQUE MUSIC 21 discovery how to express feelings without the intervention of the intellect. Music no longer meant this or that emotion; it was itself the immediate expression of that emotion. This transition from the notion "it means" to that of "it is" marks the transition from the baroque style to its successor, the classical-romantic style. It was a natural consequence that musical allegory was relegated to a subordinate place on the boundaries of programme- music, since direct expression came to be preferred to indirect.

In this sense baroque music differs from music of every other sort, in its peculiar conception of the very nature of the art. In the baroque period music is a language of signs, in which every sign has one or more meanings; but these can only reproduce things which are more or less known in advance. Music is thus a mirror, in the sense that man is a reflection of God. But this reflection can make nothing; man is creature, not creator. The composer does not invent his themes, and lays no store by originality. The whole emphasis is on the execution and the elaboratio. That is why composers borrow their themes so often from other works, and often use the same motifs for quite different purposes. For the same reason, the forms of the allegory, once chosen, have a central function. They are not used merely episodically; they are structurally built in. In the prelude "Durch Adams Fall" the figure of the descending seventh is retained throughout the whole composition. The allegory furnishes the backbone of the composition, thereby becoming a specifically musical method.

Baroque music is not, like modern music, a language of feeling, which expresses its objects directly, but a sort of indirect iconology of sound. For this reason it lacks all psychology in the modern sense. The rigidity of baroque music, especially from the rhythmic point of view, has long since been remarked upon. But this is not a weakness of such music; on the contrary, it is its very strength. The humanization of music by means of a dynamic emotional conception of its nature appears only during the first half of the eighteenth century, when baroque ceremonial-the pigeon-holing of the stereotyped emotions-gave way before the so-called natural feelings. To the rising middle-class age the formality of baroque music appeared unnatural, even inhuman. The two styles are based on two different conceptions of music.

These two styles are themselves symbols, whose meaning is not to be expressed in words, but can only be experienced in its intuitive sensuous form. It is not correct, then, to speak of the symbol 'in' baroque music, since it is itself symbolic and interprets itself. We who no longer live inside this music, can still gain a reflection of it from comparison of one baroque composition with another, which may help us to understand how this music was intended to be understood.? But such notions as we can acquire in this way possess no definable significance, such as an allegory possesses. They can only refer us back again and again to the music. In this process the study of the allegorical method may supply a key to baroque .music, for the variations of this method from one style to another are a means of characterizing the style itself.

1 Cf. Manfred Bukofzer, "Musikanalyse und Musikdeutung," Schweizerische Musik- zeitung, 1937-


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Issue Table of ContentsJournal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 3, No. 1/2 (Oct., 1939 - Jan., 1940), pp. 1-164Volume InformationFront MatterAllegory in Baroque Music [pp. 1-21]The Popular Theatre of the Rederijkers in the Work of Jan Steen and His Contemporaries [pp. 22-48]Two Drawings of the Ftes at Binche for Charles V and Philip (II) 1549 [pp. 49-55]The Authorship of the Drawings of Binche [pp. 55-57]El Greco's "Dream of Philip II": An Allegory of the Holy League [pp. 58-69]The Battle Scene without a Hero. Aniello Falcone and His Patrons [pp. 70-87]A Counter-Project to Bernini's "Piazza di San Pietro" [pp. 88-106]A Seventeenth Century Carmelite Legend Based on Tacitus [pp. 107-118]Rembrandt's "Synagogue" and Some Problems of Nomenclature [pp. 119-126]Julian the Apostate at Hampton Court [pp. 127-137]Miscellaneous NotesTitian's Allegory of "Religion Succoured by Spain"The Change in Symbolism [pp. 138-140]The Condition of the Picture [pp. 140-141]

A Self-Portrait of Greco [pp. 141-142]A Poussin-Castiglione Problem: Classicism and the Picturesque in 17th Century Rome [pp. 142-147]Drawings of Saint Peter's on a Pilgrim's Staff in the Museo Sacro [pp. 147-153]Dante Alighieri Alchymicus Amoris [pp. 153-155]The Portrait of Isabella of Castille on Coins [pp. 155]A Symbolic Portrait of Descartes [pp. 156]The Monarch's Crown of ThornsThe Wreath of Thorns in Paradise Regained [pp. 156-160]Heine on Louis Philippe [pp. 160-161]

Two Unknown Letters of Charles Burney [pp. 161-164]

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