Elective Affinities Musical Essays on the History of Aesthetic Theory |
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| Author:
| Goehr, Lydia |
| Series title: | Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-231-14481-0 |
| Publication Date: | Sep 2011 |
| Publisher: | Columbia University Press
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $42.00 |
Book Description:
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As illustrated in Goethe's famous novel of the same name, elective affinities are powerful relationships that crystallize under changing conditions. Lydia Goehr focuses on the history of elective affinities between philosophy and music from German classicism, romanticism, and idealism to the modernist aesthetic theory of Theodor W. Adorno and Arthur C. Danto. Aesthetic theory, she argues, depends on a dynamic philosophy of history centered on tendencies, yearnings, needs, and...
More Description
As illustrated in Goethe's famous novel of the same name, elective affinities are powerful relationships that crystallize under changing conditions. Lydia Goehr focuses on the history of elective affinities between philosophy and music from German classicism, romanticism, and idealism to the modernist aesthetic theory of Theodor W. Adorno and Arthur C. Danto. Aesthetic theory, she argues, depends on a dynamic philosophy of history centered on tendencies, yearnings, needs, and potentialities. With this in mind, she recasts the theses of Adorno and Danto regarding the death or end of philosophy, art, music, and human experience as arguments for continuation and survival. Elective Affinities tracks the migration of aesthetic and critical theory from Germany to the United States following the catastrophic period of the twentieth century marked by the Second World War.