Wagner's melodies: aesthetics and materialism in German musical identity

Since the 1840s, critics have lambasted Wagner for lacking the ability to compose melody. But for him, melody was fundamental - 'music's only form'. This incongruity testifies to the surprising difficulties during the nineteenth century of conceptualizing melody. Despite its indispens...

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Beteilige Person: Trippett, David 1980- (VerfasserIn)
Format: Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2013
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Links:https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139013703
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139013703
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139013703
Zusammenfassung:Since the 1840s, critics have lambasted Wagner for lacking the ability to compose melody. But for him, melody was fundamental - 'music's only form'. This incongruity testifies to the surprising difficulties during the nineteenth century of conceptualizing melody. Despite its indispensable place in opera, contemporary theorists were unable even to agree on a definition for it. In Wagner's Melodies, David Trippett re-examines Wagner's central aesthetic claims, placing the composer's ideas about melody in the context of the scientific discourse of his age: from the emergence of the natural sciences and historical linguistics to sources about music's stimulation of the body and inventions for 'automatic' composition. Interweaving a rich variety of material from the history of science, music theory, music criticism, private correspondence and court reports, Trippett uncovers a new and controversial discourse that placed melody at the apex of artistic self-consciousness and generated problems of urgent dimensions for German music aesthetics
Beschreibung:Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015)
Umfang:1 online resource (xiv, 448 pages)
ISBN:9781139013703
DOI:10.1017/CBO9781139013703