Rhythmic Accent and the Absolute: Sulzer, Schelling and theAkzenttheorie

Abstract

ABSTRACT1770s Berlin saw the birth of a new theory of rhythm, first stated in Johann Georg Sulzer'sAllgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste(1771–1774), and later labelled theAkzenttheorie(theory of accents). Whereas previous eighteenth-century theories had seen rhythm as built up from the combination of distinct units, theAkzenttheoriesaw it as formed from the breaking down of a continual flow, achieved through the placing of accents on particular notes. In hisPhilosophie der Kunst(1802–1803) the philosopher Friedrich Schelling used Sulzer's definition of rhythm to suggest, astonishingly, that music can facilitate knowledge of the absolute, a philosophical concept denoting the ultimate ground of all reality. In this article I show how Schelling could come to interpret theAkzenttheoriein such extravagant terms by examining three theories of time and their relationships to rhythm: that of Sulzer and his predecessor Isaac Newton, that of Immanuel Kant and that of Schelling. I conclude by arguing that in Schelling's case – an important one, since his is the earliest systematic presentation of a view of music that came to predominate in the decades after 1800 – his view of music was driven neither by developments in contemporary music nor by changes in the philosophy of art as a discrete intellectual enterprise, but by revolutions in philosophy by and large unconcerned even with art in general.