The Emergence of Romanticism

Romanticism

• Seeking one’s uniqueness• “Aesthetic” experience as distinct from

intellectual, ethical, or practical experiences• E. T. A. Hoffman (1776–1822)– music’s “sole subject is the infinite”– Haydn and Mozart as Romantic

The Beautiful and the Sublime

• Sublime touched on realms of the great and incomprehensible, even the painful and the terrifying

• Edmund Burke (1729–1797)– “Sublime objects are vast in their

dimensions, beautiful ones comparatively small”

The Coming of Museum Culture

• Canon– an accumulating body of permanent masterworks

that never go out of style and form the bedrock of an everlasting repertory

• Museum culture• “Classic”

Beethoven versus “Beethoven”

• E. T. A. Hoffman’s essay, “Beethoven’s Instrumental Music” (1813)• “Beethoven’s music sets in motion the lever of fear, of

awe, of horror, or suffering, and wakens just that ‘infinite longing’ that is the essence of Romanticism”

• The cult of the creative genius

The Sacralization of Music

• Hoffmann: “[Beethoven’s] kingdom is not of this world”

• Religious idea of art• The score as an inviolable authority object

The Music Century• Nineteenth century• New audiences for classical music• Growth of publishing• Music education and conservatories

The Music Century

• Music criticism– Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung: “musical

newspaper for the general public” (1798–1848)• Friedrich Rochlitz (1769–1842)

Nationalism:I, We, and They

• Truth is found in individual consciousness• Nation defined by a collective culture

German Musical Values as Universal Values

• Beethoven as authoritative symbol of the age• German style as “universal” and therefore

timeless• Ethnocentrism