ABSTRACT
In the second half of the eighteenth century, communication was considered one of the cornerstones of music signification. Conveying precise and preferably conceptual meaning was viewed with such importance that many writers judged vocal music to be superior to instrumental music. This chapter examines two ways in which late eighteenth-century musicians addressed non-conceptual layers of music signification, layers that apply to instrumental as well as to vocal music: musical expression and musical grammar. In eighteenth-century aesthetics, the attitude towards rules, with which musical grammar is associated, was controversial. In modern music-analytical research that discusses music of the high Classical era, patterns feature prominently in examinations of form. Since the publication of Leonard Ratner’s Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style, topics have become one of the most widely applied analytical approaches to Classical music. Musical grammar, associated with rules and patterns, differs in numerous ways from the signs associated with topics.
