Music and the Crises of the Modern Subject (Musical Meaning and Interpretation)

Departing from the traditional German school of music theorists, Michael Klein injects a unique French critical theory perspective into the framework of music and meaning. Using primarily Lacanian notions of the symptom, that unnamable jouissance located in the unconscious, and the registers of subjectivity (the Imaginary, the Symbolic Order, and the Real), Klein explores how we understand music as both an artistic form created by "the subject" and an artistic expression of a culture that imposes its history on this modern subject. By creatively navigating from critical theory to music, film, fiction, and back to music, Klein distills the kinds of meaning that we have been missing when we perform, listen to, think about, and write about music without the insights of Lacan and others into formulations of modern subjectivity. Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 14 1. Music and the Symptom 20 2. The Acoustic Mirror as Formative of Auditory Pleasure and Fantasy: Chopin’s Berceuse, Brahms’s Romanze, and Saariaho’s “Parfum de l’instant” 53 3. Debussy and the Three Machines of the Proustian Narrative 80 4. Chopin Dreams: The Mazurka in C♯ Minor as Sinthome 109 Intermezzo: On Agency 135 5. Postmodern Quotation, the Signifying Chain, and the Erasure of History 140 6. Lutosławski, Molar and Molecular 167 Works Cited 186 Index 196 A 196 B 196 C 197 D 197 E 198 F 198 G 198 H 198 I 199 J 199 K 199 L 199 M 200 N 201 O 201 P 201 Q 202 R 202 S 203 T 204 U 204 V 204 W 204 X 204 Y 204 Z 204 Music And The Symptom -- The Acoustic Mirror As Formative Of Auditory Pleasure And Fantasy : Chopin's Berceuse, Brahms's Romanze, And Saariaho's Parfum De L'instant -- Debussy And The Three Machines Of The Proustian Narrative -- Chopin Dreams : The Mazurka In C♯ Minor As Sinthome -- Intermezzo : On Agency -- Postmodern Quotation, The Signifying Chain, And The Erasure Of History -- Lutosławski, Molar And Molecular. Michael L. Klein. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 173-182) And Index.