Description
Trade ReviewYou should derive considerable enlightenment from Bonds' trenchant and pertinent perspectives. * Arnold Whittall, The Musical Times *
...the idea...turns out to be a big one, and Bonds rises brilliantly to his own challenge, writing an epic narrative with a masterly command of 2,500 years of music history from the mysteries of Pythagoras to the mysteries of the CIA...Bonds's concept is immaculately conceived, wonderfully lucid, beautifully organized, and elegantly written. * Music Theory Online *
This is an immensely informed, thoroughly documented, and detailed book, offering much to chew on during a delicious and intellectually nourishing journey through millennia of theoretical discussions about the nature of music. Readers with an interest in these matters should find Bonds' account profoundly satisfying, and his book should also provide the basis for graduate seminars on musical aesthetics. Highly recommended. * Classical.Net *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 7 Part One Essence as Effect: To 1550 23 1. Orpheus and Pythagoras 23 2. Isomorphic Resonance 30 Part Two Essence and Effect: 1550-1850 39 3. Expression 41 The Separation of Powers 41 Music and Language 48 Music as Language 58 Mimesis 69 4. Beauty 79 5. Form 90 Form as Number 91 Form as Content 98 6. Autonomy 103 Material Autonomy 103 Ethical Autonomy 108 7. Disclosure 112 The Composer as Oracle 112 Beautiful Insights 117 Cosmic Insights 121 Part Three Essence or Effect: 1850-1945 127 8. Wagner's "Absolute" Music 129 9. Hanslick's "Pure" Music 140 Hanslick the Conventional 156 Hanslick the Radical 171 Hanslick the Ambivalent 181 10. Liszt's "Program" Music 205 11. Polemics 214 12. Reconciliation 231 13. Qualities Recast 244 Expression 246 Beauty 263 Form 264 Autonomy 278 Disclosure 284 Epilogue: Since 1945 292 Appendix: Hanslick's Vom Musikalischen-Schönen: Early and Selected Later Reviews and Commentary 294 Works Cited ] 304
