Carol J. Oja
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195058499
- eISBN:
- 9780199865031
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195058499.003.0019
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
As contemporary European music arrived in the United States and Americans devised their own brands of modernism, a new generation of critics took on a parallel challenge, attempting to interpret ...
More
As contemporary European music arrived in the United States and Americans devised their own brands of modernism, a new generation of critics took on a parallel challenge, attempting to interpret these rapid developments for a public that was often bewildered. While their ranks were not large, a few key figures rallied to the cause of the avant-garde. One of them was Carl Van Vechten, who wrote perceptive, even prescient evaluations of new music during the mid-1910s, just as the modernist movement began taking hold in New York City. The other was Paul Rosenfeld, who became an advocate of modernism in all the arts. Like Van Vechten, Rosenfeld's great awakening to modernist music came while traveling abroad: during a visit in 1914 to London, where he first heard the music of Alexander Scriabin. As music critics, both Van Vechten and Rosenfeld agitated for cultural change and grappled with contemporary European figures as well as American popular idioms. However, the two ended up in very different positions. Van Vechten's role in early 20th-century modernism is now largely forgotten, while Rosenfeld is lionized as one of modernism's great interpreters.Less
As contemporary European music arrived in the United States and Americans devised their own brands of modernism, a new generation of critics took on a parallel challenge, attempting to interpret these rapid developments for a public that was often bewildered. While their ranks were not large, a few key figures rallied to the cause of the avant-garde. One of them was Carl Van Vechten, who wrote perceptive, even prescient evaluations of new music during the mid-1910s, just as the modernist movement began taking hold in New York City. The other was Paul Rosenfeld, who became an advocate of modernism in all the arts. Like Van Vechten, Rosenfeld's great awakening to modernist music came while traveling abroad: during a visit in 1914 to London, where he first heard the music of Alexander Scriabin. As music critics, both Van Vechten and Rosenfeld agitated for cultural change and grappled with contemporary European figures as well as American popular idioms. However, the two ended up in very different positions. Van Vechten's role in early 20th-century modernism is now largely forgotten, while Rosenfeld is lionized as one of modernism's great interpreters.
Paul Woodford
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198744443
- eISBN:
- 9780191805776
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744443.003.0015
- Subject:
- Psychology, Music Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter critiques the still influential traditional conception of the music critic (based on the nineteenth-century notion of musical autonomy) by historicizing and politicizing that and related ...
More
This chapter critiques the still influential traditional conception of the music critic (based on the nineteenth-century notion of musical autonomy) by historicizing and politicizing that and related discourses so that children might realize that much of what they assume as natural or true is only historical artifact, myth, or illusion. A more holistic conception of music criticism is offered that seeks to locate music and music education within broader social, cultural, and political webs of knowledge. The remainder of the chapter then critiques recent educational practice and reforms that may frustrate the development of critical consciousness in children by failing to ensure that they are provided with the intellectual conditions that can provoke, foster, and sustain it. The chapter concludes with the recommendation that children should learn to think of political and historical studies as critical tools for challenging conventional accounts and practices.Less
This chapter critiques the still influential traditional conception of the music critic (based on the nineteenth-century notion of musical autonomy) by historicizing and politicizing that and related discourses so that children might realize that much of what they assume as natural or true is only historical artifact, myth, or illusion. A more holistic conception of music criticism is offered that seeks to locate music and music education within broader social, cultural, and political webs of knowledge. The remainder of the chapter then critiques recent educational practice and reforms that may frustrate the development of critical consciousness in children by failing to ensure that they are provided with the intellectual conditions that can provoke, foster, and sustain it. The chapter concludes with the recommendation that children should learn to think of political and historical studies as critical tools for challenging conventional accounts and practices.
Arthur Berger
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520232518
- eISBN:
- 9780520928213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520232518.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
In this chapter, the author shares his personal experience of being a music critic. He elaborates that the most consuming experience was one that caused him years of inconvenience and exasperation. ...
