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The Mystical Influence of Instrumental Music: Early 19th Century Germany & Austria

Explore the transformation of instrumental music in early 1800s Germany and Austria through German Idealism and Early Romanticism. Delve into the philosophical depth and sacred essence attached to works by Beethoven and the impact on nationalism and cultural identity. Uncover the significance of instrumental music as a purifier, truth-seeker, and soul-stirrer in the evolving socio-cultural landscape.

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The Mystical Influence of Instrumental Music: Early 19th Century Germany & Austria

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  1. Volksgeist and the Origins of German Nationalism

  2. Factors in the Rising Prestige of Instrumental Music (Austria and Germany, early 1800s) • Reframing of the traditional philosophical problem of instrumental music (is it ultimately empty?; its meaning unclear?) under the categories of German Idealism and Early Romanticism

  3. Factors in the Rising Prestige of Instrumental Music (Austria and Germany, early 1800s) • Reframing of the traditional philosophical problem of instrumental music (is it ultimately empty?; its meaning unclear?) under the categories of German Idealism and Early Romanticism Beethoven, “Arietta” (C-major second movement) from the Piano Sonata in C minor, op. 111 (1821-22)

  4. Instrumental music as: • a quasi-sacred mystery • a sacrament • a purifier • a discloser of truth

  5. E. T. A. Hoffmann (1810): Beethoven’s music leads us out of life” and “into the realm of the colossal and the immeasurable” • Instrumental music as: • a quasi-sacred mystery • a sacrament • a purifier • a discloser of truth

  6. E. T. A. Hoffmann (1810): Beethoven’s music leads us out of life” and “into the realm of the colossal and the immeasurable” • Instrumental music as: • a quasi-sacred mystery • a sacrament • a purifier • a discloser of truth Wilhelm Wackenroder (1790s): “music as motions of the soul” (Taruskin, II, 399); sanctified, sacred, “holy”

  7. The External Sublime • Instrumental music as: • a quasi-sacred mystery • a sacrament • a purifier • a discloser of truth Wilhelm Wackenroder (1790s): “music as motions of the soul” (Taruskin, II, 399); sanctified, sacred, “holy”

  8. The External Sublime • Instrumental music as: • a quasi-sacred mystery • a sacrament • a purifier • a discloser of truth Interiority; The Pre-Cognitive Soul

  9. The External Sublime • Instrumental music as: • a quasi-sacred mystery • a sacrament • a purifier • a discloser of truth Interiority; The Pre-Cognitive Soul Beethoven, “Cavatina” (fifth movement) from the Quartet in B-flat, op. 130 (1825)

  10. Factors in the Rising Prestige of Instrumental Music (Austria and Germany, early 1800s) • Reframing of the traditional philosophical problem of instrumental music (is it ultimately empty?; its meaning unclear?) under the categories of German Idealism and Early Romanticism

  11. Factors in the Rising Prestige of Instrumental Music (Austria and Germany, early 1800s) • Reframing of the traditional philosophical problem of instrumental music (is it ultimately empty?; its meaning unclear?) under the categories of German Idealism and Early Romanticism • Germanic drive toward self-cultivation and learning • (“German Hellenism”)

  12. Germanic drive toward self-cultivation and learning (“German Hellenism”) Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) University of Berlin, curriculum established 1810

  13. Factors in the Rising Prestige of Instrumental Music (Austria and Germany, early 1800s) • Reframing of the traditional philosophical problem of instrumental music (is it ultimately empty?; its meaning unclear?) under the categories of German Idealism and Early Romanticism • Germanic drive toward self-cultivation and learning • (“German Hellenism”) • Music: increasingly seeks to be worthy of inclusion as an object of humanistic study

  14. Factors in the Rising Prestige of Instrumental Music (Austria and Germany, early 1800s) • Reframing of the traditional philosophical problem of instrumental music (is it ultimately empty?; its meaning unclear?) under the categories of German Idealism and Early Romanticism • Germanic drive toward self-cultivation and learning • (“German Hellenism”) • Music: increasingly seeks to be worthy of inclusion as an object of humanistic study • The rise of nationalism

  15. Factors in the Rising Prestige of Instrumental Music (Austria and Germany, early 1800s) • Reframing of the traditional philosophical problem of instrumental music (is it ultimately empty?; its meaning unclear?) under the categories of German Idealism and Early Romanticism • Germanic drive toward self-cultivation and learning • (“German Hellenism”) • Music: increasingly seeks to be worthy of inclusion as an object of humanistic study • The rise of nationalism—including the belief in a deeply authentic cultural self, a specifically “German” self

