Music Theory and Natural Order from the Renaissance to the Early Twentieth Century

by Suzannah Clark (Editor), Alexander Rehding (Editor)

Overview

Music theorists of almost all ages employ a concept of "Nature" to justify observations or statements about music. The understanding of what "Nature" is, however, is subject to cultural and historical differences. In tracing these explanatory strategies and their changes in music theories between c. 1600 and 1900, these essays explore (for the first time in a book-length study) how the multifarious conceptions of nature, located variously between scientific reason and divine power, are brought to bear on music theory and how they affect our understanding of music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521023924
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/19/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.65(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

Part I. The Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of Music: 1. Vincenzo Galilei, modernity and the division of nature Daniel Chua; 2. 'Tis nature's voice': music, natural philosophy and the hidden world in seventeenth-century England Linda Phyllis Austern; 3. The 'gift of nature': musical 'instinct' and musical cognition in Rameau David Cohen; 4. Nietzsche, Riemann, Wagner: when music lies Leslie David Blasius; Part II. Natural Forms - Forming Nature: 5. The second nature of sonata form Scott Burnham; 6. August Halm's two cultures as nature Alexander Rehding; 7. Seduced by notation: Oettingen's topography of the major-minor system Suzannah Clark; Part III. Constructions of Identity: 8. The gendered eye: music analysis and the scientific outlook in German early Romantic music theory Ian Biddle; 9. On the primitives in music theory: the savage and subconscious as sources of analytical authority Peter A. Hoyt.

Editorial Reviews

"...the variety and high-quality of the nine articles in this volume are impressive indeed...The excellent essays which form this volume, although focused specifically on music and music theory, are case studies of the universal tendency to substantiate ideology by means of appeals to "nature" and "natural order" and, as such, are certainly of general interest." Renaissance Quarterly

From the Publisher