Jerrold Levinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199206179
- eISBN:
- 9780191709982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206179.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This essay attempts to identify plausible mid-level principles by reference to which one might conceivably justify an evaluation of some music as good, where mid-level principles are ones whose ...
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This essay attempts to identify plausible mid-level principles by reference to which one might conceivably justify an evaluation of some music as good, where mid-level principles are ones whose specificity lies between the extremes of, on the one hand, music's being good if it affords appropriate listeners worthwhile experiences, and on the other hand, music's being good if it displays this or that set of technical features held to be productive of musical worth, such as monothematic structure or coherent harmony. The essay draws on the perspective developed in an earlier essay, ‘What Is Aesthetic Pleasure?’, which proposed that the distinctive mark of aesthetic satisfaction in art is that it is satisfaction deriving from attention that focuses on the relation of content to form and form to content in the given work of art. The mid-level principles of musical evaluation arrived at are illustrated in connection with one of Schubert's piano sonatas, the Sonata in A major, D. 959.Less
This essay attempts to identify plausible mid-level principles by reference to which one might conceivably justify an evaluation of some music as good, where mid-level principles are ones whose specificity lies between the extremes of, on the one hand, music's being good if it affords appropriate listeners worthwhile experiences, and on the other hand, music's being good if it displays this or that set of technical features held to be productive of musical worth, such as monothematic structure or coherent harmony. The essay draws on the perspective developed in an earlier essay, ‘What Is Aesthetic Pleasure?’, which proposed that the distinctive mark of aesthetic satisfaction in art is that it is satisfaction deriving from attention that focuses on the relation of content to form and form to content in the given work of art. The mid-level principles of musical evaluation arrived at are illustrated in connection with one of Schubert's piano sonatas, the Sonata in A major, D. 959.
David Brown
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231829
- eISBN:
- 9780191716218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231829.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian ...
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This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian resistance to instrumental music. It then considers the neglected features of the biblical witness that, in fact, strongly support a more positive approach, not least in the book of Chronicles. It is argued that as in the Temple's worship envisaged in Chronicles, so elsewhere music can help break down the barriers between the invisible world of the divine and our own. In other words, certain features of music help an already present God to be perceived. The works of some key composers in the classical tradition are examined, including Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, and Bruckner.Less
This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian resistance to instrumental music. It then considers the neglected features of the biblical witness that, in fact, strongly support a more positive approach, not least in the book of Chronicles. It is argued that as in the Temple's worship envisaged in Chronicles, so elsewhere music can help break down the barriers between the invisible world of the divine and our own. In other words, certain features of music help an already present God to be perceived. The works of some key composers in the classical tradition are examined, including Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, and Bruckner.
Yonatan Malin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195340051
- eISBN:
- 9780199863785
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340051.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This book explores rhythm and meter in the nineteenth‐century German Lied. It illustrates the transformation of poetic meter into musical rhythm and situates songs within larger aesthetic and ...
