Dynamics and Dissonance: The Implied Harmonic Theory of J.J. Quantz

Chapter 17, Section 6 of Quantz's Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote traversiere zu spielen (1752) includes a short original composition entitled "Affettuoso di molto."This piece features an unprecedented variety of dynamic markings, alternating abruptly from loud to soft extremes and utilizing every intermediate gradation. Quantz's discussion of this example provides an analytic context for the dynamic markings in the score: specific levels of relative amplitude are prescribed for particular classes of harmonic events, depending on their relative dissonance. Quantz's categories anticipate Kirnberger's distinction between essential and nonessential dissonance and closely coincide with even later conceptions as indicated by the various chords' spans on the Oettingen-Riemann Tonnetz and on David Temperley's "line of fifths." The discovery of a striking degree of agreement between Quantz's prescriptions for performance and more recent theoretical models offers a valuable perspective on eighteenth-century musical intuitions and suggests that today's intuitions might not be very different.