Music in European Thought 1851–1912

This volume, in the series Cambridge Readings in the Literature of Music, is an anthology of original German, French and English writings from the period 1851–1912.

Bojan Bujic (Edited by)

9780521089517, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 November 2008

436 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.64 kg

This volume, in the series Cambridge Readings in the Literature of Music, is an anthology of original German, French and English writings from the period 1851–1912. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century music continued to be a subject to which philosophers, psychologists, scientists and critics repeatedly addressed themselves. Some of the philosophical approaches followed the tradition of the German speculative philosophy of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Elsewhere the new 'scientific' climate of the nineteenth century left its mark on the work of scientists and psychologists interested in the impact of acoustical stimuli on the human mind or in the role of music and song in the prehistory of mankind.

Part I. German aesthetics of music in the second half of the nineteenth century: 1. Music as an autonomous being
2. Music as an expressive force
3. The eclectic tendency
Part II. Aesthetics of music in France and England: 4. General works
5. The Impact of Wagner
6. England
Part III. Music and positivist thought: 7. Psychology of music and the theory of empathy
8. Theories and speculation about the origin of music
Part IV. Bridge between music theory and philosophy and the beginnings of musicology as an independent discipline: Part V. New tendencies at the turn of the century: 9. Historical understanding
10. Criticism of the theory of empathy
11. The past and the future of music.

Subject Areas: Music [AV]