Wagner's Melodies: Aesthetics and Materialism in German Musical Identity (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781316618233)

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.

Author: David Trippett
ISBN-10: 1316618234
ISBN-13: 9781316618233
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 08/04/2016
Pages: 464
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.62lbs
Size: 9.61h x 6.69w x 0.94d