Diese Reihe taucht tief in die konzeptionellen Rahmenbedingungen ein, die unser Verständnis von Musik und ihrer Geschichte prägen. Sie beleuchtet die Strukturen von Erklärung, Interpretation und Kritik, die Musik verständlich machen. Leser finden hier aufschlussreiche Analysen und überzeugende Argumente zur künstlerischen Wertschätzung. Diese Sammlung ist eine unverzichtbare Ressource für alle, die sich für die theoretischen und kritischen Dimensionen der Musik interessieren.
Presents a new way of understanding Schoenberg's step into atonality in 1908. In 1898 and especially 1908, Schoenberg's Jewish identity came into confrontation with his commitment to Wagnerian modernism to provide an impetus to his radical innovations.
Characteristic symphonies have texts associating them with literature, politics, religion, and other aspects of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European culture. Examining both the music and its aesthetic and social contexts, this first full-length study of the genre demonstrates how symphonies constructed individual and collective identities through their subjects, representing emotion, human bodily movement, and the passage of time. Examples discussed include the Pastoral and Eroica symphonies of Beethoven and works by Haydn, Dittersdorf, and other composers of the era. An Appendix provides a thematic index of the entire repertory.
Generally acknowledged as the most important German musicologist of his age, Hugo Riemann (1849-1919) shaped the ideas of generations of music scholars, not least because his work coincided with the institutionalisation of academic musicology around the turn of the last century. This influence, however, belies the contentious idea at the heart of his musical thought, an idea he defended for most of his career - harmonic dualism. By situating Riemann's musical thought within turn-of-the-century discourses about the natural sciences, German nationhood and modern technology, this book reconstructs the cultural context in which Riemann's ideas not only 'made sense' but advanced an understanding of the tonal tradition as both natural and German. Riemann's musical thought - from his considerations of acoustical properties to his aesthetic and music-historical views - thus regains the coherence and cultural urgency that it once possessed.
This book explores the evolution of, and interactions between, fantasy and music in Romantic France, providing new contexts for the study of Berlioz and his contemporaries. The volume will appeal to readers beyond the musicological community, drawing together musical, literary, scientific, and visual materials, and applying theoretical and historical approaches.
Julie Brown presents a new way of understanding Schoenberg's step into atonality in 1908. Reconsidering his early atonal works, his theoretical writings and previously unexplored archival documents, she argues that Schoenberg's revolutionary step was in part a response to Wagner's negative charges concerning the Jewish influence on German music.
This volume reveals the role of music in nineteenth-century British liberalism, exploring the politics, culture, and ideology of Victorian elite society using archival material relating to Mary Gladstone, daughter of the reforming British prime minister. It will interest scholars working in numerous fields including music, literature, politics, history, and women's studies.
A fresh perspective on the Ballets Russes, focusing on relations between music, dance and the cultural politics of belle-epoque Paris.
What does it mean to say that music is deeply moving? Or that music's aesthetic value derives from its deep structure? This study traces the widely employed trope of musical depth to its origins in German-language music criticism and analysis. From the Romantic aesthetics of E. T. A. Hoffmann to the modernist theories of Arnold Schoenberg, metaphors of depth attest to the cross-pollination of music with discourses ranging from theology, geology and poetics to psychology, philosophy and economics. The book demonstrates that the persistence of depth metaphors in musicology and music theory today is an outgrowth of their essential role in articulating and transmitting Germanic cultural values. While musical depth metaphors have historically served to communicate German nationalist sentiments, Watkins shows that an appreciation for the broad connotations of those metaphors opens up exciting new avenues for interpretation.
Political Beethoven explores Beethoven's music as an active participant in political life from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day.
With new information on four generations of women musicians, this book expands and alters the narratives that scholars and musicians have told about music in sixteenth-century Ferrara. A radical perspective on a familiar repertoire, it proposes a new way of thinking with consequences for music history and performance practice.
This book is a study of the prose writings of Richard Wagner and their relevance to an understanding of his music and drama, as well as their relation to music criticism and aesthetics in the nineteenth century in general. It looks at central themes in his writings, such as philosophies of musical form and meaning, Wagner's metaphors and terminology, and connects them with analysis of music from his own operas and works by other composers such as Beethoven and Berlioz about whom Wagner wrote.