This magnificent survey of the most popular period in music history is an extended essay embracing music, aesthetics, social history, and politics, by one of the keenest minds writing on music in the world today. Dahlhaus organizes his book around 'watershed' years - for example, 1830, the year of the July Revolution in France, and around which coalesce the 'demise of the age of art' proclaimed by Heine, the musical consequences of the deaths of Beethoven and Schubert, the simultaneous and dramatic appearance of Chopin and Liszt, Berlioz and Meyerbeer, and Schumann and Mendelssohn. But he keeps us constantly on guard against generalization and cliche. Cherished concepts like Romanticism, tradition, nationalism vs. universality, the musical culture of the bourgeoisie, are put to pointed re-evaluation. Always demonstrating the interest in socio-historical influences that is the hallmark of his work, Dahlhaus reminds us of the contradictions, interrelationships, psychological nuances, and riches of musical character and musical life.
"Nineteenth-Century Music" contains 90 illustrations, the collected captions of which come close to providing a summary of the work and the author's methods. Technical language is kept to a minimum, but while remaining accessible, Dahlhaus challenges, braces, and excites. This is a landmark study that no one seriously interested in music and nineteenth-century European culture will be able to ignore.
List of Illustrations
CHAPTER ONE Introduction
The Nineteenth Century as Past and Present
The Twin Styles
Music and Romanticism
Tradition and Restoration
Nationalism and Universality
The Music Culture of the Bourgeoisie
Bibliographic References
CHAPTER TWO 1814-1830
Rossini and the Restoration
Opera comique and German Opera
Beethoven: Myth and Reception
Beethoven's Late Style
The Metaphysic of Instrumental Music
Lied Traditions
The Idea of Folk Song
Bibliographic References
CHAPTER THREE 1830-1848
Melodie lunghe: Bellini and Donizetti
The Dramaturgy of Grand Opera
Virtuosity and Interpretation
Poetic Music
The Symphony after Beethoven
Choral Music as a Form of Education
Romanticism and Biedermeier Music
Church Music and Bourgeois Spirit
Bibliographic References
CHAPTER FOUR 1848-1870
Wagner's Conception of Musical Drama
Opera as Drama: Verdi
The Idea of National Opera
Opera bouffe, Operetta, Savoy Opera
The Symphonic Poem
Music Criticism as Philosophy of History
Brahms and the Chamber Music Tradition
Bibliographic References
CHAPTER FIVE 1870-1889
The Second Age of the Symphony
Drame lyrique and Operatic Realism
Ars gallica
Russian Music: Epic Opera
Exoticism, Folklorism, Archaism
Trivial Music
Historicism
Bibliographic References
CHAPTER SIX 1889-1914
Modernism as a Period in Music History
Post-Wagnerian Opera
Melodrama and Verismo
Program Music and the Art Work ofldeas
Linguistic Character and the Disintegration of Tonality
Emancipation of Dissonance
Bibliographic References
CHAPTER SEVEN End of an Era
Glossary
Index
