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book: Music as Thought
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Music as Thought

Listening to the Symphony in the Age of Beethoven
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Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2009

About this book

Before 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 embraced precisely because of its independence from the limits of language. What had once been perceived as entertainment was heard increasingly as a vehicle of thought. Listening had become a way of knowing.



Music as Thought traces the roots of this fundamental shift in attitudes toward listening in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Focusing on responses to the symphony in the age of Beethoven, Mark Evan Bonds draws on contemporary accounts and a range of sources--philosophical, literary, political, and musical--to reveal how this music was experienced by those who heard it first.



Music as Thought is a fascinating reinterpretation of the causes and effects of a revolution in listening.

Author / Editor information

Mark Evan Bonds is Professor of Musicology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His previous books include Wordless Rhetoric: Musical Form and the Metaphor of the Oration and After Beethoven: Imperatives of Originality in the Symphony. He is a former editor in chief of Beethoven Forum.

Reviews

"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 --- "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 --- "A fascinating new book."---Alex Ross, The New Yorker

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    ix
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    Acknowledgments

    xi
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    Introduction

    xiii
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    Abbreviations

    xxi
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    Prologue. An Unlikely Genre: The Rise of the Symphony

    1
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    Chapter 1. Listening with Imagination: The Revolution in Aesthetics

    5
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    Chapter 2. Listening as Thinking: From Rhetoric to Philosophy

    29
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    Chapter 3. Listening to Truth: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

    44
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    Chapter 4. Listening to the Aesthetic State: Cosmopolitanism

    63
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    Chapter 5. Listening to the German State: Nationalism

    79
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    Epilogue. Listening to Form: The Refuge of Absolute Music

    104
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    Notes

    117
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    Bibliography

    153
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    Index

    167
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 10, 2009
eBook ISBN:
9781400827398
Edition:
Course Book
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400827398
eBook ISBN: 9781400827398
Keywords for this book
Ludwig van Beethoven; Philosophy; Composer; Listening; Genre; Haydn and Mozart; Idealism; Aesthetics; Romanticism; Rhetoric; Thought; Richard Wagner; Robert Schumann; Vocal music; Music criticism; Schumann; Cosmopolitanism; Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung; Phrase (music); Jean Paul; Fine art; Novalis; Absolute music; Writing; Philosopher; Phenomenon; Immanuel Kant; German nationalism; Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven); Theodor W. Adorno; Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven); Singakademie; Music festival; Ideology; Pythagoreanism; Orchestra; Critique of Judgment; Carl Friedrich Zelter; For Example; Johann Abraham Peter Schulz; Allegory of the Cave; Musician; Mimesis; Majesty; Wilhelm von Humboldt; Johann Nikolaus Forkel; Consciousness; Treatise; Musical note; Aphorism; Eduard Hanslick; System of Transcendental Idealism; Reality; Incidental music; Friedrich Schleiermacher; Timbre; Oratorio; Imagery; Narrative; Intelligibility (philosophy); Johann Mattheson; Felix Mendelssohn; Symphonie fantastique; Simulacrum; Explanation; Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven); Critique of Practical Reason; Adolf Bernhard Marx; Friedrich Schiller; Greatness
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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