Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History: Shaping Modern Musical Thought in Late Nineteenth Century Vienna (AMS Studies in Music)

more Than A Century After Guido Adler's Appointment To The First Chair In Musicology At The University Of Vienna, music, Criticism, And The Challenge Of History Provides A First Look At The Discipline In This Earliest Period, And At The Ideological Dilemmas And Methodological Anxieties That Characterized It Upon Its Institutionalization. Author Kevin Karnes Contends That Some Of The Most Vital Questions Surrounding Musicology's Disciplinary Identities Today-the Relationship Between Musicology And Criticism, The Role Of The Subject In Analysis And The Narration Of History, And The Responsibilities Of The Scholar To The Listening Public-originate In These Conflicted And Largely Forgotten Beginnings. karnes Lays Bare The Nature Of Music Study In The Late Nineteenth Century Through Insightful Readings Of Long-overlooked Contributions By Three Of Musicology's Foremost Pioneers-adler, Eduard Hanslick, And Heinrich Schenker. Shaped As Much By The Skeptical Pronouncements Of The Likes Of Nietzsche And Wagner As It Was By Progressivist Ideologies Of Scientific Positivism, The New Discipline Comprised An Array Of Oft-contested And Intensely Personal Visions Of Music Study, Its Value, And Its Future. Karnes Introduces Readers To A Hanslick Who Rejected The Call Of Positivist Scholarship And Dedicated Himself To Penning An Avowedly Subjective History Of Viennese Musical Life. He Argues That Schenker's Analytical Experiments Had Roots In A Wagner-inspired Search For A Critical Alternative To Adler's Style-obsessed Scholarship. And He Illuminates Adler's Determined Response To Nietzsche's Warnings About The Vitality Of Artistic And Cultural Life In An Increasingly Scientific Age. Through Sophisticated And Meticulous Presentation, music, Criticism, And The Challenge Of History Demonstrates That The New Discipline Of Musicology Was Inextricably Tied In With The Cultural Discourse Of Its Time. More than a century after Guido Adler's appointment to the first chair in musicology at the University of Vienna, Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History provides a first look at the discipline in this earliest period, and at the ideological dilemmas and methodological anxieties that characterized it upon its institutionalization. Author Kevin Karnes contends that some of the most vital questions surrounding musicology's disciplinary identities today-the relationship between musicology and criticism, the role of the subject in analysis and the narration of history, and the responsibilities of the scholar to the listening public-originate in these conflicted and largely forgotten beginnings.
Karnes lays bare the nature of music study in the late nineteenth century through insightful readings of long-overlooked contributions by three of musicology's foremost pioneers-Adler, Eduard Hanslick, and Heinrich Schenker. Shaped as much by the skeptical pronouncements of the likes of Nietzsche and Wagner as it was by progressivist ideologies of scientific positivism, the new discipline comprised an array of oft-contested and intensely personal visions of music study, its value, and its future. Karnes introduces readers to a Hanslick who rejected the call of positivist scholarship and dedicated himself to penning an avowedly subjective history of Viennese musical life. He argues that Schenker's analytical experiments had roots in a Wagner-inspired search for a critical alternative to Adler's style-obsessed scholarship. And he illuminates Adler's determined response to Nietzsche's warnings about the vitality of artistic and cultural life in an increasingly scientific age. Through sophisticated and meticulous presentation, Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History demonstrates that the new discipline of musicology was inextricably tied in with the cultural discourse of its time. ## Abstract This book provides a first look at the ideological dilemmas and methodological anxieties that pervaded the discipline of musicology (in German, Musikwissenschaft, encompassing music theory, analysis, and the study of music history) at the time and place of its academic institutionalization. Engaging in close readings of key contributions by Eduard Hanslick, Heinrich Schenker, and Guido Adler, all leading pioneers in the field, it argues against the widely held assumption that German musicology of the period was characterized, first and foremost, by a positivist endeavor to transform the discipline after the model of the natural sciences. Instead, it suggests that the work of its three central figures was shaped not only by progressivist ideologies of scientific positivism but also, and just as profoundly, by the skeptical pronouncements of Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche, and other critical observers of modern culture. It furthermore suggests that some of the most pressing questions regarding musicology's disciplinary identities in the present day—about the relationship between musicology and criticism, the role of the subject in analysis and the narration of history, and the responsibilities of the scholar to the listening public—have points of origin in the discipline's conflicted and largely forgotten beginnings. "More than a century after Guido Adler's appointment to the first chair in musicology at the University of Vienna, Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History provides a first look at the discipline in its earliest period and at the ideological dilemmas and methodological anxieties that characterized it upon its institutionalization." "Through sophisticated and meticulous presentation, Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History demonstrates that the new discipline of musicology was inextricably linked to the cultural discourse of its time." "Students and scholars of music interested in ideologies of music research, questions of disciplinary identity, historiography, and music criticism will find this book essential reading, as will all of those interested in the place of music, music criticism, and academic music study in late nineteenth-century Austrian and Greater German cultural life."--Jacket Introduction : The spirit of positivism and the search for alternatives : musicology and criticism at the end of the nineteenth century -- Eduard Hanslick and the challenge of Musikwissenschaft. Forgotten histories and uncertain legacies ; Music criticism as living history -- Heinrich Schenker and the challenge of criticism. Music analysis as critical method ; Composer, critic, and the problem of creativity -- Guido Adler and the problem of science. A science of music for an ambivalent age ; German music in an age of positivism -- Epilogue : into the twentieth century More than a century after Guido Adler's appointment to the first chair in musicology at the University of Vienna, this volume provides a view of the discipline in this earliest period, and at the ideological dilemmas and methodological anxieties that characterized it upon its institutionalization