Orpheus and Pythagoras -- Isomorphic resonance -- Expression. The separation of powers ; Music and language ; Music as language ; Mimesis -- Beauty -- Form. Form as number ; Form as content -- Autonomy. Material autonomy ; Ethical autonomy -- Disclosure. The composer as oracle ; Beautiful insights ; Cosmic insights -- Wagner's "absolute" music -- Hanslick's "pure" music. Hanslick the conventional ; Hanslick the radical ; Hanslick the ambivalent -- Liszt's "program" music -- Polemics -- Reconciliation -- Qualities recast. Expression ; Beauty ; Form ; Autonomy ; Disclosure ; Epilogue : since 1945
Summary
What we think music is shapes how we hear it. This book traces the history of the idea of pure - 'absolute' - music from Pythagoras to the present, with special emphasis on efforts to reconcile the irreducible essence of the art with its profound effects on the human spirit. The core of this study focuses on the period 1850-1935, beginning with the collision between Richard Wagner and the Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick
