Absolute Music and the Construction of MeaningCambridge University Press, 1999 M11 25 - 314 pages This book is born out of two contradictions: first, it explores the making of meaning in a musical form that was made to lose its meaning at the turn of the nineteenth century; secondly, it is a history of a music that claims to have no history - absolute music. The book therefore writes against that notion of absolute music which tends to be the paradigm for most musicological and analytical studies. It is concerned not so much with what music is, but with why and how meaning is constructed in instrumental music and what structures of knowledge need to be in place for such meaning to exist. From the thought of Vincenzo Galilei to that of Theodore Adorno, Daniel Chua suggests that instrumental music has always been a critical and negative force in modernity, even with its nineteenth-century apotheosis as 'absolute music'. |
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absolute music Adorno aesthetic Allgemeine ancient apocalypse articulate autonomy Babel Bach Baroque become Beethoven body C. P. E. Bach Cambridge University Press Camerata concept cosmos Criticism Dahlhaus dialectic discourse divine E. T. A. Hoffmann early Romantics eighteenth century emotions Empfindsamkeit empty sign Enlightenment Eroica Essays eternal example fact female Fifth Symphony Florentine Camerata Forkel Foucault Friedrich Galilei harmonic Haydn Hegel hero Hoffmann humanity Ibid ideas identity infinite instru instrumental music ironic Johann Kant language longer magic male meaning merely Modern Music monodic moral movement nature negation Nietzsche nineteenth century Novalis object opera Philosophy pure Quartet quoted Rameau rational reality Renaissance Revolution Richard Wagner ritornello Romanticism Rousseau says Schiller Schlegel score sense signifies simply sonata form soul sound spirit structure sublime Sulzer theory tion trans transcendental translation trivium truth Utopia Vincenzo Galilei vocal voice Wackenroder Wagner Weber Wilhelm Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder words writes