Expression and the Affections in Johann Sebastian Bach\u27s ICH HABE GENUG, BWV 82

The Affections were an aesthetic concept based on Rene Descartes\u27 mechanistic theories of expression and emotional stimulation. A unified Doctrine of the Affections has been promoted for decades as one of the guiding principles behind music composition during the Baroque era, despite the lack of any documentation establishing or acknowledging its existence during the seventeenth century. This paper looks at the writings of Johann Mattheson (1681-1764), a composer and theorist whose book DER VOLLKOMMENE CAPELLMEISTER (1739) contains the closest attempt within contemporary Baroque literature to arrive at a true doctrine for emotional expression through music. Mattheson\u27s theories are then applied to a musical analysis of a solo cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)