Frontiers of Meaning [Paperback]

Charles Rosen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 1998

What does it mean to understand music? What, if anything, does music mean? Composers, performers, listeners, and academics may answer these questions differently, but what sense of music do they share? When music seems unfamiliar or unlike anything we have heard before, we may say that we don't "like" it. How is taking pleasure from music related to understanding it? This book explores these and other issues as they arise in various musical contexts. Performers' interpretations may be filled with errors, after all, that then become part of a tradition; a composer's work may be variously assessed by his or her contemporaries - an account of how Beethoven's reputation was established so early is included - and how musical analysis can mislead as well as enhance understanding of a composition. Originally the content of three lectures given in Rome in 1993 - "The Frontiers of Nonsense", "How To Become Immortal" and "Explaining the Obvious" - this work offers a study of music, as text, as performance, and as listening experience.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In lectures given in Rome in 1993--which were cosponsored by the publisher and the New York Review of Books , and are collected here--Rosen ( The Classical Style ) tackles the difficult question of how we understand music. He contends that because music has no fixed meaning, the only conclusion we can reach is that music makes sense when we are comfortable with it. He demonstrates this with passages from works by Beethoven and Chopin in which long-standing errors in scores have become so familiar that the correct readings now sound wrong. He further argues that because each new style of music creates its own meaning, methods of musical analysis must constantly change, and by way of example he shows how Beethoven's music, which often perplexed his contemporaries, gave rise to a type of analysis not suited to the works of later composers. Rosen's cogent examination of motivic development in Beethoven and Schubert and his observations on the musical structure in several of Schubert's vocal works prove that lucid analysis can deepen our understanding of music. For the most part, however, his elusive arguments will be of primary interest to the cognoscente.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Rosen, a noteworthy scholar/pianist and National Book Award-winning author (The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, 1972), presents a series of lectures that he delivered in Rome in 1993. He begins by recalling a principle of biology in explaining the evolution of one's personal musical taste and then presents some examples of mistakes that have crept into certain music scores. Another lecture covers Beethoven as viewed by his literary contemporaries. The final lecture explains why Mozart occasionally sounds like Puccini, the success behind Schubert's An die Musik, and why he writes about music. Recommended for music libraries.
James E. Ross, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Kahn & Averill; 2nd edition edition (July 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187108265X
• ISBN-13: 978-1871082654
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,439,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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