The Rationalization of ‘ Gefühlsinhalten ’: Dynamics of Cultural Change in Weber’s Sociology of Music

Weber did not publish works on the sociology of music during his lifetime, yet he recognized that a specific rationalism influenced even this most intrinsic human experience. This article uses formal and substantive rationality to explore how Weber linked the final harmonious chord structure’s emotional content ( Gefühlsinhalten ) to modern capitalist society in the West. The late Renaissance saw a demand for expressive music, integrating new melodic elements within a framework emphasizing vertical harmonic consonance. This reflects the Western tendency to rationalize music’s emotional content, intertwined with ascetic rationalism’s ethical orientation. While Weber did not empirically analyze music’s connection to individual meaning extensively, his insights provide a lens to examine musical forms’ aesthetic features and cultural significance from a comparative civilizational perspective.