MUS M 402 1st Edition Lecture 23 Outline of Last Lecture I Modernism II Characteristics of Modernist Music Outline of Current Lecture I The Music of the Future Controversy Current Lecture I The Music of the Future Controversy a The Music of the Future Controversy was a great debate that arose as composers deliberated about the right was to proceed in music composition following the works of Beethoven i There were two sides to this debate 1 The side favoring Absolute Music a Included composers such as Schumann Mendelssohn and Brahms i Schumann believed that programmatic music created a complacent listener He argued for example that the French were often too busy reading the program to be actively involved in actually listening and taking in the music 1 Schumann wrote about his ideas in the Neuezeitschrift f r Musik ii Mendelssohn believed that words were too ambiguous He wanted his listeners to use their own imagination to interpret the music personally without anyone using text to tell them what to think or how to feel iii Brahms believed in absolute music because musical traditions had already stood the test of time and therefore would continue to do so in the future 2 The side favoring Programmatic Music of the Future a Programmatic Music music composed on a large scale with a story or plot or text attached connected to the work to inspire the minds of the audience and explain the genius behind the music b Included composers such as Wagner Berlioz and Liszt i Wagner Berlioz and Liszt all believed that programmatic music was the next great kind of music They viewed non programmatic music as simplistic and unsatisfying ii Liszt proposed a new method of composing Symphonic poems one movement works that had a poem directly attached to the piece to inspire the listener 1 His technique of thematic transformation was used to break away from Classical Forms and older traditions of composition
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