Carl Dahlhaus Libri

L'estetica musicale, che nel diciannovesimo secolo valeva come l'istanza più elevata del pensiero intorno alla musica, oggi è vista con sospetto e diffidenza, come pura speculazione lontana anni luce dalle concrete esperienze musicali. Tuttavia, non si può non riconoscere che tali esperienze non avvengono nel vuoto, ma presuppongono in ciascuno di noi convenzioni, conoscenze, codici, giudizi, eccetera, che nel loro insieme afferiscono a ben definite concezioni estetiche di cui spesso siamo inconsapevoli. Questo libro, pertanto, non è inteso a imporre tesi, conclusioni o metodi privilegiati in tema di estetica musicale. Piuttosto è dedicato a delineare lo sviluppo di questa disciplina a partire dal diciottesimo secolo, nel tentativo di estrarre da tale tradizione ciò che può essere significativo per l'oggi.

A survey of the most popular period in music history details many of the socio-historical influences on music of this period, the impact of Beethoven's death, and the rise of grand opera.

Many books have been written about Beethoven. But it is rare to find one that seeks an alternative between the fragmentation found in most specialized studies and the superficial overview typical of popular biography. In this volume, Carl Dahlhaus, one of the century's leading musicologists, combines interpretations of individual works that focus on issues of composition and musical history, with excursions into the musical aesthetics of the period around 1800; an age that was not only a "classical" period in the history of the arts but also one in that aesthetics carved itself a place in the center of philosophical attention. The theme of the book is the reconstruction of Beethoven's "musical thinking" from the evidence in the works themselves and their context in the history of ideas

This magnificent survey of the most popular period in music history is an extended essay embracing music, aesthetics, social history, and politics, by one of the keenest minds writing on music in the world today. Dahlhaus organizes his book around "watershed" years--for example, 1830, the year of the July Revolution in France, and around which coalesce the "demise of the age of art" proclaimed by Heine, the musical consequences of the deaths of Beethoven and Schubert, the simultaneous and dramatic appearance of Chopin and Liszt, Berlioz and Meyerbeer, and Schumann and Mendelssohn. But he keeps us constantly on guard against generalization and clich . Cherished concepts like Romanticism, tradition, nationalism vs. universality, the musical culture of the bourgeoisie, are put to pointed reevaluation. Always demonstrating the interest in socio-historical influences that is the hallmark of his work, Dahlhaus reminds us of the contradictions, interrelationships, psychological nuances, and riches of musical character and musical life. Nineteenth-Century Music contains 90 illustrations, the collected captions of which come close to providing a summary of the work and the author's methods. Technical language is kept to a minimum, but while remaining accessible, Dahlhaus challenges, braces, and excites. This is a landmark study that no one seriously interested in music and nineteenth-century European culture will be able to ignore.

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.