  16. Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  17. On the Origin of Language (1772) Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  18. On the Origin of Language (1772) • Basis of consciousness: language Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  19. On the Origin of Language (1772) • Basis of consciousness: language • Language: a social and historical phenomenon Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  20. On the Origin of Language (1772) • Basis of consciousness: language • Language: a social and historical phenomenon • Different places with different histories produce different languages, different ways of thinking Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  21. On the Origin of Language (1772) • Basis of consciousness: language • Language: a social and historical phenomenon • Different places with different histories produce different languages, different ways of thinking • Volk: the language group to which we belong Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  22. On the Origin of Language (1772) • Basis of consciousness: language • Language: a social and historical phenomenon • Different places with different histories produce different languages, different ways of thinking • Volk: the language group to which we belong • Volksgeist: the spirit or character shared by those within a • language group (or culturally uniform • ethnic group) Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  23. On the Origin of Language (1772) • Basis of consciousness: language • Language: a social and historical phenomenon • Different places with different histories produce different languages, different ways of thinking • Volk: the language group to which we belong • Volksgeist: the spirit or character shared by those within a • language group (or culturally uniform • ethnic group) • Captured in grammatical structure, • pre-modern folk tales, folk songs, etc. Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  24. Term: “folk song” 1778-79, rev. 1807 Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

  25. Incompatible views? Enlightenment concept of the essential sameness and universality of humankind with similar human rights (Schiller’s “alle Menschen werdenBrüder”)

  26. Incompatible views? “Herderian” concept of the Volk and group particularity and uniqueness—engendered by differing conditions that produce separate languages and separate ways of experiencing reality Enlightenment concept of the essential sameness and universality of humankind with similar human rights (Schiller’s “alle Menschen werdenBrüder”)

  27. Address “To the German Nation” (1806) Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)

  28. Address “To the German Nation” (1806) “Those who speak the same language are joined to each other by a multitude of invisible bonds by nature herself, long before any human art begins. They clearly belong together and are by nature one and an inseparable whole. Such a whole, if it wishes to absorb and mingle with itself any other people of different descent and language, cannot do so without itself becoming confused, in the beginning at any rate, and violently disturbing the even progress of its culture. . . . “ Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)

  29. Address “To the German Nation” (1806) “Those who speak the same language are joined to each other by a multitude of invisible bonds by nature herself, long before any human art begins. They clearly belong together and are by nature one and an inseparable whole. Such a whole, if it wishes to absorb and mingle with itself any other people of different descent and language, cannot do so without itself becoming confused, in the beginning at any rate, and violently disturbing the even progress of its culture. . . . “ “The German nation [is] united within itself by a common language and a common way of thinking, and sharply enough severed from the other peoples—in the middle of Europe, as a wall to divide races not akin. . . .” Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)

  30. Who are we? Emerging Tensions, Early-19th Century Universality of Peoples, Commonalities Particularity/Difference Enlightenment Nationalism/Cultural Identity

  31. Berlin, 1820s: “The symphony is now German property.” Adolph Bernhard Marx (1795-1866)

  32. The Brothers Grimm First Edition of the Initial Volume of the Children’s and Household Tales (1812)

  33. The Grimms’ German Dictionary (vol. 1 eventually published 1854, Leipzig) The Brothers Grimm

  34. Arnim and Brentano, The Youth’s Magic Horn (3 vols.)

  35. Johann August Apel Friedrich Laun

  36. Johann August Apel Friedrich Laun One tale within: Der Freischütz

  37. Toward a German Romantic Opera: E. T. A. Hoffmann, Undine (1816) Louis Spohr, Faust (1813, prem. 1816)

  38. Gasparo Spontini (Olympia, Berlin, 1821) Vienna, late 1810s, 1820s)

  39. Gasparo Spontini Gioachino Rossini (Olympia, Berlin, 1821) (becoming very popular, Vienna, late 1810s, 1820s)

  40. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) Premiere, Berlin, 1821

  41. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

  42. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) Premiere, Berlin, 1821

  43. Samiel

  44. Max Samiel

  45. Weber, Der Freischütz, Wolf’s Glen Scene (Finale, Act 2)

  46. Weber, Der Freischütz, 1821, Near the Start of the Wolf’s Glen Scene (Finale, Act 2)

  47. Weber, Der Freischütz, 1821, Wolf’s Glen Scene, The Casting of Bullets 6 and 7 (Finale, Act 2)

  48. Agathe

  49. “German Romantic Operas” • Der Freischütz (1821) • Euryanthe (1823) • Oberon (1826) Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

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