Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
navigates the discursive space of nineteenth-century German symphonies, and Beethoven's symphonic music especially, between the pointedly apolitical metaphysics of 'absolute music,' and the explicit political appropriation of these works in the service of emerging German nationalism. It is hard to imagine a topic that would be more central to current musicological discourse.
Review
"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
Review
A fascinating new book. Alex Ross
Review
"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
Review
A fascinating new book. Alex Ross
Review
"A fascinating new book."--Alex Ross, The New Yorker
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
"Through the lucid presentation of many diverse sources and the close reading of several central documents,
Music as Thought establishes the cultural force of listening to music in the age of Beethoven. The result is a compelling story with a fresh polemical spin."
--Scott Burnham, Princeton University"Music as Thought navigates the discursive space of nineteenth-century German symphonies, and Beethoven's symphonic music especially, between the pointedly apolitical metaphysics of 'absolute music,' and the explicit political appropriation of these works in the service of emerging German nationalism. It is hard to imagine a topic that would be more central to current musicological discourse."--Alexander Rehding, Harvard University
Synopsis
"Through the lucid presentation of many diverse sources and the close reading of several central documents, Music as Thought establishes the cultural force of listening to music in the age of Beethoven. The result is a compelling story with a fresh polemical spin."--Scott Burnham, Princeton University
"Music as Thought navigates the discursive space of nineteenth-century German symphonies, and Beethoven's symphonic music especially, between the pointedly apolitical metaphysics of 'absolute music,' and the explicit political appropriation of these works in the service of emerging German nationalism. It is hard to imagine a topic that would be more central to current musicological discourse."--Alexander Rehding, Harvard University
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
"Through the lucid presentation of many diverse sources and the close reading of several central documents,
Music as Thought establishes the cultural force of listening to music in the age of Beethoven. The result is a compelling story with a fresh polemical spin."--Scott Burnham, Princeton University
"Music as Thought navigates the discursive space of nineteenth-century German symphonies, and Beethoven's symphonic music especially, between the pointedly apolitical metaphysics of 'absolute music,' and the explicit political appropriation of these works in the service of emerging German nationalism. It is hard to imagine a topic that would be more central to current musicological discourse."--Alexander Rehding, Harvard University
About the Author
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".
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 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