Musica Poetica provides an unprecedented examination of the development of Baroque musical thought.
The initial chapters, which serve as an introduction to the concept and teachings of musical-rhetorical figures, explore Martin Luther’s theology of music, the development of the Baroque
concept of musica poetica, the idea of the affections in German Baroque music, and that music’s use of the principles and devices of rhetoric. Dietrich Bartel then turns to more
detailed considerations of the musical-rhetorical figures that were developed in Baroque treatises and publications. After brief biographical sketches of the major theorists, Bartel examines
those theorists’ interpretation and classification of the figures. The book concludes with a detailed presentation of the musical-rhetorical figures, in which each theorist’s definitions are
presented in the original language and in parallel English translations.
Bartel’s clear, detailed analysis of German Baroque musical-rhetorical figures, combined with his careful translations of interpretations of those figures from a wide range of sources, make
this book an indispensable introduction and resource for all students of Baroque music.
