Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History: Shaping Modern Musical Thought in Late Nineteenth Century Vienna (Ams Stu Music)

229 Pages·2008·1.64 MB·English

by  Kevin Karnes

music, criticism, and the
challenge of history
AMS Studies in Music
Mary Hunter, General Editor
Editorial Board
Joseph H. Auner
J. Peter Burkholder
Scott Burnham
Richard Crawford
Suzanne Cusick
Louise Litterick
Ruth A. Solie
Judith Tick
Gary Tomlinson
Gretchen Wheelock
Conceptualizing Music:
Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis
Lawrence Zbikowski
Inventing the Business of Opera:
The Impresario and His World in
Seventeenth-Century Venice
Beth L. Glixon and Jonathan Glixon
Lateness and Brahms:
Music and Culture in the Twilight
of Viennese Liberalism
Margaret Notley
The Critical Nexus:
Tone-System, Mode, and Notation
in Early Medieval Music
Charles M. Atkinson
Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History:
Shaping Modern Musical Thought in
Late Nineteenth-Century Vienna
Kevin C. Karnes
Q
MUSIC, CRITICISM, AND THE
CHALLENGE OF HISTORY
Shaping Modern Musical Thought in
Late Nineteenth-Century Vienna
Kevin C. Karnes
1
2008
1
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
in research, scholarship, and education.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offi ces in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2008 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Karnes, Kevin, 1972–
Music, criticism, and the challenge of history : shaping modern musical
thought in late nineteenth-century Vienna / Kevin C. Karnes.
p. cm. — (AMS studies in music)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-536866-6
1. Musicology—Austria—Vienna—History—19th century. 2. Music theory—Austria—
Vienna—History—19th century. 3. Musical criticism—Austria—Vienna—History—
19th century. 4. Hanslick, Eduard, 1825–1904—Criticism and interpretation.
5. Adler, Guido, 1855–1941—Criticism and interpretation. 6. Schenker,
Heinrich, 1868–1935—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
ML3797.K36 2008
780.72’0436—dc22 2007043091
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
skaistai varav¯ıksnei, ma¯konim
This page intentionally left blank
acknowledgments
My work on this project began with a dissertation on the early writings
of Heinrich Schenker (Brandeis University, 2001), a study that benefi ted
immeasurably from the guidance and readings of Allan Keiler, Jessie Ann Owens,
and Ian D. Bent. Since then, it has been shaped just as profoundly through innu-
merable conversations with Walter Frisch, for whose insights, encouragement,
unfailing generosity, and impeccably good sense I am deeply grateful. I also
wish to express my gratitude to Silvio dos Santos for reading and commenting
on several chapters—sometimes in several versions—in preparation, and for his
constant friendship during a long season of change.
Over the course of years spent writing this book, I have been fortunate to
receive invaluable advice, suggestions, and help from many others as well. Some
kindly shared their thoughts and impressions regarding a related article or a chap-
ter- or proposal-in-progress: Styra Avins, Daniel Beller-McKenna, Conny Chen,
Stephen Crist, John Daverio, Yayoi Uno Everett, James Hepokoski, William
Horne, Mary Hunter, Kevin Korsyn, Margaret Notley, and William Pastille.
Others provided other sorts of help, support, or materials: Ian Bent, Lynn Wood
Bertrand, David Brodbeck, Eric Chafe, Mary DuPree, Bonnie Gordon, Ellen
T. Harris, Allan Keiler, Lowell Lindgren, Sandra McColl, Jessie Ann Owens,
and Harry Zohn. I gratefully acknowledge the keen editorial work of Mary
Hunter, editor of AMS Studies in Music, and the suggestions and probing ques-
tions offered by three anonymous readers of the manuscript or portions thereof.
Suzanne Ryan, Norman Hirschy, Lora Dunn, and Katharine Boone at Oxford
University Press have been great to work with on the production end, and Chris
Wilson did a nice job with the musical examples. It goes without saying that
I am wholly responsible for all errors, omissions, and shortcomings that remain
in the present study.
For access to collections and permission to cite from unpublished and archival
materials, I wish to thank the Special Collections Library of the University of
California, Riverside; the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library of the
University of Georgia; and both the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek and the
Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (formerly the Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek)
viii acknowledgments
in Vienna. I also wish to thank Georg Olms Verlag for allowing me to cite
extensively, in the notes to chapters 3 and 4, from Heinrich Schenker, Heinrich
Schenker als Essayist und Kritiker. Gesammelte Aufsätze, Rezensionen und kleinere
Berichte aus den Jahren 1891–1901, ed. Hellmut Federhofer, Studien und Materialien
zur Musikwissenschaft, no. 5 (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1990). Finally, I wish to
acknowledge the staff of Emory University’s Heilbrun Music and Media Library
and the Interlibrary Loan Offi ce of Emory’s Woodruff Library, who have proven
exceptionally helpful in every way.
Financial support for this project was provided, at its beginnings, by a Sachar
Grant from Brandeis University and a Karl Geiringer Scholarship from the
American Brahms Society; during its middle stages by a Summer Stipend from
the National Endowment for the Humanities; and at its end by a grant from the
Emory University Research Committee. I am grateful to Ian Bent, Ellen Harris,
Allan Keiler, and Jessie Ann Owens for graciously supplying the letters of recom-
mendation that assured this project’s continued funding throughout the course of
its development. Emory College and Department of Music provided additional
support for travel and research.
Some of the material examined in this book I fi rst considered in articles. I fi rst
explored, in an abbreviated way, the thesis set forth in chapter 2 in “Eduard
Hanslick’s History: A Forgotten Narrative of Brahms’s Vienna,” American Brahms
Society Newsletter 22, no. 2 (2004), 1–5. The middle section of chapter 3 revisits
material previously published in “Another Look at Critical Partisanship in the
Viennese fi n de siècle: Schenker’s Reviews of Brahms’s Vocal Music, 1891–1892,”
19th-Century Music 26, no. 1 (2002), 73–93. And I have based chapter 4 upon
“Schenker’s Brahms: Composer, Critic, and the Problem of Creativity in Late
Nineteenth-Century Vienna,” Journal of Musicological Research 24, no. 2 (2005),
145–176, though I provide a different interpretation of the evidence in the present
book.
contents
A Note on Translations xi
Abbreviations Used in the Notes xiii
introduction The Spirit of Positivism and the Search
for Alternatives: Musicology and Criticism
at the End of the Nineteenth Century 3
Part I Eduard Hanslick and the Challenge
of Musikwissenschaft
one Forgotten Histories and Uncertain Legacies 21
two Music Criticism as Living History 48
Part II H einrich Schenker and the Challenge
of Criticism
three Music Analysis as Critical Method 79
four Composer, Critic, and the Problem of Creativity 109
Part III Guido Adler and the Problem of Science
five A Science of Music for an Ambivalent Age 133
six German Music in an Age of Positivism 159
epilogue Into the Twentieth Century 188
Bibliography 195
Index 207