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This book explores rhythm and meter in the nineteenth‐century German Lied. It illustrates the transformation of poetic meter into musical rhythm and situates songs within larger aesthetic and historical narratives. The Lied, as a genre, is characterized especially by the fusion of poetry and music. Poetic meter itself has expressive qualities, and rhythmic variations contribute further to the modes of signification. These features often carry over into songs, even as they are set in the more strictly determined periodicities of musical meter. A new method of declamatory‐schema analysis is presented to illustrate common possibilities for setting trimeter, tetrameter, and pentameter lines. Degrees of rhythmic regularity and irregularity are also considered. Recent theories of musical meter are reviewed and applied in the analysis and interpretation of song. Topics include the nature of metric entrainment (drawing on music psychology), metric dissonance, hypermeter, and phrase rhythm. The book provides new methodologies for analysis and close readings of individual songs by Fanny Hensel née Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. Whereas songs by Hensel, Schubert, and Schumann may generally be described as musical settings of poetic texts, songs by both Brahms and Wolf function as musical performances of poetic readings. The frequently mentioned differences between Brahms and Wolf are clarified, along with deeper affinities.Less
This book explores rhythm and meter in the nineteenth‐century German Lied. It illustrates the transformation of poetic meter into musical rhythm and situates songs within larger aesthetic and historical narratives. The Lied, as a genre, is characterized especially by the fusion of poetry and music. Poetic meter itself has expressive qualities, and rhythmic variations contribute further to the modes of signification. These features often carry over into songs, even as they are set in the more strictly determined periodicities of musical meter. A new method of declamatory‐schema analysis is presented to illustrate common possibilities for setting trimeter, tetrameter, and pentameter lines. Degrees of rhythmic regularity and irregularity are also considered. Recent theories of musical meter are reviewed and applied in the analysis and interpretation of song. Topics include the nature of metric entrainment (drawing on music psychology), metric dissonance, hypermeter, and phrase rhythm. The book provides new methodologies for analysis and close readings of individual songs by Fanny Hensel née Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. Whereas songs by Hensel, Schubert, and Schumann may generally be described as musical settings of poetic texts, songs by both Brahms and Wolf function as musical performances of poetic readings. The frequently mentioned differences between Brahms and Wolf are clarified, along with deeper affinities.
John Daverio
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195132960
- eISBN:
- 9780199867059
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195132960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This book explores the connections between art and life in the works of three giants of musical romanticism. Drawing on contemporary critical theory and a wide variety of 19th-century sources, it ...
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This book explores the connections between art and life in the works of three giants of musical romanticism. Drawing on contemporary critical theory and a wide variety of 19th-century sources, it considers topics including Schubert and Schumann's uncanny ability to evoke memory in music, the supposed cryptographic practices of Schumann and Brahms, and the allure of the Hungarian Gypsy style for Brahms and others in the Schumann circle. The book offers a fresh perspective on the music of these composers, including a discussion of the 19th-century practice of cryptography, a debunking of the myth that Schumann and Brahms planted codes for “Clara Schumann’ throughout their works, and attention to the late works of Schumann not as evidence of the composer's descent into madness but as inspiration for his successors. The book portrays the three key players as musical storytellers, each in his own way simulating the structure of lived experience in works of art.Less
This book explores the connections between art and life in the works of three giants of musical romanticism. Drawing on contemporary critical theory and a wide variety of 19th-century sources, it considers topics including Schubert and Schumann's uncanny ability to evoke memory in music, the supposed cryptographic practices of Schumann and Brahms, and the allure of the Hungarian Gypsy style for Brahms and others in the Schumann circle. The book offers a fresh perspective on the music of these composers, including a discussion of the 19th-century practice of cryptography, a debunking of the myth that Schumann and Brahms planted codes for “Clara Schumann’ throughout their works, and attention to the late works of Schumann not as evidence of the composer's descent into madness but as inspiration for his successors. The book portrays the three key players as musical storytellers, each in his own way simulating the structure of lived experience in works of art.
Yonatan Malin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195340051
- eISBN:
- 9780199863785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340051.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter explores effects of repetition and motion in Schubert's songs, together with moments of rhythmic irregularity. Analyses focus on three songs from Winterreise (poems by Müller) and three ...
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This chapter explores effects of repetition and motion in Schubert's songs, together with moments of rhythmic irregularity. Analyses focus on three songs from Winterreise (poems by Müller) and three early Goethe settings. The chapter's themes are introduced with notes on “Auf dem Flusse,” Winterreise No. 7. An unusual declamatory schema is then shown to contribute to the frenzied flight in “Rückblick,” Winterreise No. 8. Three songs—“Wandrers Nachtlied I,” D. 224, “Die Nebensonnen,” Winterreise No. 23, and “Schäfers Klagelied,” D. 121—illustrate moments of rhythmic irregularity, speech rhythm, and the emergence of a reflective, deeply feeling self. The chapter concludes with an extended analysis of “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” D. 118. Gretchen's shifting psychological states are shown to leave their trace in the flow and articulation of her poetic syntax and in the phrase rhythm and hypermeter of Schubert's remarkable setting.Less
This chapter explores effects of repetition and motion in Schubert's songs, together with moments of rhythmic irregularity. Analyses focus on three songs from Winterreise (poems by Müller) and three early Goethe settings. The chapter's themes are introduced with notes on “Auf dem Flusse,” Winterreise No. 7. An unusual declamatory schema is then shown to contribute to the frenzied flight in “Rückblick,” Winterreise No. 8. Three songs—“Wandrers Nachtlied I,” D. 224, “Die Nebensonnen,” Winterreise No. 23, and “Schäfers Klagelied,” D. 121—illustrate moments of rhythmic irregularity, speech rhythm, and the emergence of a reflective, deeply feeling self. The chapter concludes with an extended analysis of “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” D. 118. Gretchen's shifting psychological states are shown to leave their trace in the flow and articulation of her poetic syntax and in the phrase rhythm and hypermeter of Schubert's remarkable setting.
Kenneth Hamilton
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195178265
- eISBN:
- 9780199870035
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195178265.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter traces the evolving role of the piano in 19th- and early-20th century musical life, along with the traditions of performance of some standard repertoire works by Chopin, Schubert, and ...
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This chapter traces the evolving role of the piano in 19th- and early-20th century musical life, along with the traditions of performance of some standard repertoire works by Chopin, Schubert, and Liszt whose technical difficulties became more severe as the piano itself evolved. It is argued that performance traditions ultimately not derived from the composer should be investigated more fully and treated with a greater respect than has hitherto been the case, with the adaptations of Busoni used as an illustrative example.Less
This chapter traces the evolving role of the piano in 19th- and early-20th century musical life, along with the traditions of performance of some standard repertoire works by Chopin, Schubert, and Liszt whose technical difficulties became more severe as the piano itself evolved. It is argued that performance traditions ultimately not derived from the composer should be investigated more fully and treated with a greater respect than has hitherto been the case, with the adaptations of Busoni used as an illustrative example.
Lawrence M. Zbikowski
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195140231
- eISBN:
- 9780199871278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195140231.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter explores further the nature of song and also the process of conceptual blending. As noted in Chapter 2, conceptual blending is a pervasive and often transparent process in which elements ...
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This chapter explores further the nature of song and also the process of conceptual blending. As noted in Chapter 2, conceptual blending is a pervasive and often transparent process in which elements from two correlated mental spaces combine in a third. The mental spaces basic to conceptual blends can be set up by music as well as by language. This idea is discussed based on the assumption that music can set up complete discourse structures, which can be correlated with the discourse structure of a text to give rise to a unique domain for the imagination.Less
This chapter explores further the nature of song and also the process of conceptual blending. As noted in Chapter 2, conceptual blending is a pervasive and often transparent process in which elements from two correlated mental spaces combine in a third. The mental spaces basic to conceptual blends can be set up by music as well as by language. This idea is discussed based on the assumption that music can set up complete discourse structures, which can be correlated with the discourse structure of a text to give rise to a unique domain for the imagination.
Harald Krebs
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195116236
- eISBN:
- 9780199871308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195116236.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter considers some of the music that likely influenced Schumann's metrical style: that of contemporary pianist-composers, such as Moscheles and Hummel, which he studied and performed in his ...
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This chapter considers some of the music that likely influenced Schumann's metrical style: that of contemporary pianist-composers, such as Moscheles and Hummel, which he studied and performed in his youth; that of Paganini, some of whose Caprices for Solo Violin Schumann transcribed for piano; the keyboard music of J. S. Bach, which Schumann analyzed and played in the early 1830s; and that of Beethoven and Schubert. Substantial analyses of the music of these composers demonstrate the importance of metrical conflict therein. The chapter concludes with analyses of some of Schumann's very early works, which reveal his gradual absorption of some of the metrical procedures of earlier composers.Less
This chapter considers some of the music that likely influenced Schumann's metrical style: that of contemporary pianist-composers, such as Moscheles and Hummel, which he studied and performed in his youth; that of Paganini, some of whose Caprices for Solo Violin Schumann transcribed for piano; the keyboard music of J. S. Bach, which Schumann analyzed and played in the early 1830s; and that of Beethoven and Schubert. Substantial analyses of the music of these composers demonstrate the importance of metrical conflict therein. The chapter concludes with analyses of some of Schumann's very early works, which reveal his gradual absorption of some of the metrical procedures of earlier composers.
John Daverio
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195132960
- eISBN:
- 9780199867059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195132960.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the purpose of the book, which is to shed light on some aspects of the interdependent musical languages of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. It ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the purpose of the book, which is to shed light on some aspects of the interdependent musical languages of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. It reflects on some of the theoretical issues that such an intertextual approach raises. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the purpose of the book, which is to shed light on some aspects of the interdependent musical languages of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. It reflects on some of the theoretical issues that such an intertextual approach raises. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.
John Daverio
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195132960
- eISBN:
- 9780199867059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195132960.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter argues that Schumann's Piano Quartet in E flat is situated at a crossroads. On the one hand, it offers the listener a compelling — and strikingly original — synthesis of earlier models ...
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This chapter argues that Schumann's Piano Quartet in E flat is situated at a crossroads. On the one hand, it offers the listener a compelling — and strikingly original — synthesis of earlier models and practices. While its structural underpinnings hearken to Schubert, its intense motivicism and rhythmic urgency suggest a Beethovenian source. The contrapuntal tour de force of its closing pages points back even further still, to the fugues of J. S. Bach. On the other hand, the work looks well into the future: the chains of cascading thirds that run through its final paragraphs would become a staple of Brahms's musical vocabulary.Less
This chapter argues that Schumann's Piano Quartet in E flat is situated at a crossroads. On the one hand, it offers the listener a compelling — and strikingly original — synthesis of earlier models and practices. While its structural underpinnings hearken to Schubert, its intense motivicism and rhythmic urgency suggest a Beethovenian source. The contrapuntal tour de force of its closing pages points back even further still, to the fugues of J. S. Bach. On the other hand, the work looks well into the future: the chains of cascading thirds that run through its final paragraphs would become a staple of Brahms's musical vocabulary.
John Daverio
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195132960
- eISBN:
- 9780199867059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195132960.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The publication of several large-scale instrumental works by Franz Schubert in the late 1920s and 1930s elicited little reaction from contemporary critics. However, the critical voice that broke the ...
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The publication of several large-scale instrumental works by Franz Schubert in the late 1920s and 1930s elicited little reaction from contemporary critics. However, the critical voice that broke the near silence with the greatest regularity belonged to Robert Schumann. Between 1834 and 1840, Schumann turned repeatedly to Schubert's instrumental music, illuminating the special magic of pieces that ranged in weight from the comparatively slight 16 Deutsche und 2 Ecossaisen to the colossal Symphony in C major. This chapter speculates on what is was that drew Schumann to Schubert's music.Less
The publication of several large-scale instrumental works by Franz Schubert in the late 1920s and 1930s elicited little reaction from contemporary critics. However, the critical voice that broke the near silence with the greatest regularity belonged to Robert Schumann. Between 1834 and 1840, Schumann turned repeatedly to Schubert's instrumental music, illuminating the special magic of pieces that ranged in weight from the comparatively slight 16 Deutsche und 2 Ecossaisen to the colossal Symphony in C major. This chapter speculates on what is was that drew Schumann to Schubert's music.
John Daverio
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195132960
- eISBN:
- 9780199867059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195132960.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter presents some final thoughts from the author. It argues that all three of the central characters of this book — Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms — contributed in varying degrees to the art ...
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This chapter presents some final thoughts from the author. It argues that all three of the central characters of this book — Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms — contributed in varying degrees to the art of storytelling. In doing so, they made their mark on a practice that, according to Walter Benjamin, entered a period of decline in the 19th century and was clearly in danger of coming to an end in the 20th century.Less
This chapter presents some final thoughts from the author. It argues that all three of the central characters of this book — Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms — contributed in varying degrees to the art of storytelling. In doing so, they made their mark on a practice that, according to Walter Benjamin, entered a period of decline in the 19th century and was clearly in danger of coming to an end in the 20th century.
David Manning
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195182392
- eISBN:
- 9780199851485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182392.003.0093
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The Eighth Symphony is scored for what is known as the “Schubert” orchestra: with the addition of a harp. Also there is a large supply of extra percussion, including all the “phones” and “spiels” ...
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The Eighth Symphony is scored for what is known as the “Schubert” orchestra: with the addition of a harp. Also there is a large supply of extra percussion, including all the “phones” and “spiels” known to the composer. The first movement, as its title suggests, has been nicknamed “seven variations in search of a theme.” There is indeed no definite theme. The second movement (Scherzo) is, as its title suggests, for wind instruments only; namely, flute, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, three bassoons (third ad lib), two horns, two trumpets, and three trombones. In the third movement (Cavatina) the strings take over, thus giving the wind a well-earned rest. The fourth movement, Toccata, besides full strings and wind, commandeers all the available hitting instruments that can make definite notes, including glockenspiel, celesta, xylophone, vibraphone, tubular bells, and tunable gongs.Less
The Eighth Symphony is scored for what is known as the “Schubert” orchestra: with the addition of a harp. Also there is a large supply of extra percussion, including all the “phones” and “spiels” known to the composer. The first movement, as its title suggests, has been nicknamed “seven variations in search of a theme.” There is indeed no definite theme. The second movement (Scherzo) is, as its title suggests, for wind instruments only; namely, flute, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, three bassoons (third ad lib), two horns, two trumpets, and three trombones. In the third movement (Cavatina) the strings take over, thus giving the wind a well-earned rest. The fourth movement, Toccata, besides full strings and wind, commandeers all the available hitting instruments that can make definite notes, including glockenspiel, celesta, xylophone, vibraphone, tubular bells, and tunable gongs.
David Manning
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195182392
- eISBN:
- 9780199851485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182392.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The beginning of the romantic movement is to be found in the reaction against formal perfection that followed the death of Ludwig van Beethoven. Like so many other new movements, the romantic school ...
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The beginning of the romantic movement is to be found in the reaction against formal perfection that followed the death of Ludwig van Beethoven. Like so many other new movements, the romantic school owes its origin not to the appearance of some new factor in the composer's scheme, but to the loss of an old one. Franz Schubert and Gottfried Weber, the founders of the school, were not aware that they were laying the corner-stone of a new art. This is the history of the romantic school, and finally the first glimmerings of a new art that combined the dramatic and musical art in one. After Robert Schumann it was forever impossible to call the new art “music.” To make the new art complete but one step was necessary: to transfer it to its proper home, the theater. This was done by Richard Wagner.Less
The beginning of the romantic movement is to be found in the reaction against formal perfection that followed the death of Ludwig van Beethoven. Like so many other new movements, the romantic school owes its origin not to the appearance of some new factor in the composer's scheme, but to the loss of an old one. Franz Schubert and Gottfried Weber, the founders of the school, were not aware that they were laying the corner-stone of a new art. This is the history of the romantic school, and finally the first glimmerings of a new art that combined the dramatic and musical art in one. After Robert Schumann it was forever impossible to call the new art “music.” To make the new art complete but one step was necessary: to transfer it to its proper home, the theater. This was done by Richard Wagner.
Kristina Muxfeldt
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199782420
- eISBN:
- 9780199919154
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782420.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Opera
This book examines once passionate cultural concerns that shaped music of Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann, and works of their contemporaries in drama or poetry. Music, especially music with text, was a ...
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This book examines once passionate cultural concerns that shaped music of Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann, and works of their contemporaries in drama or poetry. Music, especially music with text, was a powerful force in lively ongoing conversations about the nature of liberty, which included such topics as the role of consent in marriage, same-sex relationships and society, and freedom of the press. Among the most common vehicles for stimulating debate about pressing social concerns were the genres of historical drama, and legend or myth, whose stories became inflected in fascinating ways during the Age of Metternich. Interior and imagined worlds, memories and fantasies, also were evoked in purely instrumental music, and music was widely celebrated in private for its ability to circumvent the restrictions that were choking the verbal arts. The book invites us to listen in on these cultural conversations dating from a time when the climate of censorship made the tone of what was said every bit as important as its content. At this critical moment in European history such things as gesture, spontaneous improvisation, or music’s demeanor could release forbidden meanings and fly under the censor’s radar with messages of hope and resistance to political oppression. The book concerns herself rather with mechanisms of communication than with trying to decode or fix meanings, and she probes distortions that can form over time when we lose sight of the pressures that shaped expression in another age. Enlivening the narrative are generous music examples, reproductions of artwork, and plates of autograph material.Less
This book examines once passionate cultural concerns that shaped music of Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann, and works of their contemporaries in drama or poetry. Music, especially music with text, was a powerful force in lively ongoing conversations about the nature of liberty, which included such topics as the role of consent in marriage, same-sex relationships and society, and freedom of the press. Among the most common vehicles for stimulating debate about pressing social concerns were the genres of historical drama, and legend or myth, whose stories became inflected in fascinating ways during the Age of Metternich. Interior and imagined worlds, memories and fantasies, also were evoked in purely instrumental music, and music was widely celebrated in private for its ability to circumvent the restrictions that were choking the verbal arts. The book invites us to listen in on these cultural conversations dating from a time when the climate of censorship made the tone of what was said every bit as important as its content. At this critical moment in European history such things as gesture, spontaneous improvisation, or music’s demeanor could release forbidden meanings and fly under the censor’s radar with messages of hope and resistance to political oppression. The book concerns herself rather with mechanisms of communication than with trying to decode or fix meanings, and she probes distortions that can form over time when we lose sight of the pressures that shaped expression in another age. Enlivening the narrative are generous music examples, reproductions of artwork, and plates of autograph material.
Kristina Muxfeldt
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199782420
- eISBN:
- 9780199919154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782420.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Opera
The opening study begins by recalling memorable moments in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and Beethoven’s Fidelio when words projected through music pierce the imaginary fourth wall of the ...
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The opening study begins by recalling memorable moments in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and Beethoven’s Fidelio when words projected through music pierce the imaginary fourth wall of the theater and resonate with matters beyond the stage. Schubert’s opera Alfonso und Estrella, whose characters are drawn from medieval Spanish history, was written in the wake of a devastating police crackdown that had a lasting effect on Schubert and his friends (another response to it is explored in chapter six). The chapter places the opera within the wider culture of Viennese censorship and relates it to a fascination with historical drama, drawing on Grillparzer and Beethoven, Nestroy, Ludwig Tieck’s Die verkehrte Welt and Lope de Vega’s The Star of Seville to show how the opera is one of Schubert’s many contributions to what was an ongoing cultural conversation about the nature of liberty.Less
The opening study begins by recalling memorable moments in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and Beethoven’s Fidelio when words projected through music pierce the imaginary fourth wall of the theater and resonate with matters beyond the stage. Schubert’s opera Alfonso und Estrella, whose characters are drawn from medieval Spanish history, was written in the wake of a devastating police crackdown that had a lasting effect on Schubert and his friends (another response to it is explored in chapter six). The chapter places the opera within the wider culture of Viennese censorship and relates it to a fascination with historical drama, drawing on Grillparzer and Beethoven, Nestroy, Ludwig Tieck’s Die verkehrte Welt and Lope de Vega’s The Star of Seville to show how the opera is one of Schubert’s many contributions to what was an ongoing cultural conversation about the nature of liberty.
Kristina Muxfeldt
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199782420
- eISBN:
- 9780199919154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782420.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Opera
Schubert’s unfinished last opera Der Graf von Gleichen was drafted only after the libretto had been banned by the censors. Based on a popular thirteenth-century legend about a man who had two wives ...
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Schubert’s unfinished last opera Der Graf von Gleichen was drafted only after the libretto had been banned by the censors. Based on a popular thirteenth-century legend about a man who had two wives (a happy end sanctioned by the Pope), the story underwent radical alterations in the early nineteenth century, becoming a tragedy in most stage treatments. The chapter shows how Schubert’s opera runs counter to this tendency, insisting on the more typical eighteenth-century lieto fine, which in this case called for a three-way-marriage tableau. Even under Metternich, the theater remained the most public forum available for airing views on controversial subjects (if only obliquely): this story had become a vehicle for debating the legal and conceptual basis of marriage, especially the role of consent, a debate that found its echo on stages everywhere.Less
Schubert’s unfinished last opera Der Graf von Gleichen was drafted only after the libretto had been banned by the censors. Based on a popular thirteenth-century legend about a man who had two wives (a happy end sanctioned by the Pope), the story underwent radical alterations in the early nineteenth century, becoming a tragedy in most stage treatments. The chapter shows how Schubert’s opera runs counter to this tendency, insisting on the more typical eighteenth-century lieto fine, which in this case called for a three-way-marriage tableau. Even under Metternich, the theater remained the most public forum available for airing views on controversial subjects (if only obliquely): this story had become a vehicle for debating the legal and conceptual basis of marriage, especially the role of consent, a debate that found its echo on stages everywhere.
Kristina Muxfeldt
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199782420
- eISBN:
- 9780199919154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782420.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Opera
At the end of the collection of critical essays, this chapter takes up Schubert’s setting of a poem by August von Platen, whose invocation of the myth of Narcissus at once veils and communicates its ...
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At the end of the collection of critical essays, this chapter takes up Schubert’s setting of a poem by August von Platen, whose invocation of the myth of Narcissus at once veils and communicates its same-sex reference: this is a sensibility profoundly shaped by censorship, social and institutional. The chapter proceeds backwards from a puzzled twentieth-century reception of the song’s remarkable harmony and rhetoric to an investigation of early nineteenth-century literary strategies for calling up the forbidden subject. Schubert’s drastic musical emphases point to exactly the terms needed to grasp the referential background, mythic and psychological, of Platen’s poem. This is the oldest work in the book, revised and expanded to address recent developments and supplied with new pictures and autograph plates.Less
At the end of the collection of critical essays, this chapter takes up Schubert’s setting of a poem by August von Platen, whose invocation of the myth of Narcissus at once veils and communicates its same-sex reference: this is a sensibility profoundly shaped by censorship, social and institutional. The chapter proceeds backwards from a puzzled twentieth-century reception of the song’s remarkable harmony and rhetoric to an investigation of early nineteenth-century literary strategies for calling up the forbidden subject. Schubert’s drastic musical emphases point to exactly the terms needed to grasp the referential background, mythic and psychological, of Platen’s poem. This is the oldest work in the book, revised and expanded to address recent developments and supplied with new pictures and autograph plates.
Lorraine Byrne Bodley and Julian Horton (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190200107
- eISBN:
- 9780190200138
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190200107.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Rethinking Schubert brings together twenty-two essays by some of today’s leading Schubert scholars with the aim of re-evaluating the analysis and interpretation of Schubert’s music and life. It ...
