Music As Thought : Listening to the Symphony in the Age of Beethoven

Before the nineteenth century, instrumental music was considered inferior to vocal music. Kant described wordless music as "more pleasure than culture," and Rousseau dismissed it for its inability to convey concepts. But by the early 1800s, a dramatic shift was under way. Purely instrumental music was now being hailed as a means to knowledge and embraced precisely because of its independence from the limits of language. What had once been perceived as entertainment was heard increasingly as a vehicle of thought. Listening had become a way of knowing. __Music as Thought__ traces the roots of this fundamental shift in attitudes toward listening in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Focusing on responses to the symphony in the age of Beethoven, Mark Evan Bonds draws on contemporary accounts and a range of sources--philosophical, literary, political, and musical--to reveal how this music was experienced by those who heard it first. __Music as Thought__ is a fascinating reinterpretation of the causes and effects of a revolution in listening. Contents......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 List of Abbreviations......Page 22 PROLOGUE: An Unlikely Genre: The Rise of the Symphony......Page 25 CHAPTER ONE: Listening with Imagination: The Revolution in Aesthetics......Page 29 From Kant to Hoffmann......Page 30 Idealism and the Changing Perception of Perception......Page 34 Idealism and the New Aesthetics of Listening......Page 46 CHAPTER TWO: Listening as Thinking: From Rhetoric to Philosophy......Page 53 Listening in a Rhetorical Framework......Page 54 Listening in a Philosophical Framework......Page 57 Art as Philosophy......Page 61 CHAPTER THREE: Listening to Truth: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony......Page 68 The Infinite Sublime......Page 69 History as Knowing......Page 74 The Synthesis of Conscious and Unconscious......Page 77 Organic Coherence......Page 79 Beyond the Sublime......Page 81 The Communal Voice of the Symphony......Page 87 The Imperatives of Individual and Social Synthesis......Page 92 The State as Organism......Page 95 Schiller’s Idea of the Aesthetic State......Page 97 Goethe’s Pedagogical Province......Page 99 German Nationalism......Page 103 The Symphony as a “German” Genre......Page 112 The Performance Politics of the Music Festival......Page 116 The Symphony as Democracy......Page 123 EPILOGUE: Listening to Form: The Refuge of Absolute Music......Page 128 Notes......Page 141 Bibliography......Page 177 G......Page 191 N......Page 192 Z......Page 193 The Goal Of This Book Is To Trace The Process By Which Purely Instrumental Music - Music Without A Text And Without Any Suggestion Of An External Program - Came To Be Perceived As A Vehicle Of Ideas In The Decades Around 1800, Of Just How And Why The Act Of Listening Came To Be Equated With The Act Of Thinking. Prologue. An Unlikely Genre : The Rise Of The Symphony -- Listening With Imagination : The Revolution In Aesthetics. From Kant To Hoffmann ; Idealism And The Changing Perception Of Perception ; Idealism And The New Aesthetics Of Listening -- Listening As Thinking : From Rhetoric To Philosophy. Listening In A Rhetorical Framework ; Listening In A Philosophical Framework ; Art As Philosophy -- Listening To Truth : Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The Infinite Sublime ; History As Knowing ; The Synthesis Of Conscious And Unconscious ; Organic Coherence ; Beyond The Sublime -- Listening To The Aesthetic State : Cosmopolitanism. The Communal Voice Of The Symphony ; The Imperatives Of Individual And Social Synthesis ; The State As Organism ; Schiller's Idea Of The Aesthetic State ; Goethe's Pedagogical Province -- Listening To The German State : Nationalism. German Nationalism ; The Symphony As A 'german' Genre ; The Performance Politics Of The Music Festival ; The Symphony As Democracy -- Epilogue. Listening To Form : The Refuge Of Absolute Music. Mark Evan Bonds. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [153]-166) And Index. Before the nineteenth century, instrumental music was considered inferior to vocal music. Kant described wordless music as "more pleasure than culture," and Rousseau dismissed it for its inability to convey concepts. But by the early 1800s, a dramatic shift was under way. Purely instrumental music was now being hailed as a means to knowledge and embraced precisely because of its independence from the limits of language. What had once been perceived as entertainment was heard increasingly as a vehicle of thought. Listening had become a way of knowing. This book traces the roots of this fundamental shift in attitudes toward listening in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Focusing on responses to the symphony in the age of Beethoven, Mark Evan Bonds draws on contemporary accounts and a range of sources--philosophical, literary, political, and musical--to reveal how this music was experienced by those who heard it first