1st Edition MUS M 402 Lecture 21 Outline of Last Lecture I Wagner s Gesamtskunstwerks Outline of Current Lecture I Historicism II Brahms vs Wagner Historicists with Different Points of View Current Lecture I Historicism the idea that in order to be a part of a musical tradition one must know the tradition of music that has come before a Music is comprised of durable works that have stood the test of time i They can be referred back to in order to preserve their memory b All composers begin to believe that the goodness or success of their works has to do with how much they reflect and refer to the History of Western Art Music through what they compose and create i This is a new concept in the nineteenth century ii Music begins to be seen and valued by its durability II Brahms vs Wagner Historicists with Different Points of View a Brahms and Wagner begin to quarrel over the right way to compose new Music in the Western Art Tradition b Historicism According to Wagner the future is necessary to join the past i Composers ought to take what they already know and move forward through innovation to create new works c Historicism According to Brahms the past is necessary to join the future i There is no innovation possible without the pure cultivation and preservation of the styles of older music 1 Some critiques argue that Brahms was merely an imitator of the past 2 Brahms desired to compose based on an inner necessity to create his desire just happened to be the same sort of desire from which Beethoven composed his great works ii According to music critique Hanslick Brahms focused on music of the past the great and the serious the difficult and the complex and at the expense of sensuous beauty
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