More
In this chapter, the author shares his personal experience of being a music critic. He elaborates that the most consuming experience was one that caused him years of inconvenience and exasperation. It was a suit filed against the Tribune in 1952 by the Yaysnoff sisters, a two-piano team entirely new to the local concert stage, who argued that he had libeled them in a review that appeared in the 30 July paper covering their performance the previous evening as soloists with the New York Philharmonic. The proliferation of reviews of pop and dance events in the most recent decades has confronted the longhair music columnist with serious competition that did not exist in his time. In the Times serious music seems to have held its own, though it still tends to be overshadowed by the other arts. The chapter reveals the author's area of work and its ups and downs.Less
In this chapter, the author shares his personal experience of being a music critic. He elaborates that the most consuming experience was one that caused him years of inconvenience and exasperation. It was a suit filed against the Tribune in 1952 by the Yaysnoff sisters, a two-piano team entirely new to the local concert stage, who argued that he had libeled them in a review that appeared in the 30 July paper covering their performance the previous evening as soloists with the New York Philharmonic. The proliferation of reviews of pop and dance events in the most recent decades has confronted the longhair music columnist with serious competition that did not exist in his time. In the Times serious music seems to have held its own, though it still tends to be overshadowed by the other arts. The chapter reveals the author's area of work and its ups and downs.
Arthur Berger
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520232518
- eISBN:
- 9780520928213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520232518.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter gives an account of two famous music critics Paul Rosenfeld and Bernard Haggin. Composers and critics alike were troubled by the distinct psychological approach and Impressionist ...
More
This chapter gives an account of two famous music critics Paul Rosenfeld and Bernard Haggin. Composers and critics alike were troubled by the distinct psychological approach and Impressionist orientation of Rosenfeld's criticism. He wrote appreciatively of Schoenberg quite close to the beginning of the composer's career though he became apprehensive as early as about 1916 with regard to the direction his music was taking. The trend away from the intense, febrile, post-Romanticism was something that endowed the music with an air he characterized as “mechanical”. Rosenfeld's most important contribution to music—music being only one of the arts about which he wrote—was his explication, appreciation, and promotion of the twentieth-century serious music of the North and South Americas. Haggin's and his critics were pretty nasty in his treatment of most new music except when it was a matter of any period of Stravinsky, whom he came to admire in his capacity of dance critic because of his passionate devotion to anything that George Balanchine choreographed. A unique accomplishment of Haggin's was his grading of a substantial portion of standard music literature from Bach onwards.Less
This chapter gives an account of two famous music critics Paul Rosenfeld and Bernard Haggin. Composers and critics alike were troubled by the distinct psychological approach and Impressionist orientation of Rosenfeld's criticism. He wrote appreciatively of Schoenberg quite close to the beginning of the composer's career though he became apprehensive as early as about 1916 with regard to the direction his music was taking. The trend away from the intense, febrile, post-Romanticism was something that endowed the music with an air he characterized as “mechanical”. Rosenfeld's most important contribution to music—music being only one of the arts about which he wrote—was his explication, appreciation, and promotion of the twentieth-century serious music of the North and South Americas. Haggin's and his critics were pretty nasty in his treatment of most new music except when it was a matter of any period of Stravinsky, whom he came to admire in his capacity of dance critic because of his passionate devotion to anything that George Balanchine choreographed. A unique accomplishment of Haggin's was his grading of a substantial portion of standard music literature from Bach onwards.
Arthur Berger
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520232518
- eISBN:
- 9780520928213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520232518.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
The chapter reviews musical critics who see every innovation in music as a decline. An attitude of this nature on the part of a music critic can very well end up with a determination that it would ...
More
The chapter reviews musical critics who see every innovation in music as a decline. An attitude of this nature on the part of a music critic can very well end up with a determination that it would have been better if no music had been written in the twentieth century rather than the kind that has been. Immediate appeal is a criterion for people who employ the decline theory. Those who reject such a criterion of artistic excellence are usually accused of believing that, good art always goes unrecognized in its time and some people do believe this. What characterizes this tradition are nostalgia for nineteenth-century Romanticism and a consequent rejection of the most significant twentieth-century music in one indiscriminate bolus. But as time advanced so did the composers and their audiences. For a long time in the 1920s and 1930s, and even some of the 1940s, the important American composers were truly underground. Few people were aware that the music of these composers could be heard at the concerts. To assess the desolateness of the early landscape in this particular area it is necessary to bear in mind that in the 1930s there was not the quantity of serious music that could be got on the radio. But today's audience is better informed than the multitude in Mozart's day when serious music was the prerogative of the aristocracy, even though the emerging middle class was making demands to be provided with the opportunity of savoring the fine arts—a development that led to the establishment of public concerts.Less
The chapter reviews musical critics who see every innovation in music as a decline. An attitude of this nature on the part of a music critic can very well end up with a determination that it would have been better if no music had been written in the twentieth century rather than the kind that has been. Immediate appeal is a criterion for people who employ the decline theory. Those who reject such a criterion of artistic excellence are usually accused of believing that, good art always goes unrecognized in its time and some people do believe this. What characterizes this tradition are nostalgia for nineteenth-century Romanticism and a consequent rejection of the most significant twentieth-century music in one indiscriminate bolus. But as time advanced so did the composers and their audiences. For a long time in the 1920s and 1930s, and even some of the 1940s, the important American composers were truly underground. Few people were aware that the music of these composers could be heard at the concerts. To assess the desolateness of the early landscape in this particular area it is necessary to bear in mind that in the 1930s there was not the quantity of serious music that could be got on the radio. But today's audience is better informed than the multitude in Mozart's day when serious music was the prerogative of the aristocracy, even though the emerging middle class was making demands to be provided with the opportunity of savoring the fine arts—a development that led to the establishment of public concerts.
Katherine K. Preston
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199371655
- eISBN:
- 9780199371679
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199371655.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Opera
This chapter examines the two most important English-language troupes active during the late 1860s and early 1870s. Caroline Richings, known as a “manageress” or “directress,” performed before, ...
More
This chapter examines the two most important English-language troupes active during the late 1860s and early 1870s. Caroline Richings, known as a “manageress” or “directress,” performed before, during, and after the Civil War. Her success shows conclusively that Americans of the immediate postwar period were still interested in English-language opera, even though most music critics believed that this style of performance was old-fashioned and passé. Many believed that Richings created the English-language-opera renaissance in America. The Scottish soprano Euphrosyne Parepa arrived in America in 1865 as part of an itinerant concert troupe and subsequently sang in Italian-language opera companies. Richings’s success and popularity inspired her, and she organized her own English-language troupe, which quickly eclipsed that of her competitor. The success of these two prime donne—especially in the face of skepticism about Americans’ interest in vernacular opera—illuminates the operatic tastes of American audiences in the immediate postwar period.Less
This chapter examines the two most important English-language troupes active during the late 1860s and early 1870s. Caroline Richings, known as a “manageress” or “directress,” performed before, during, and after the Civil War. Her success shows conclusively that Americans of the immediate postwar period were still interested in English-language opera, even though most music critics believed that this style of performance was old-fashioned and passé. Many believed that Richings created the English-language-opera renaissance in America. The Scottish soprano Euphrosyne Parepa arrived in America in 1865 as part of an itinerant concert troupe and subsequently sang in Italian-language opera companies. Richings’s success and popularity inspired her, and she organized her own English-language troupe, which quickly eclipsed that of her competitor. The success of these two prime donne—especially in the face of skepticism about Americans’ interest in vernacular opera—illuminates the operatic tastes of American audiences in the immediate postwar period.
Mike Zwerin
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300108064
- eISBN:
- 9780300127386
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300108064.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
In his Beat-like jaunt through the Parisian and European jazz scene, the author of this book is not unlike Jack Kerouac, Mezz Mezzrow, or Hunter S. Thompson—writers to whom, for different reasons, he ...
More
In his Beat-like jaunt through the Parisian and European jazz scene, the author of this book is not unlike Jack Kerouac, Mezz Mezzrow, or Hunter S. Thompson—writers to whom, for different reasons, he owes some allegiance. What makes him special is his devotion to the troubled musicians he idolizes, and a passion for music that is blessedly contagious. Many jazz fans will know the author for his witty, irreverent, and undeniably hip music reviews and articles in the International Herald Tribune that have entertained us for decades. Based in Paris, or, rather, stuck there, as he likes to say, the author has been a music critic for the Trib since 1979 and also had a distinguished career as a trombonist. When he was just eighteen years old, he was invited by Miles Davis to play alongside Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, and Max Roach in the band that was immortalized as The Birth of the Cool. This book offers a personal account of the jazz scene in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s. The author writes lovingly but unsparingly about figures he knew and interviewed—such as Dexter Gordon, Freddy Heineken, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Chet Baker, Wayne Shorter, and Melvin Van Peebles. Against this background, he tells us about his own life—split allegiances to journalism and music, and to America and France, his solitary battle for sobriety, a failing marriage, and fatherhood.Less
In his Beat-like jaunt through the Parisian and European jazz scene, the author of this book is not unlike Jack Kerouac, Mezz Mezzrow, or Hunter S. Thompson—writers to whom, for different reasons, he owes some allegiance. What makes him special is his devotion to the troubled musicians he idolizes, and a passion for music that is blessedly contagious. Many jazz fans will know the author for his witty, irreverent, and undeniably hip music reviews and articles in the International Herald Tribune that have entertained us for decades. Based in Paris, or, rather, stuck there, as he likes to say, the author has been a music critic for the Trib since 1979 and also had a distinguished career as a trombonist. When he was just eighteen years old, he was invited by Miles Davis to play alongside Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, and Max Roach in the band that was immortalized as The Birth of the Cool. This book offers a personal account of the jazz scene in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s. The author writes lovingly but unsparingly about figures he knew and interviewed—such as Dexter Gordon, Freddy Heineken, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Chet Baker, Wayne Shorter, and Melvin Van Peebles. Against this background, he tells us about his own life—split allegiances to journalism and music, and to America and France, his solitary battle for sobriety, a failing marriage, and fatherhood.
Roger Nichols (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195320169
- eISBN:
- 9780199852086
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320169.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Camille Saint–Saëns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen ...
More
Camille Saint–Saëns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen observer of the musical culture in which he lived. A composer of vast intelligence and erudition, Saint–Saëns was at the same time one of the foremost writers on music in his day. From Wagner, Liszt and Debussy to Milhaud and Stravinsky, Saint–Saëns was at the center of the elite musical and cultural fin de siecle and early 20th Century world. He championed Schumann and Wagner in France at a period when these composers were regarded as dangerous subversives whose music should be kept well away from the impressionable student. Yet Saint–Saëns himself had no aspirations to being a revolutionary, and his appreciation of Wagner the composer was tempered by his reservations over Wagner the philosopher and dramatist. Whether defending Meyerbeer against charges of facility or Berlioz against those who questioned his harmonic grasp, Saint–Saëns was always his own man: in both cases, he claimed, it was “not the absence of faults but the presence of virtues” that distinguishes the good composer. Saint–Saëns’ writings provide a well-argued counter-discourse to the strong modernist music critics who rallied around Debussy and Ravel during the fin de siecle. And above all, they demonstrate a brilliantly sharp and active brain, expressing itself through prose of a Classical purity and balance, enlivened throughout with flashes of wit and, at times, of sheer malice.Less
Camille Saint–Saëns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen observer of the musical culture in which he lived. A composer of vast intelligence and erudition, Saint–Saëns was at the same time one of the foremost writers on music in his day. From Wagner, Liszt and Debussy to Milhaud and Stravinsky, Saint–Saëns was at the center of the elite musical and cultural fin de siecle and early 20th Century world. He championed Schumann and Wagner in France at a period when these composers were regarded as dangerous subversives whose music should be kept well away from the impressionable student. Yet Saint–Saëns himself had no aspirations to being a revolutionary, and his appreciation of Wagner the composer was tempered by his reservations over Wagner the philosopher and dramatist. Whether defending Meyerbeer against charges of facility or Berlioz against those who questioned his harmonic grasp, Saint–Saëns was always his own man: in both cases, he claimed, it was “not the absence of faults but the presence of virtues” that distinguishes the good composer. Saint–Saëns’ writings provide a well-argued counter-discourse to the strong modernist music critics who rallied around Debussy and Ravel during the fin de siecle. And above all, they demonstrate a brilliantly sharp and active brain, expressing itself through prose of a Classical purity and balance, enlivened throughout with flashes of wit and, at times, of sheer malice.
Bryan R. Simms
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199764068
- eISBN:
- 9780190268213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199764068.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's article attacking selected musical journalists. His targets were Julius Korngold (1860–1945), the principal music critic for the Neue fr eie Presse, ...
More
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's article attacking selected musical journalists. His targets were Julius Korngold (1860–1945), the principal music critic for the Neue fr eie Presse, Vienna's largest paper; and Elsa Bienenfeld, the leading music critic for the Neues Wiener Journal, a respected tabloid founded in Vienna in 1893. In the article, Berg takes up what he sees as the shortcomings and abuses in newspaper criticism of the day, and he pulls no punches in attacking his opponents ad hominem. He quotes extensively from his sources, refuting their every thought from multiple angles, and he uses witty puns available in the German language to satirize his targets. His method in this article is to point out the writers' factual inaccuracies and sloppy grammar: if these writers make repeated gaffes in such basic mechanics, how could their fair-mindedness or judgments about new music be trusted?Less
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's article attacking selected musical journalists. His targets were Julius Korngold (1860–1945), the principal music critic for the Neue fr eie Presse, Vienna's largest paper; and Elsa Bienenfeld, the leading music critic for the Neues Wiener Journal, a respected tabloid founded in Vienna in 1893. In the article, Berg takes up what he sees as the shortcomings and abuses in newspaper criticism of the day, and he pulls no punches in attacking his opponents ad hominem. He quotes extensively from his sources, refuting their every thought from multiple angles, and he uses witty puns available in the German language to satirize his targets. His method in this article is to point out the writers' factual inaccuracies and sloppy grammar: if these writers make repeated gaffes in such basic mechanics, how could their fair-mindedness or judgments about new music be trusted?
Bryan R. Simms
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199764068
- eISBN:
- 9780190268213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199764068.003.0016
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's dialogue which was delivered on Radio Vienna on 23 April 1930. The dialogue took the form of a conversation between Berg and the music critic Julius ...
More
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's dialogue which was delivered on Radio Vienna on 23 April 1930. The dialogue took the form of a conversation between Berg and the music critic Julius Bistron. In content it was a prelude to Berg's Wozzeck Lecture, to which he gave the related titled “The Atonal Opera” for its presentation at Vienna's Musikverein some three weeks later. Throughout this period Wozzeck was being performed by the Vienna Opera.Less
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's dialogue which was delivered on Radio Vienna on 23 April 1930. The dialogue took the form of a conversation between Berg and the music critic Julius Bistron. In content it was a prelude to Berg's Wozzeck Lecture, to which he gave the related titled “The Atonal Opera” for its presentation at Vienna's Musikverein some three weeks later. Throughout this period Wozzeck was being performed by the Vienna Opera.
Eric Jensen
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199737352
- eISBN:
- 9780190268145
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199737352.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Robert Schumann is one of the most intriguing, and enigmatic, composers of the nineteenth century. Extraordinarily gifted in both music and literature, many of his compositions were inspired by ...
