Terpander; or, Music and the futureDent, Edward J. (Edward Joseph)
Philosophy
Terpander; or, Music and the future
Dent, Edward J. (Edward Joseph)
Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics
the privilege of the aristocracy. The typical figure of this movement
is Paganini, from whom are descended Liszt and a multitude of minor
musicians who made it their life-work to play the prophet in public.
The mechanical developments of the new century contributed to the
development of the new outlook on music. As travelling became easier
and music-printing cheaper concerts increased in number and increasing
newspapers gave them increasing publicity. “_Seid umschlungen,
Millionen!_” sang Beethoven, and the millions were embraced, though
perhaps not quite in the way in which Schiller and he had intended.
The modern musician is often tempted to see nothing in the art of
the past century but pretentiousness. It is not altogether just to
accuse the century of megalomania. Isolated musicians, such as Liszt,
Berlioz and Wagner, were certainly possessed with the idea of their
own greatness. One might say the same of Beethoven himself; but in
Beethoven’s case the consciousness of his own greatness was inseparable
from a deep feeling of humility and an overwhelming sense of duty.
Beethoven was no respecter of persons, but he had the philosopher’s
intuition of his relation to humanity and of humanity’s relation to
the universe. Undoubtedly many artists of the nineteenth century
were stimulated by his example to attempt works on a needlessly
colossal scale, especially in Germany, where metaphysical studies have
always influenced a circle that extended far beyond the professed
philosophers. An ethical view of music became more and more strongly
marked in Germany; during the latter half of the century it made itself
felt in England, and to a slighter extent even in France. By the end
of the century there was a very definite tendency to regard music as a
form of free religious worship, expressing and stimulating mystical
experience for temperaments which could no longer be satisfied by
dogmatic theology.
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