This course explores the meaning of music aesthetics and how it relates to the tradition of Western art music. We will survey the historical and cultural background of music aesthetics, as well as the artists, composers, literary figures, philosophers, for whom it had a great impact on their creation and viewpoints of contemporary music. This course is divided into three parts. In Part I, we focus on E. Hanslick’s On the Musically Beautiful, a prose writing, in which the famous music critic offers a critical take on the interpretation and listening mode of Romantic music. In Part II, we discuss the relationship between Romanticism and the birth of music aesthetics. Our examples include prose writings by Schumann, as well as his contemporary literary figures, including Jean Paul and ETA Hofmann. Part III concerns the aesthetics of modern music. We will have a close reading of the works by philosophers and composers such as Adorno, Debussy, and Stravinsky, to whom music’s changed meaning and its function in society radically changed the way 20th-century music was interpreted.

This course explores the meaning of music aesthetics and how it relates to the tradition of Western art music. We will survey the historical and cultural background of music aesthetics, as well as the artists, composers, literature figures, philosophers, for whom it had a great impact on their creation and viewpoints of contemporary music. This course is divided into three parts. In Part I, we focus on E. Hanslick’s On the Musically Beautiful, a prose writing, in which the famous music critic offers a critical take on the interpretation and listening mode of Romantic music. In Part II, we discuss the relationship between Romanticism and the birth of music aesthetics. Our examples include prose writings by Schumann, as well as his contemporary literature figures, including Jean Paul and ETA Hofmann. Part III concerns the aesthetics of modern music. We will have a close reading of the works by philosophers and composers such as Adorno, Debussy, and Stravinsky, to whom music’s changed meaning and its function in society radically changed the way 20th-century music was interpreted.

Hanslick, Eduard. The Beautiful in Music. Trans. Gustav Cohen. New York: Da Capo Press, 1974.
Lesure, François. Ed. Debussy on Music. Trans. Richard Langham Smith. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977.
Stravinsky, Igor. Poetics of Music. Trans. Arthur Knodel and Ingolf Dahl. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Strunk, Oliver. Ed. Source Readings in Music History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.

Hanslick, Eduard. The Beautiful in Music. Trans. Gustav Cohen. New York: Da Capo Press, 1974.
Lesure, François. Ed. Debussy on Music. Trans. Richard Langham Smith. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977.
Stravinsky, Igor. Poetics of Music. Trans. Arthur Knodel and Ingolf Dahl. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Strunk, Oliver. Ed. Source Readings in Music History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.