More
Robert Schumann is one of the most intriguing, and enigmatic, composers of the nineteenth century. Extraordinarily gifted in both music and literature, many of his compositions were inspired by poetry and novels. For much of his life he was better known as a music critic than as a composer. But whether writing as critic or composer, what he produced was created by him as a reflection of his often turbulent life. Best known was the tempestuous courtship of his future wife, the pianist Clara Wieck. Though marriage and family life seemed to provide a sense of constancy, he increasingly experienced periods of depression and instability. Mounting criticism of his performance as music director at Dusseldorf led to his attempted suicide in 1854. Schumann was voluntarily committed to an insane asylum near Bonn where, despite indications of improvement and dissatisfaction with his treatment, he spent the final two years of his life. Based on original research and newly published letters and journals from the time, the book presents a balanced portrait of the composer. Biographical chapters alternate with discussion of Schumann's piano, chamber, choral, symphonic, and operatic works, demonstrating how the circumstances of his life helped shape the music he wrote. Chronicling the romance of Robert and Clara, the book offers a nuanced look at the evolution of their relationship, one that changed dramatically after marriage. It also follows Schumann's creative musical criticism, which championed the burgeoning careers of Chopin, Liszt, and Brahms and challenged the musical tastes of Europe.Less
Robert Schumann is one of the most intriguing, and enigmatic, composers of the nineteenth century. Extraordinarily gifted in both music and literature, many of his compositions were inspired by poetry and novels. For much of his life he was better known as a music critic than as a composer. But whether writing as critic or composer, what he produced was created by him as a reflection of his often turbulent life. Best known was the tempestuous courtship of his future wife, the pianist Clara Wieck. Though marriage and family life seemed to provide a sense of constancy, he increasingly experienced periods of depression and instability. Mounting criticism of his performance as music director at Dusseldorf led to his attempted suicide in 1854. Schumann was voluntarily committed to an insane asylum near Bonn where, despite indications of improvement and dissatisfaction with his treatment, he spent the final two years of his life. Based on original research and newly published letters and journals from the time, the book presents a balanced portrait of the composer. Biographical chapters alternate with discussion of Schumann's piano, chamber, choral, symphonic, and operatic works, demonstrating how the circumstances of his life helped shape the music he wrote. Chronicling the romance of Robert and Clara, the book offers a nuanced look at the evolution of their relationship, one that changed dramatically after marriage. It also follows Schumann's creative musical criticism, which championed the burgeoning careers of Chopin, Liszt, and Brahms and challenged the musical tastes of Europe.
Bryan R. Simms
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199764068
- eISBN:
- 9780190268213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199764068.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's article, which he wrote in response to Emil Petschnig's criticism of his opera Wozzeck. Petschnig was a Viennese composer and teacher of music theory. In ...
More
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's article, which he wrote in response to Emil Petschnig's criticism of his opera Wozzeck. Petschnig was a Viennese composer and teacher of music theory. In his article, Berg, for the first time, expressed his thoughts on opera in print and he continued to flesh out the viewpoint which he had at that time and this started to attract attention. The forms within scenes of the opera, Berg wrote, are highly regular and traditional in their construction, they rest on classical norms, and they will be apparent to anyone who has studied the score closely. Using the Krausian polemical method, Berg quotes from several passages by Petschnig and attacks each of them on a factual basis.Less
This chapter presents a translation of Berg's article, which he wrote in response to Emil Petschnig's criticism of his opera Wozzeck. Petschnig was a Viennese composer and teacher of music theory. In his article, Berg, for the first time, expressed his thoughts on opera in print and he continued to flesh out the viewpoint which he had at that time and this started to attract attention. The forms within scenes of the opera, Berg wrote, are highly regular and traditional in their construction, they rest on classical norms, and they will be apparent to anyone who has studied the score closely. Using the Krausian polemical method, Berg quotes from several passages by Petschnig and attacks each of them on a factual basis.
