Sensitive style

The sensitive style (German: empfindsamer Stil) is a style of musical composition developed in 18th-century Germany, intended to express "true and natural" feelings, and featuring sudden contrasts of mood. It was developed as a contrast to the Baroque Affektenlehre (lit. "The Doctrine of Affections"), in which a composition (or movement) would have the same affect, or emotion, throughout.

Composers in this style include:

• Gottfried August Homilius
• Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, the eldest son of J. S. Bach
• C. P. E. Bach, the second eldest son of J. S. Bach
• Johann Joachim Quantz
• Carlos Seixas

See also

• Sturm und Drang
• Galant
• Singspiel

Notes

References

• P. H. Lang, Music in Western Civilization (1941), pp. 585ff.
• W. S. Newman, The Sonata in the Classic Era (1963)