When machines play Chopin : musical spirit and automation in nineteenth-century German literature / Katherine Hirt.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Hirt, Katherine Maree.

Series:

Interdisciplinary German cultural studies ; 8.

Interdisciplinary German cultural studies ; 8

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

German literature--19th century--History and criticism.

German literature.

Musical instruments in literature.

Music in literature.

Music and literature--Germany--History--19th century.

Music and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (178 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Walter de Gruyter, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

When Machines Play Chopin brings together music aesthetics, performance practices, and the history of automated musical instruments in nineteenth-century German literature. Philosophers defined music as a direct expression of human emotion while soloists competed with one another to display machine-like technical perfection at their instruments. When Machines Play Chopin looks at this paradox between thinking about and practicing music to show what three literary works say about automation and the sublime in art.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Chapter One Towards Autonomy: Imitation and Expression at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century

Chapter Two E.T.A. Hoffmann's Aesthetics of Music and Musical Machines in "The Automata," "The Sandman" and Music Reviews

Chapter Three Schopenhauer and Hanslick: Toward a Definition of Instrumental Music as an Autonomous Art

Chapter Four Virtuosity and the Experience of Listening in Heinrich Heine's Music Criticism and "Florentine Nights"

Chapter Five Rilke's Phonograph: the "Talking Machine" and Imagined Sound

Backmatter

Notes:

Dissertation University of Washington 2008.

Includes index.

ISBN:

9786612673313

9781282673311

1282673319

9783110232400

3110232405

OCLC:

648711645