Music''s Monisms - Disarticulating Modernism

"The late Daniel Albright was one of the preeminent scholars of musical and literary modernism, leaving behind a rich body of work before his untimely passing. In the essays contained in Music's Monisms, he shows how musical phenomena, like literary ones, can be fruitfully investigated through the lens of monism, the philosophical belief that things that appear to be two are actually one. Albright shows how, in music, despite its many binaries-diatonic vs. chromatic, staccato vs. legato, major vs. minor, tonal vs. atonal-there is always a larger system at work that aims to reconcile all tension and resolve all conflict. Albright identifies a "radical monism" in the work of modernist poets such as T. S. Eliot and musical works by Wagner, Debussy, Britten, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky, and also delves into figures such as Maeterlinck, Rimbaud, and Yeats along the way. Through a series of close readings of musical and literary works, Albright advances powerful philosophical arguments that not only shed light on these specific figures but also aesthetic experience in general"--

About the author

Daniel Albright (1945-2015) was the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University. He was the author or editor of many books, including Untwisting the Serpent and Modernism and Music, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Summary

Daniel Albright investigates musical phenomena through the lens of monism, the philosophical belief that things that appear to be two are actually one.

Product details

• Authors: Daniel Albright
• Assisted by: Rehding Alexander (Foreword)
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2021
• EAN: 9780226791227
• ISBN: 978-0-226-79122-7
• No. of pages: 296
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; MUSIC / History & Criticism, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Classical, Literature: history & criticism, Music reviews & criticism, Music reviews and criticism, Literature: history and criticism, Art music, orchestral and formal music, Western "classical" music