Il lavoro di Lawrence Kramer illumina le intricate intersezioni tra musica, cultura e società. Approfondisce come la musica plasmi e sia plasmata dalle correnti sociali e culturali più ampie. Attraverso i suoi saggi e libri, Kramer esplora i significati e le rappresentazioni più profonde della musica in vari contesti. Il suo approccio offre ai lettori uno sguardo penetrante sulla relazione dinamica tra il suono e il mondo che ci circonda.
Offers a comprehensive essay on understanding musical meaning and performing music meaningfully - 'interpreting music' in both senses of the term. This book argues that music, far from being closed to interpretation, is ideally open to it, and that musical interpretation is the paradigm of interpretation in general.
In lucid and engaging prose, the book explores the sources of classical music's power in a variety of settings, from concert performance to film and TV, from everyday life to the historical trauma of September 11. Addressed to a wide audience, this book will appeal to aficionados and skeptics alike.
The Hum of the World is an invitation to contemplate what would happen if we heard the world as attentively as we see it. Balancing big ideas with playful wit and lyrical prose, this imaginative volume identifies the role of sound in Western experience as the primary medium in which the presence and persistence of life acquire tangible form. The positive experience of aliveness is not merely in accord with sound, but inaccessible, even inconceivable, without it. Lawrence Kramer’s poetic book roves freely over music, media, language, philosophy, and science from the ancient world to the present, along the way revealing how life is apprehended through sounds ranging from pandemonium to the faint background hum of the world. Easily moving from reflections on pivotal texts and music to the introduction of elemental concepts, this warm meditation on auditory culture uncovers the knowledge and pleasure made available when we recognize that the world is alive with sound.
Walt Whitman worked as a nurse in an army hospital during the Civil War and published Drum-Taps, his war poems, as the war was coming to an end. Later, the book came out in an expanded form, including “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” Whitman's passionate elegy for Lincoln. The most moving and enduring poetry to emerge from America’s most tragic conflict, Drum-Taps also helped to create a new, modern poetry of war, a poetry not just of patriotic exhortation but of somber witness. Drum-Taps is thus a central work not only of the Civil War but of our war-torn times. But Drum-Taps as readers know it from Leaves of Grass is different from the work of 1865. Whitman cut and reorganized the book, reducing its breadth of feeling and raw immediacy. This edition, the first to present the book in its original form since its initial publication 150 years ago, is a revelation, allowing one of Whitman’s greatest achievements to appear again in all its troubling glory.
This book shows how Schubert, responding to the great social changes of his era, discovered that songs could project a kaleidoscopic array of human and sexual types--some strange, some familiar, some appealing, some forbidding, but all eligible for a sympathetic response. The book combines close attention to both music and poetry to explain the social context of this process and show it at work in a lively, accessible style free of excessive jargon.
The collection delves into the intricate relationship between music and cultural meaning, examining how our responses to music shape and are shaped by societal contexts. Comprising sixteen essays, primarily from the late 1980s onward, it highlights the evolution of critical musicology. An introductory essay by Kramer outlines the intellectual journey of this field and the significant role these writings have played in advancing critical thought in music studies.
The book, first published in 2000, explores significant themes and concepts in its field, offering valuable insights and perspectives. It is part of the Routledge imprint, known for its scholarly contributions, and is published by Taylor & Francis, a reputable name in academic publishing. The work aims to engage readers with its in-depth analysis and research, making it a notable addition to the literature in its area of study.
Exploring the intersections of sound with various disciplines, this book showcases Lawrence Kramer's deep knowledge of poetry, music, philosophy, and history. It offers fresh insights into how sound shapes our understanding of self and the world, making complex ideas accessible without jargon. Kramer's engaging narrative invites readers to reconsider their perceptions of music and literature within the broader context of Western cultural history, establishing him as a master essayist in the field of sound studies.
Expression and truth are traditional opposites in Western thought: expression supposedly refers to states of mind, truth to states of affairs. This title features five theses that connect expression to description, cognition, the presence and absence of speech, and the conjunction of address and reply.
"What, exactly, is knowledge of music? And what does it tell us about humanistic knowledge in general? The Thought of Music, completing a trilogy on musical understanding with Interpreting Music and Expression and Truth, grapples directly with these fundamental questions--questions especially compelling at a time when humanistic knowledge is enmeshed in debates about its character and future. Lawrence Kramer seeks answers in both thought about music and thought in music--thinking in tones. He skillfully assesses musical scholarship in the aftermath of critical musicology and musical hermeneutics and in view of more recent concerns with embodiment, affect, and performance. This authoritative and timely work challenges the prevailing conceptions of every topic it addresses: language, context, and culture; pleasure and performance; and, through music, the foundations of understanding in the humanities."--Provided by publisher.