The Idea of Absolute Music

by Carl Dahlhaus, Roger Lustig (Translator)

Overview

With a characteristically broad and provocative treatment, Dahlhaus examines a single music-aesthetical idea from various historical and philosophical viewpoints.

"Essential reading for anyone interested in the larger intellectual framework in which Romantic music found its place, a framework that to a remarkable degree has continued to shape our image of music."—Robert P. Morgan, Yale University

Carl Dahlhaus (1928-1989) is the author of a highly influential body of works on the foundations of music history and aesthetics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226134871
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	08/13/1991
Edition description:	1
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction
1. Absolute Music as an Esthetic Paradigm
2. The History of the Term and Its Vicissitudes
3. A Hermeneutic Model
4. The Esthetics of Feeling and Metaphysics
5. Esthetic Contemplation as Devotion
6. Instrumental Music and Art-Religion
7. Musical Logic and Speech Character
8. On the Three Cultures of Music
9. The Idea of the Musically Absolute and the Practice of Program Music
10. Absolute Music and Poésie Absolue
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Essays on the proselytizing college by the former executive director of the Education Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dallhaus (music history, Technical U. of Berlin), who died in 1989, here examines a single music-esthetical idea from various historical and philosophical viewpoints. The idea is that music is the highest, purest, most sublime form of art, and that this music allows the listener to personally experience the exploring the origins and history of the idea, Dallhaus reveals the ways in which it has affected music and the experience of music. A major essay in history, philosophy, and esthetics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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