Lies and Epiphanies

Composers and Their Inspiration from Wagner to Berg
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-1-58046-477-2
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 111, 180 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 446 g

Reihe: Eastman Studies in Music

Presents case studies of "inspiration" in five composers -- Wagner, Mahler, Furtwängler, R. Strauss, and Berg -- examining how the supposedly extrarational world of creative inspiration intersects with the highly rational world ofmoney and politics.

Lies and Epiphanies offers case studies of "inspiration" in five composers -- Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Richard Strauss, and Alban Berg. Their own tales of their epiphanies played a determining role in the reception history of their works: the finale of Mahler's Second Symphony was supposedly born of a "lightning bolt" of inspiration at the funeral of Hans von Bülow, while Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was purportedly his direct response to the tragic early death of Alma Mahler's daughter.
Chris Walton looks behind these tales to explore instead the composer's dual role as author and self-commentator, laying bare the fissures and inconsistencieswithin these artists' testimonies and revealing how the putatively extrarational world of creative inspiration intersects with the highly rational world of money and politics. As Walton points out, the composer often imposes on the audience an interpretation of a work and its genesis that is as superficial as the score itself is not. This study seeks to show why.

Chris Walton teaches music history at the Basel University of Music in Switzerland.He is the author of Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works (University of Rochester Press, 2009) and Richard Wagner's Zurich: The Muse of Place (Camden House, 2007).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Walton, Chris

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Musiktheorie, Musikästhetik, Kompositionslehre
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik Geschichte der Musik: Romantik (ca. 1830-1900)
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik Geschichte der Musik: Klassische Musik des 20./21. Jahrhunderts
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Musikwissenschaft: Rezeption, Einflüsse und Beziehungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Einzelne Komponisten und Musiker

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Richard Wagner's Dynastic Dreams
Gustav Mahler's Resurrection and the Apostolic Succession
Of Forked Tongues and Angels: Alban Berg's Violin Concerto
Wilhelm Fürtwangler and the Return of the Muse
Here Comes the Sunset: The Late and the Last Works of Richard Strauss
Postlude: The Telephone Call
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Walton, Chris
CHRIS WALTON taught music history at the Basel University of Music in Switzerland, is an Honorary Professor at Africa Open Institute (Stellenbosch University in South Africa) and runs two research projects at the Bern University of the Arts for the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Chris Walton lectures in music at the Musikhochschule Basel in Switzerland and Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He is the author of Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works (URP, 2009) and Richard Wagner's Zurich (Camden House, 2007).