Interpreting sensibility in Haydn's keyboard sonatas

Abstract

In current musicology, sensibility, treated primarily as a human disposition in philosophical, moral, spiritual, physiological, aesthetic, and musical terms in the 18th-century, is often reduced into a musical style (empfindsamer Stil, “the sensitive style,” or “the style of sensibility”), an aesthetic system associated mostly with C.P.E. Bach, an artistic period or a movement, and a topical label in topic theory. Noting that the 18th-century writers did not view sensibility in such ways, this dissertation, focusing on Haydn and his keyboard sonatas, begins in Chapter 1 by examining the different 18th-century writing on sensibility to delineate the various dimensions of sensibility. It then propounds additional ways in which sensibility can be studied musically today. The subsequent chapters explore a selection of Haydn’s keyboard sonatas to observe how they reflect the different perceptions, treatments, and manifestations of sensibility in the composer’s time. The examination of Hob. XVI: 46 in Chapter 2 sheds light on a self-forgetful and self-reflexive sensibility that improvises on the clavichord. Chapter 3 suggests the music of Hob. XVII: 20 reveals a spiritual dimension of sensibility that is simultaneously confessional, contemplative, and communal. The study of Hob. XVI: 35-39 in Chapter 4 highlights the Auenbrugger sisters’ flexible sensibility that may unsettle gendered stereotypes and form’s capacity to evince sensibility’s reluctance to forget. Chapter 5 analyses Hob. XVI: 40 and 42 as a musical choreography of innocence and politeness, both feminine ideals in the culture of sensibility. Focusing on Hob. XVI: 50 and 52’s first movements, Chapter 6 examines a satirical sensibility that ironically, despite sensibility’s emphasis on taste and sympathy, is characterized by a crude and pitiless delight in jokes that ridicule bodily ugliness. Finally, examining Hob. 49 and 52’s slow movements, Chapter 7 explores a romantic sensibility that finds its essence in anguish and yearning for the distant.