The rich conceptual and experiential relays between music and philosophy - echoes of what Theodor W. Adorno once called Klangfiguren, or ""sound figures"" - resonate with heightened intensity during the period of modernity that extends from early German Idealism to the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. This volume traces the political, historical, and philosophical trajectories of a specifically German tradition in which thinkers take recourse to music, both as an aesthetic practice and as the object of their speculative work. The contributors examine the texts of such highly influential writers and thinkers as Schelling, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bloch, Mann, Adorno, and Lukacs in relation to individual composers including Beethoven, Wagner, Schonberg, and Eisler. Their explorations of the complexities that arise in conceptualizing music as a mode of representation and philosophy as a mode of aesthetic practice thematize the ways in which the fields of music and philosophy are altered when either attempts to express itself in terms defined by the other.

About the Author
Jost Hermand is William F. Vilas Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Gerhard Richter is associate professor of German at the University of California, Davis.

Reviews
The complex relations discussed here between German music and philosophy are fascinating, not only to Wagnerites and specialists in German cultural studies, but to anyone interested in the presence of German art and ideas in the United States for the past one hundred years. - James Rolleston, Duke University



Book Information
ISBN 9780299219307
Author Jost Hermand
Format Hardback
Page Count 296
Imprint University of Wisconsin Press
Publisher University of Wisconsin Press
Weight(grams) 524g