From Haydn's 'Thinking-Fantasy-Machine' to Keyboard Sonata Hob. XVI:46: Empfindsamkeit and Fantasia Reconsidered

Abstract

The conventional ideas many associate with Empfindsamkeit (sensibility) in the realm of topic theory center often on elements such as slow tempo, minor keys, sigh figures, and chromaticism. Very few have evaluated the relationship between Empfindsamkeit and fantasia, yet Leonard Ratner’s topical definitions of Empfindsamkeit and fantasia have shown great similarities, thereby leading to much ambiguity. Such overlaps not only push us to reconsider whether or not Empfindsamkeit should be regarded as a musical style but also reinforces the idea that sensibility fundamentally functions as a term denoting one’s capability to feel and respond. While certain musical materials reveal a composer’s depth of feelings, fantasia-like elements such as shifting harmonies, unexpected modulations, elaborate ornamentation, and many others unveil a composer or an improvisor’s quickness to feel and respond. From observing how the clavichord, which Haydn himself regarded as a“refuge” for his melancholic self, acted also as the composer’s “thinking-fantasy-machine,” to examining certain fantasia-like elements in the first movement Allegro moderato of his Keyboard Sonata Hob. XVI: 46 in A-flat major, this paper encourages musicologists to reconsider the nature of Empfindsamkeit and fantasia as well as the complex relationship between the two.