When Machines Play Chopin: Musical Spirit and Automation in Nineteenth-Century German Literature (Interdisciplinary German Cultural Studies, 8)

__When__ __Machines Play Chopin__ brings together music aesthetics, performance practices, and the history of automated musical instruments in nineteenth-century German literature. Philosophers defined music as a direct expression of human emotion while soloists competed with one another to display machine-like technical perfection at their instruments. __When__ __Machines Play Chopi__n looks at this paradox between thinking about and practicing music to show what three literary works say about automation and the sublime in art.

The series publishes monographs and edited volumes that showcase significant scholarly work at the various intersections that currently motivate interdisciplinary inquiry in German cultural studies. Topics span German-speaking lands and cultures from the 18th to the 21st century, with a special focus on demonstrating how various disciplines and new theoretical and methodological paradigms work across disciplinary boundaries to create knowledge and add to critical understanding in German studies. The series editor is a renowned professor of German studies in the United States who penned one of the foundational texts for understanding what interdisciplinary German cultural studies can be. All works are peer-reviewed and in English. Three new titles will be published annually.

About the series editor:

Irene Kacandes is the Dartmouth Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. She received three degrees from Harvard University and also studied at the Free University of Berlin and Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. She publishes on a wide range of interdisciplinary topics including secondary orality, rhetoric, aesthetics, trauma, witnessing, family and generational memory, experimental life writing, Holocaust testimony, and narrative theory. She has lectured widely in the United States and Europe and currently serves as President of the International Society for the Study of Narrative and Vice President of the German Studies Association.

Frontmatter Table of Contents Chapter One Towards Autonomy: Imitation and Expression at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century Chapter Two E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Aesthetics of Music and Musical Machines in “The Automata,” “The Sandman” and Music Reviews Chapter Three Schopenhauer and Hanslick: Toward a Definition of Instrumental Music as an Autonomous Art Chapter Four Virtuosity and the Experience of Listening in Heinrich Heine’s Music Criticism and “Florentine Nights” Chapter Five Rilke’s Phonograph: the “Talking Machine” and Imagined Sound Backmatter When Machines Play Chopin brings together music aesthetics, performance practices, and the history of automated musical instruments in nineteenth-century German literature. Philosophers defined music as a direct expression of human emotion while soloists competed with one another to display machine-like technical perfection at their instruments. When Machines Play Chopi n looks at this paradox between thinking about and practicing music to show what three literary works say about automation and the sublime in art. Towards Autonomy: Imitation And Expression At The Turn Of The Nineteenth Century -- E.t.a. Hoffmann's Aesthetics Of Music And Musical Machines In The Automata, The Sandman And Music Reviews -- Schopenhauer And Hanslick: Toward A Definition Of Instrumental Music As An Autonomous Art -- Virtuosity And The Experience Of Listening In Heinrich Heine's Music Criticism And Florentine Nights -- Rilke's Phonograph: The Talking Machine And Imagined Sound. By Katherine Hirt. Includes Index.