empfindsamkeit

Sensibility — an aesthetic ideal of the mid-18th century (associated especially with C.P.E. Bach) prizing subtle emotional nuance, spontaneous expression, and individual feeling over Baroque formality.

Expressed through unexpected melodic turns, abrupt dynamic contrasts, expressive ornamentation, and rhetorical silences. The Fantasia form embodies this aesthetic; the music seems to speak directly to the listener's feelings.