History of a Shiver : The Sublime Impudence of Modernism

An abrupt break in the prevailing modes of artistic expression, for many, marks the advent of modernism in the early twentieth century, but revisionary attempts to pin down a precise moment of its emergence remain disputed. __History of a Shiver__ proffers a different approach, tracing the first inkling of modernism instead to the nineteenth century's fascination with music.As Jed Rasula deftly shows, __melomania__--the passion for music--gave rise to concepts like Richard Wagner's "endless melody" and the Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, which in turn infused the arts of the __fin de siècle__ with an aura of expectancy, challenging them to induce musical effects by their own means. With each art aspiring to produce the effects of another artistic medium, a synesthetic yearning ran like a shiver through the body of art that would emerge over the next half century. Rasula traces this pan-arts polyphony from German Romantic theory to early experiments in "visual music," encompassing such diverse phenomena as American fixation on Arcadia, early film theory, and the lure of the fourth dimension. All the while, he keeps focus on the paramount historical consequence in elevating music to a new universal aesthetic standard, arguing that Wagnerism was first among modern "isms."In surveying this momentous interplay among arts, __History of a Shiver__ ranges from literature, music and painting to theatre, cinema, dance, photography, and civic pageantry. It retells the story of modernism by recovering not an idea, but a feeling--the hair-raising potential for each painting, literary text, or musical composition to herald an unprecedented domain of human enterprise. An abrupt break in the prevailing modes of artistic expression, for many, marks the advent of modernism in the early twentieth century, but revisionary attempts to pin down a precise moment of its emergence remain disputed. History of a Shiver proffers a different approach, tracing the first inkling of modernism instead to the nineteenth century's fascination with music. As Jed Rasula deftly shows, melomania --the passion for music--gave rise to concepts like Richard Wagner's "endless melody" and the Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, which in turn infused the arts of the fin de siècle with an aura of expectancy, challenging them to induce musical effects by their own means. With each art aspiring to produce the effects of another artistic medium, a synesthetic yearning ran like a shiver through the body of art that would emerge over the next half century. Rasula traces this pan-arts polyphony from German Romantic theory to early experiments in "visual music," encompassing such diverse phenomena as American fixation on Arcadia, early film theory, and the lure of the fourth dimension. All the while, he keeps focus on the paramount historical consequence in elevating music to a new universal aesthetic standard, arguing that Wagnerism was first among modern "isms." In surveying this momentous interplay among arts, History of a Shiver ranges from literature, music and painting to theatre, cinema, dance, photography, and civic pageantry. It retells the story of modernism by recovering not an idea, but a feeling--the hair-raising potential for each painting, literary text, or musical composition to herald an unprecedented domain of human enterprise. An abrupt break in the more conventional modes of artistic expression, for many, marks the advent of modernism in the early twentieth century. However, as Jed Rasula's alternative history shows, modernist aesthetics owe a significant debt to techniques and styles pioneered and established throughout the nineteenth century. An ambitious inter-arts exploration of patterns between one generation and another form the through-line of History of a Shiver: the backdrop of Wagner's epic nineteenth-century operas illuminates the music of Arnold Schoenberg and the Viennese School, in addition to literary works by Marcel Proust, Robert Musil, and Ezra Pound; the collodion glass plates deployed by Victorian photographers reveal the debt of Dada and Man Ray's innovative photograms to an era associated with realism; the brass bands conducted by John Philip Sousa in the 1880s and 1890s form a blueprint for instrumentation that gave rise to jazz; and the French symbolist verse of Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine inspire the surrealist artworks of Salvador