Wagner's Melodies: Aesthetics and Materialism in German Musical Identity
Cambridge University Press
ISBN13:
9781316618233
$37.79
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.
- | Author: David Trippett
- | Publisher: Cambridge University Press
- | Publication Date: Apr 08, 2016
- | Number of Pages: 464 pages
- | Language: English
- | Binding: Paperback/Music
- | ISBN-10: 1316618234
- | ISBN-13: 9781316618233
- Author:
- David Trippett
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Publication Date:
- Apr 08, 2016
- Number of pages:
- 464 pages
- Language:
- English
- Binding:
- Paperback/Music
- ISBN-10:
- 1316618234
- ISBN-13:
- 9781316618233