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Rethinking Schubert brings together twenty-two essays by some of today’s leading Schubert scholars with the aim of re-evaluating the analysis and interpretation of Schubert’s music and life. It focuses on three core areas: Part I addresses matters of style; Part II explores the analysis of instrumental forms; and Part III considers questions of text setting in the lieder, stage and sacred works. Each of these fields has received fresh stimulus in recent years, through the development of new hermeneutic and theoretical approaches and the discovery of fresh source materials; it is this volume’s objective both to consolidate these developments and to break new ground. The book is framed by an Introduction, in which the editors give an overview of the volume, as representative of current musicological and analytical trends in Schubert studies; and a Postlude, in which Graham Johnson reflects on performance in Schubert’s reception history and Walther Dürr’s seminal role in ‘rethinking Schubert’. Altogether, Rethinking Schubert makes a major contribution to Oxford University Press’s ‘Rethinking Composers’ series, and to Schubert scholarship in general. It draws together the work of a broad constituency of scholars, encompassing senior and emerging practitioners, and representing scholarship from both Anglophone and Germanic contexts. Its purview ranges from historical, biographical and aesthetic considerations to detailed analytical studies. Rethinking Schubert consequently promises to serve as a benchmark scholarly contribution and to reach a wide readership.Less
Rethinking Schubert brings together twenty-two essays by some of today’s leading Schubert scholars with the aim of re-evaluating the analysis and interpretation of Schubert’s music and life. It focuses on three core areas: Part I addresses matters of style; Part II explores the analysis of instrumental forms; and Part III considers questions of text setting in the lieder, stage and sacred works. Each of these fields has received fresh stimulus in recent years, through the development of new hermeneutic and theoretical approaches and the discovery of fresh source materials; it is this volume’s objective both to consolidate these developments and to break new ground. The book is framed by an Introduction, in which the editors give an overview of the volume, as representative of current musicological and analytical trends in Schubert studies; and a Postlude, in which Graham Johnson reflects on performance in Schubert’s reception history and Walther Dürr’s seminal role in ‘rethinking Schubert’. Altogether, Rethinking Schubert makes a major contribution to Oxford University Press’s ‘Rethinking Composers’ series, and to Schubert scholarship in general. It draws together the work of a broad constituency of scholars, encompassing senior and emerging practitioners, and representing scholarship from both Anglophone and Germanic contexts. Its purview ranges from historical, biographical and aesthetic considerations to detailed analytical studies. Rethinking Schubert consequently promises to serve as a benchmark scholarly contribution and to reach a wide readership.
Steven Rings
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195384277
- eISBN:
- 9780199897001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384277.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition, History, Western
Chapter 1 offers an introduction to transformational thought and situates it with respect to Schenkerian analysis. After a brief overview of transformational theory in Section 1.1, Section 1.2 ...
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Chapter 1 offers an introduction to transformational thought and situates it with respect to Schenkerian analysis. After a brief overview of transformational theory in Section 1.1, Section 1.2 introduces Generalized Interval Systems (or GISs), addressing both their technical and conceptual aspects. This section includes a model GIS-based analysis of the opening of Bach's Cello Suite in G, BWV 1007. Section 1.3 treats transformational networks, using a model analysis of the Andante from Schubert's Piano Sonata in A, D. 664 for demonstration. In Section 1.4 the GIS and transformational methodologies are contrasted with Schenkerian theory. It is argued that transformational and Schenkerian methodologies are not competing versions of the same kind of music theory but distinct styles of analytical thought, which may interact dialogically in practice.Less
Chapter 1 offers an introduction to transformational thought and situates it with respect to Schenkerian analysis. After a brief overview of transformational theory in Section 1.1, Section 1.2 introduces Generalized Interval Systems (or GISs), addressing both their technical and conceptual aspects. This section includes a model GIS-based analysis of the opening of Bach's Cello Suite in G, BWV 1007. Section 1.3 treats transformational networks, using a model analysis of the Andante from Schubert's Piano Sonata in A, D. 664 for demonstration. In Section 1.4 the GIS and transformational methodologies are contrasted with Schenkerian theory. It is argued that transformational and Schenkerian methodologies are not competing versions of the same kind of music theory but distinct styles of analytical thought, which may interact dialogically in practice.
