elective affinities

The term "elective relationships" appears in the translation of an excerpt from Wagner's Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft [1850), found in Oliver Strunk's Source Readings in Music HIstory (NY, Norton, 1950), p. 888. This is almost certainly a translation of the term Wahlverwandschaften, which was the title of an 1809 novel by Goethe. The term may well come up in future readings as well. Here are two short definitions of the concept. The first is from the description of a recent conference at the University of Pennsylvania:


Our title has been borrowed from Goethe's 1809 novel Elective Affinities . In the novel, the chemical term “elective affinities” extends to human relationships, both intimate and political. Like the alkalis and acids of which Goethe's characters speak, words and images, though apparently opposed, may have a remarkable affinity for one another. At the same time, as one of the characters in the book objects, such affinities are problematic, and “are only really interesting when they bring about separations.”
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/affinities/

The second was written some years ago as an informal response to my request for a definition. Its author is Ruth Ann Crowley, who received her Ph.D. in German studies from Stanford in the 1970s and remains one of the most brilliant people I have ever known:

Wahlverwandschaften:

In Goethe’s work it’s a term borrowed from chemistry to account for the attraction between certain individuals. The use of natural forces (magnetism, which merged with hypnotism in some manifestations, think of mesmer; or here, what Goethe called chemistry, if I recall, but what we would call a kind of particle physics, probably) to account for human behavior--getting at an elemental, subrational, occult cause of behavior--as prevalent in the Romantic period. I think ‘elective affinity’ is commonly used to mean a strong preference that conveys something about the chooser’s occult self.