Exploring the Waters of Music Criticism in Nineteenth-Century Germany
E.T.A. Hoffmann describes a passage in Louis Spohr’s First Symphony as a “peaceful stream that gathers more and more strength as it flows on through the mountains and finally becomes a seething forest torrent” (1811). Along similar lines, Ludwig Rellstab asserts that the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony “rises up and carries us triumphantly forward in a full, surging stream” (1825). These metaphors liken musical processes to flowing bodies of water.
Such aquatic metaphors frequently appear in nineteenth-century German writings about music. Several musicologists have situated these metaphors in various philosophical, aesthetic, and scientific contexts. Thomas Grey has argued that Richard Wagner’s oceanic conception of harmony conjures up images of embryonic development and evolution. Moreover, Holly Watkins has examined images of depth, including deep water, in German music criticism. She observes that these images articulate a metaphysical philosophy of music.
Musical works, however, have been largely absent from these scholarly investigations. Seeking to redress this lack, I explore the correspondences between particular aquatic metaphors and specific musical gestures. My sources include music reviews in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, and A. B. Marx’s 1868 treatise A Practical and Theoretical Method of Musical Composition. I also analyze musical works with aquatic titles (“Scene by the brook” from Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony; Franz Schubert’s Auf dem Wasser zu singen).
One of my findings is that developmental processes, particularly sequential repetition, were often described in terms of a mountain stream gathering momentum. Scalar passagework, on the other hand, was frequently characterized as a babbling brook, as in Hoffmann’s review of Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op. 70 no. 1. Such descriptions enacted a hermeneutic approach which sought to convey musical meaning as well as musical processes. Water metaphors were an integral part of this project.
E.T.A. Hoffmann describes a passage in Louis Spohr’s First Symphony as a “peaceful stream that gathers more and more strength as it flows on through the mountains and finally becomes a seething forest torrent” (1811). Along similar lines, Ludwig Rellstab asserts that the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony “rises up and carries us triumphantly forward in a full, surging stream” (1825). These metaphors liken musical processes to flowing bodies of water.
Such aquatic metaphors frequently appear in nineteenth-century German writings about music. Several musicologists have situated these metaphors in various philosophical, aesthetic, and scientific contexts. Thomas Grey has argued that Richard Wagner’s oceanic conception of harmony conjures up images of embryonic development and evolution. Moreover, Holly Watkins has examined images of depth, including deep water, in German music criticism. She observes that these images articulate a metaphysical philosophy of music.
Musical works, however, have been largely absent from these scholarly investigations. Seeking to redress this lack, I explore the correspondences between particular aquatic metaphors and specific musical gestures. My sources include music reviews in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, and A. B. Marx’s 1868 treatise A Practical and Theoretical Method of Musical Composition. I also analyze musical works with aquatic titles (“Scene by the brook” from Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony; Franz Schubert’s Auf dem Wasser zu singen).
One of my findings is that developmental processes, particularly sequential repetition, were often described in terms of a mountain stream gathering momentum. Scalar passagework, on the other hand, was frequently characterized as a babbling brook, as in Hoffmann’s review of Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op. 70 no. 1. Such descriptions enacted a hermeneutic approach which sought to convey musical meaning as well as musical processes. Water metaphors were an integral part of this project.