Dali. In addition to these connections, Rasula's book similarly considers phenomena in theatre, sculpture, and the "visual music" of figures like Thomas Wilfrid and Wassily Kandinsky. Taken together, the chapters of History of a Shiver emphasize the importance of inter-collaboration and influence in an artistic period when artfroms are traditionally isolated from one another and primarily celebrated for severing ties with the past. -- From publisher's website "An abrupt break in the more conventional modes of artistic expression, for many, marks the advent of modernism in the early twentieth century. However, as Jed Rasula's alternative history shows, modernist aesthetics owe a significant debt to techniques and styles pioneered and established throughout the nineteenth century. An ambitious inter-arts exploration of patterns between one generation and another form the through-line of History of a Shiver: the backdrop of Wagner's epic nineteenth-century operas illuminates the music of Arnold Schoenberg and the Viennese School, in addition to literary works by Marcel Proust, Robert Musil, and Ezra Pound; the collodion glass plates deployed by Victorian photographers reveal the debt of Dada and Man Ray's innovative photograms to an era associated with realism; the brass bands conducted by John Philip Sousa in the 1880s and 1890s form a blueprint for instrumentation that gave rise to jazz; and the French symbolist verse of Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine inspire the surrealist artworks of Salvador Dali. In addition to these connections, Rasula's book similarly considers phenomena in theatre, sculpture, and the "visual music" of figures like Thomas Wilfrid and Wassily Kandinsky. Taken together, the chapters of History of a Shiver emphasize the importance of inter-collaboration and influence in an artistic period when artfroms are traditionally isolated from one another and primarily celebrated for severing ties with the past." - Založnikova predstavitev A Sweeping Cultural History That Draws On Music, Literature, Painting, And Film, 'history Of A Shiver' Uncovers How Art Pioneered In The 19th Century Provided The Foundation For Modernist Aesthetics. Preface: The Language Of The Listening Eye -- Introduction: Oblique Modernism -- Listening To Incense : Melomania And The Pathos Of Emancipation. Episodes In The History Of Shiver ; Ut Pictura Musica -- Sublime Impudence : Synesthesia And Music From Romanticism To Modernism. Keyboards Of The Spirit ; The New Laocoon -- Wagnerism : A Telephone From The Beyond. Time Becomes Space ; Wagner Is A Neurosis : A Case Study ; Ipod Wagnerism : From Vice To Device -- Drawing A Blank : Symbolist Retraction. The Theater, A Pretext For Dreams ; Trusting The Nameless ; Seeing With Eyes Closed ; Rites Of The Dream ; The Emotion Of Multitude ; The Legacy Of Symbolism -- Afternoon Of A Faun : Pictorialism, Dance, And The American Arcady. Panpipes In The American Arcadia ; Recovering The Ugliness -- Fourth Dimension, Sixth Sense : Or Sublime Impudence Revisited -- Endless Melody : A Theoretical Excursion. Meaningfulness : The Omnianonymous Melody ; The Volcanic Sublime -- Coda: Moments, Monuments, And Modernism. Jed Rasula. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 History of a Shiver 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Preface: The Language of the Listening Eye 8 Acknowledgments 14 Photography Credits 16 About the Companion Website 18 Introduction: Oblique Modernism 20 1. Listening to Incense: Melomania and the Pathos of Emancipation 41 Episodes in the History of a Shiver 43 Ut Pictura Musica 53 2. Sublime Impudence: Synesthesia and Music from Romanticism to Modernism 73 Keyboards of the Spirit 84 The New Laocoon 92 3. Wagnerism: A Telephone from the Beyond 96 Time Becomes Space 100 “Wagner Is a Neurosis”: A Case Study 120 iPod Wagnerism: From Vice to Device 128 4. Drawing a Blank: Symbolist Retraction 134 The Theater, a Pretext for Dreams 141 Trusting the Nameless 152 Seeing with Eyes Closed 159 Rites of the Dream 166 The Emotion of Multitude 175 The Legacy of Symbolism 180 5. Afternoon of a Faun: Pictorialism, Dance, and the American Arcady 184 Panpipes in the American Arcadia 185 Recovering the Ugliness 208 6. Fourth Dimension, Sixth Sense: Or Sublime Impudence Revisited 219 7. Endless Melody: A Theoretical Excursion 241 Meaningfulness: The Omnianonymous Melody 242 The Volcanic Sublime 255 Coda: Moments, Monuments, and Modernism 267 Notes 278 Bibliography 316 Index 350