MHST 620A Philosophy of Music in the 19th Century
The course focuses on four leading German philosophers, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, whose ideas are seminal for the understanding of 19th century musical aesthetics. Besides being the cornerstones of modern philosophical and aesthetic thinking in general, and reflecting the conceptual currents of their times, the ideas of these philosophers were directly formative for composers such as Wagner, Brahms, Mahler, Strauss, and Schoenberg. The course examines topics such as critical philosophy, formalism, aesthetic judgment, the beautiful and the sublime in art, idealism, the thing-in-itself, and dialectics. Our perspective is further contextualized through other relevant thinkers and artists such as Hanslick, Schlegel, Novalis, Caspar David Friedrich, and Adorno. The aim of the course is twofold. Firstly, through the study of contemporaneous musical works, it provides a historical perspective on the bond between ideas and musical practice. Secondly, students test the value and relevance of various philosophical concepts in a more universal and practical manner by thinking ahistorically through various musical genres and styles. Weekly discussions are structured around the relationship between specific musical works and selected philosophical readings. Music by Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, among others, is studied.