Poetry and the Romantic Musical Aesthetic

Poetry and the Romantic Musical Aesthetic

by JamesH.Donelan (Author)

Synopsis

James H. Donelan describes how two poets, a philosopher and a composer - Hoelderlin, Wordsworth, Hegel and Beethoven - developed an idea of self-consciousness based on music at the turn of the nineteenth century. This idea became an enduring cultural belief: the understanding of music as an ideal representation of the autonomous creative mind. Against a background of political and cultural upheaval, these four major figures - all born in 1770 - developed this idea in both metaphorical and actual musical structures, thereby establishing both the theory and the practice of asserting self-identity in music. Beethoven still carries the image of the heroic composer today; this book describes how it originated in both his music and in how others responded to him. Bringing together the fields of philosophy, musicology, and literary criticism, Donelan shows how this development emerged from the complex changes in European cultural life taking place between 1795 and 1831.

$118.41

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 236
Edition: illustrated edition
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 24 Mar 2008

ISBN 10: 0521887615
ISBN 13: 9780521887618
Book Overview: Considers the idea of self-consciousness in the work of Hoelderlin, Hegel, Wordsworth and Beethoven.

Author Bio
James H. Donelan teaches in the Writing Program and the departments of comparative literature and English at the University of California, Santa Barbara.