Description
Book SynopsisBefore the nineteenth century, instrumental music was considered inferior to vocal music. Kant described wordless music as "more pleasure than culture," and Rousseau dismissed it for its inability to convey concepts. But by the early 1800s, a dramatic shift was under way. Purely instrumental music was now being hailed as a means to knowledge and em
Trade Review"A fascinating new book."--Alex Ross, The New Yorker "This is a cogent and well-illustrated account of the theoretical basis for the changes in how instrumental music was listened to in the early decades of the 19th century. Bonds clarifies complex material and piles up evidence to make a convincing case for a 'revolution in listening.'"--Patricia Howard, Currents "Philosophical discussion of music can easily become dense, but Bonds presents his arguments and evidence in a clear, discernible manner such that readers with little exposure to the philosophical issues of the time period can follow his reasoning and come away illuminated by a first-hand account concerning the reception of the symphony in the first quarter of the nineteenth century."--John Stine, Music Research Forum
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xi Introduction xiii List of Abbreviations xxi PROLOGUE: An Unlikely Genre: The Rise of the Symphony 1 CHAPTER ONE: Listening with Imagination: The Revolution in Aesthetics 5 From Kant to Hoffmann 6 Idealism and the Changing Perception of Perception 10 Idealism and the New Aesthetics of Listening 22 CHAPTER TWO: Listening as Thinking: From Rhetoric to Philosophy 29 Listening in a Rhetorical Framework 30 Listening in a Philosophical Framework 33 Art as Philosophy 37 CHAPTER THREE: Listening to Truth: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony 44 The Infinite Sublime 45 History as Knowing 50 The Synthesis of Conscious and Unconscious 53 Organic Coherence 55 Beyond the Sublime 57 CHAPTER FOUR: Listening to the Aesthetic State: Cosmopolitanism 63 The Communal Voice of the Symphony 63 The Imperatives of Individual and Social Synthesis 68 The State as Organism 71 Schiller's Idea of the Aesthetic State 73 Goethe's Pedagogical Province 75 CHAPTER FIVE: Listening to the German State: Nationalism 79 German Nationalism 79 The Symphony as a "German" Genre 88 The Performance Politics of the Music Festival 92 The Symphony as Democracy 99 EPILOGUE: Listening to Form: The Refuge of Absolute Music 104 Notes 117 Bibliography 153 Index 167
