| Contents |
Introduction. Sounding out: musical meaning and modern experience -- Hermeneutics and musical history: a primer without rules, an exercise with Schubert -- Hands on, lights off: the "Moonlight" Sonata and the birth of sex at the piano -- Beyond words and music: an essay on songfulness -- Franz Liszt and the virtuoso public sphere: sight and sound in the rise of mass entertainment -- Rethinking Schumann's Carnaval: identity, meaning, and the social order -- Glottis envy: the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera -- Hercules' hautboys: mixed media and musical meaning -- The voice of Persephone: musical meaning and mixed media -- Powers of blackness: jazz and the blues in modern concert music -- Long ride in a slow machine: the alienation effect from Weill to Shostakovich -- Chiaroscuro: Coltrane's American songbook -- Ghost stories: cultural memory, mourning, and the myth of originality. |
| Abstract |
This book has been a pivotal figure in the development of the controversial new musicology, integrating the study of music with social and cultural issues. This accessible and eloquently written book continues and deepens the trajectory of the author's thinking as it boldly argues that humanistic, not just technical, meaning is a basic force in music history and an indispensable factor in how, where, and when music is heard. The author draws on a broad range of music and theory to show that the problem of musical meaning is not just an intellectual puzzle, but a musical phenomenon in its own right. How have romantic narratives involving Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata affected how we hear this famous piece, and what do they reveal about its music? How does John Coltrane's African American identity affect the way we hear him perform a relatively "white" pop standard like "My Favorite Things"? Why does music requiring great virtuosity have different cultural meanings than music that is not particularly virtuosic? Focusing on the classical repertoire from Beethoven to Shostakovich and also discussing jazz, popular music, and film and television music, this book uncovers the historical importance of asking about meaning in the lived experience of musical works, styles, and performances. The author's writing, clear and full of memorable formulations, demonstrates that thinking about music can become a vital means of thinking about general questions of meaning, subjectivity, and value. In addition to providing theoretical advances and insights on particular pieces and repertoires, the book will be provocative reading for those interested in issues of identity, gender, and cultural theory. This book includes a CD of the author's own composition, Revenants: 32 Variations in C Minor, which he discusses in his final chapter. |
