Wagner's melodies [electronic resource] : aesthetics and materialism in German musical identity / David Trippett.
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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| Online Access: |
Full Text (via ACLS) |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Cambridge University Press,
2013.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource : illustrations. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781107055476 1107055474 9781139013703 113901370X 1107014301 9781107014305 9781299634374 1299634370 9781107057661 1107057663 1316618234 9781316618233 |
| Source of Description, Etc. Note: | Print version record. |