Experiencing Music in the North German Enlightenment
SENSITIVITY, INSPIRATION, AND RATIONAL AESTHETICS: EXPERIENCING MUSIC IN THE NORTH GERMAN ENLIGHTENMENT Kimary E. Fick, B.M., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY University of North Texas December 2015 APPROVED: Hendrik Schulze, Major Professor Peter Mondelli, Committee Member Christoph Weber, Committee Member Paul Leenhouts, Related Field Committee Member and Director of Early Music Studies Benjamin Brand, Director of Graduate Studies, College of Music James Scott, Dean of College of Music Costas Tsatsoulis, Dean of Toulouse Graduate School Fick, Kimary E. Sensitivity, Inspiration, and Rational Aesthetics: Experiencing Music in the North German Enlightenment. Doctor of Philosophy (Musicology), December 2015, 295 pp., 2 tables, 3 figures, 19 musical examples, references, 166 titles. This dissertation examines pre-Kantian rational philosophy and the development of the discipline of aesthetics in the North German Enlightenment. With emphasis on the historical conception of the physiological and psychological experience of music, this project determines the function of music both privately and socially in the eighteenth century. As a result, I identify the era of rational aesthetics (ca.1750-1800) as a music-historical period unified by the aesthetic function and metaphysical experience of music, which inform the underlying motivation for musical styles, genres, and means of expression, leading to a more meaningful and compelling historical periodization. The philosophy of Alexander Baumgarten, Johann Georg Sulzer, and others enable definitions of the experience of beautiful objects and those concepts related to music composition, listening, and taste, and determine how rational aesthetics impacted the practice, function, and ultimately the prevailing style of music in the era.
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