“Non-rhetorical” musical-rhetorical figures in the treatises of the Baroque era*
Abstract
The article explores a seemingly non-obvious yet significant component of musical-rhetorical figures, a phenomenon widely discussed in musicology. This component is defined by the compositional and technical aspects of the figures rather than their intonational-semantic or musical-symbolic qualities. The study focuses on the so-called principal figures (figuræ principales / figuræ fundamentales) found in treatises of the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries, specifically in the classifications of Johannes Nucius, Joachim Thuringus, Athanasius Kircher, Tomáš Baltazar Janovka (Janowka), Christoph Bernhard, Johann Gottfried Walther, and their successor Johann Adolf Scheibe. By examining two chronologically disparate lists — the earliest and latest, found in the works of Nucius (Musices poeticæ sive de compositione cantus, Neisse, 1613) and Scheibe (Critischer Musicus, Leipzig, 1745) — the author analyzes figures that define the rules for using dissonances on weak and strong beats. In these theoretical descriptions, the figures do not align with the criteria typically used in modern musicology to characterize musical-rhetorical figures (such as deviations from the stile antico norms, enhancement of expressive delivery, or the representation of affects and ideas). Instead, the figures commissura directa and commissura cadens in Nucius’s explanation, as well as transitus, ligatura, and syncopatio in Scheibe’s description, represent the codification of normative, conventional techniques well-known to musicians. Johann Adolf Scheibe labels these techniques as “figures,” he subsequently employs the term “rule” (Compositionsregeln, harmonische Regeln) when detailing their characteristics. The coexistence of components oriented toward both old and new norms demonstrates the heterogeneous nature of these lists. This circumstance highlights significant contradictions between authentic historical knowledge and the prevalent interpretation of figures in modern musical analysis, while also suggesting new directions for researching the genesis of musical figures — analogous to rhetorical ones — within Baroque treatises.
Keywords: musical-rhetorical figures, musical rhetoric, German music theory, history of music theory, doctrine of composition, music treatises, German Baroque music, rules of counterpoint, Johannes Nucius, Musices poeticæ sive de compositione cantus, Johann Adolf Scheibe, Critischer Musicus
For citation: Maltseva, A. A. (2026). “Non-rhetorical” musical-rhetorical figures in the treatises of the Baroque era. Contemporary Musicology, 10(1), 11–32. https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2026-1-011-032References
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2026-1-011-032
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