Title
Musical Meaning and Human Values / ed. by Keith Chapin, Lawrence Kramer.
ISBN
9780823237975
Published
New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2009]
Copyright
©2009
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (226 p.)
Item Number
10.1515/9780823237975 doi
Call Number
ML193
Dewey Decimal Classification
781/.1
Summary
Musical understanding has evolved dramatically in recent years, principally through a heightened appreciation of musical meaning in its social, cultural, and philosophical dimensions. This collection of essays by leading scholars addresses an aspect of meaning that has not yet received its due: the relation of meaning in this broad humanistic sense to the shaping of fundamental values. The volume examines the open and active circle between the values and valuations placed on music by both individuals and societies, and the discovery, through music, of what and how to value.With a combination of cultural criticism and close readings of musical works, the contributors demonstrate repeatedly that to make music is also to make value, in every sense. They give particular attention to values that have historically enabled music to assume a formative role in human societies: to foster practices of contemplation, fantasy, and irony; to explore sexuality, subjectivity, and the uncanny; and to articulate longings for unity with nature and for moral certainty. Each essay in the collection shows, in its own way, how music may provoke transformative reflection in its listeners and thus help guide humanity to its own essential embodiment in the world.The range of topics is broad and developed with an eye both to the historical specificity of values and to the variety of their possible incarnations. The music is both canonical and noncanonical, old and new. Although all of it is "classical," the contributors' treatment of it yields conclusions that apply well beyond the classical sphere. The composers discussed include Gabrieli, Marenzio, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Wagner, Puccini, Hindemith, Schreker, and Henze.Anyone interested in music as it is studied today will find this volume essential reading.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780823230099
Frontmatter
Contents
List of Examples and Figures
Introduction
1. Due Rose, Due Volte: A Study of Early Modern Subjectivities
2. Sublime Experience and Ironic Action: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Use of Music for Life
3. The Devoted Ear: Music as Contemplation
4. Music and Fantasy
5. Whose Brahms Is It Anyway? Observations on the Recorded Legacy of the B/, Piano Concerto, Op. 83
6. The Civilizing Process: Music and the Aesthetics of Time- Space Relations in The Girl of the Golden West
7. A Farewell, a Femme Fatale, and a Film: Three Awkward Moments in Twentieth-Century Music
8. ''Pour Out . . . Forgiveness Like a Wine'': Can Music ''Say an Existence Is Wrong''?
Notes
Contributors
Index of Works