Introduction

The ‘conversion’ of a linguistic system, such as rhetoric, to a musical one would appear to be a logical step in theory: after all, music, too, is considered to be a kind of language. Working on this assumption, what could be more natural to apply a system originating in one kind of language to another? However, it is only when the consequences of such an adaptation process are reviewed that it becomes evident how many points of comparison arise: while some of them bring out the similarities between words and music, others highlight the differences. One aim of this paper will be to examine these issues by specific reference to the relationship between rhetoric and music. The paper will provide insight into the role of rhetoric in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century culture and suggest how it was absorbed into the musical theory and practice of the day. The second section will offer an evaluation of our modern attitude to, and understanding of, rhetoric. In the third and final section I will attempt a rhetorical critique on a short section of vocal music from this period in order to demonstrate how a rhetorical analysis of music from this time, if undertaken with care, can remain appropriate and relevant.

I Representation of the Text as Conceived by Theorists of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

The Relevance of Rhetoric to Musical Analysis

Although some modern commentators are sceptical about the links between rhetoric and music, it is important not to underestimate the role played by rhetoric in Renaissance and Baroque culture and the influence that it had on many of its ‘sister’ arts. Rhetoric was originally a linguistic ‘art’, ‘the art of speaking or writing so as to persuade people’. It was a discipline that prescribed not only a structure but also a style for oratory in the public life of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome.