1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996248315203316

Autore

Trippett David <1980->

Titolo

Wagner's melodies : aesthetics and materialism in German musical identity / / David Trippett [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2013

ISBN

1-139-88851-X

1-107-06496-1

1-107-05656-X

1-107-05445-1

1-107-05766-3

1-139-01370-X

1-107-05891-0

1-107-05547-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 448 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

782.1092

Soggetti

Music - 19th century - Philosophy and aesthetics

Melody

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

German melody -- Melodielehre? -- Wagner in the melodic workshop -- Excursus : Bellini's Sinnlichkeit, Wagner's Italy -- Hearing voices : Wilhelmine Schroder-Devrient and the Lohengrin recitatives -- Vowels, voices, and "original truth" -- Wagner's material expression.

Sommario/riassunto

Since the 1840s, critics have lambasted Wagner for lacking the ability to compose melody. But for him, melody was fundamental - 'music's only form'. This incongruity testifies to the surprising difficulties during the nineteenth century of conceptualizing melody. Despite its indispensable place in opera, contemporary theorists were unable even to agree on a definition for it. In Wagner's Melodies, David Trippett re-examines Wagner's central aesthetic claims, placing the composer's ideas about melody in the context of the scientific discourse of his age: from the emergence of the natural sciences and historical linguistics to sources about music's stimulation of the body and inventions for



'automatic' composition. Interweaving a rich variety of material from the history of science, music theory, music criticism, private correspondence and court reports, Trippett uncovers a new and controversial discourse that placed melody at the apex of artistic self-consciousness and generated problems of urgent dimensions for German music aesthetics.