Topic: Effektenlehrer

The "Effektenlehrer," or doctrine of effects, was a cosmological framework used in the 18th century to compose and interpret music based on specific emotional and spiritual procedures. Farrell shares an anecdote about his organ studies, where he had to determine if a Bach fugue subject was masculine, feminine, or androgynous. He laments that modern academic music programs have largely abandoned this tradition in favor of a narrow, post-Enlightenment humanistic foundation.