Enlightened Sensibility: A Musical History

The eighteenth century, historians have increasingly recognized, could not be interpreted solely as the Age of Reason, for the Enlightenment’s guiding force was not only reason but also sensibility. Music in general does not occupy the spotlight of the historiography of Enlightenment from philosophical perspectives, yet eighteenth-century thinkers across philosophical, political, medical, religious, literary, and artistic realms had integrated a variety of musical imageries and concepts into their writing to articulate their understandings of sensibility and its effects. This study explores the ways music, in the form of metaphors, signs, and narratives, participated in the culture of sensibility and the role of sensibility in history. It also encourages the ongoing discussion on what the Enlightenment was and is—and, in recasting the role of sensibility in history, readers are also invited to reflect on the benefits of sensibility on both the individual and the social levels today.