German music criticism in the late eighteenth century : aesthetic issues in instrumental music

German music criticism in the late eighteenth century : aesthetic issues in instrumental music / Mary Sue Morrow.

Author/creator	Morrow, Mary Sue, 1953-
Format	Book and Print
Publication Info	Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Description	xiii, 253 pages : music ; 24 cm
Subject(s)	Instrumental music--Germany --18th century --History and criticism. Musical criticism--Germany. Music--Germany --18th century --Philosophy and aesthetics. Nationalism in music.

Contents	Introduction: terms of discourse -- What does instrumental music mean? -- Answering with a unified voice -- Answering with a German voice -- Answering with aesthetic criteria -- The importance of being correct -- The reign of genius -- A call to order -- Epilogue: segue to the nineteenth century.
Abstract	Music aesthetics in late eighteenth-century Germany has always been problematic because there was no aesthetic theory to evaluate the enormous amount of high-quality instrumental music produced by composers like Haydn and Mozart. This book derives a practical aesthetic for German instrumental music during the late eighteenth century from a previously neglected source, reviews of printed instrumental works. At a time when the theory of mimesis dominated aesthetic thought, leaving sonatas and symphonies at the very bottom of the aesthetic hierarchy, a group of reviewers were quietly setting about the task of evaluating instrumental music on its own terms. The reviews document an intersection with trends in literature and philosophy, and reveal interest in criteria like genius, the expressive power of music, and the necessity of unity, several decades earlier than has previously been supposed.
Bibliography note	Includes bibliographical references (pages 158-245) and index.
LCCN	96041039
ISBN	052158227X (hardback)

Library	Location	Call Number	Status	Item Actions
Music	Music Stacks	ML499.3 .M67 1997	✔ Available	Place Hold