Overview
Programming the Absolute discusses the notorious opposition between absolute and program music as a true dialectic that lies at the heart of nineteenth-century German music. Beginning with Beethoven, Berthold Hoeckner traces the aesthetic problem of musical meaning in works by Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, Mahler, and Schoenberg, whose private messages and public predicaments are emblematic for the cultural legacy of this rich repertory. After Romanticism had elevated music as a language ""beyond"" language, the ineffable spurred an unprecedented proliferation of musical analysis and criticism. Taking his cue from Adorno, Hoeckner develops the idea of a ""hermeneutics of a moment,"" which holds that musical meaning crystallizes only momentarily--in a particular passage, a progression, even a single note. And such moments can signify as little as a fleeting personal memory or as much as the whole of German music.Although absolute music emerged with a matrix of values--the integrity of the subject, the aesthetic autonomy of art, and the intrinsic worth of high culture--that are highly contested in musicology today, Hoeckner argues that we should not completely discard the ideal of a music that continues to offer moments of transcendence and liberation.Passionately and artfully written, Hoeckner's quest for an ""essayistic musicology"" displays an original intelligence willing to take interpretive risks. It is a provocative contribution to our knowledge about some of Europe's most important music--and to contemporary controversies over how music should be understood and experienced.
Full Product Details
Author: Berthold Hoeckner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.652kg
ISBN: 9780691001494
ISBN 10: 0691001499
Pages: 432
Publication Date: 10 November 2002
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Professional & Vocational
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language: English
Reviews
Hermeneutics of the moment, both musical and historical, is the subject of this excellent book... Closely argued and full of fresh, interesting observations, Hoeckner moves the discourse on hermeneutics to new level. -- Choice
"""Hermeneutics of the moment, both musical and historical, is the subject of this excellent book... Closely argued and full of fresh, interesting observations, Hoeckner moves the discourse on hermeneutics to new level.""--Choice"
Hermeneutics of the moment, both musical and historical, is the subject of this excellent book... Closely argued and full of fresh, interesting observations, Hoeckner moves the discourse on hermeneutics to new level. Choice
Author Information
Berthold Hoeckner is Associate Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago.
