Musik & Ästhetik, 2011, Jg. 15, Ausgabe 57

Comedy, Abstraction and Transfiguration in Beethoven´s Diabelli Variations


Beethoven´s Diabelli Variations op. 120 are considered a compendium of musical comedy. The work´s unusual interrupted genesis, however (one part was written in 1819, a smaller part in 1823), indicates that Beethoven in composing encountered resistances that he was initially unable to overcome. In 1819 he was already using a radical technique of motivic development based on the principle of abstraction, which leads to a dissolution of conventional musical language relations and dissociation rather than formal coherence; but it was only in 1823 that he was able to realise its formal implications in full. Alongside the development of the history of the subject as musical content and the stylistic method of ironic transformation, a decisive step here was transcending the dichotomy of closure and dissociation by abandoning the closed-work concept. Here, comedy and wit mirror the increasing fragility of the underlying musical foundation and the self-reflexive shift, but are also means of transformation sui generis.

Choruses and Leitmotifs in the Stage Works of Richard Wagner: From Greek Tragedy to Music Drama


This article attributes the introduction of the leitmotif technique in Richard Wagner´s stage works to his specific understanding of Attic tragedy, in particular the role of the chorus. Wagner projected three functions onto the ancient tragic chorus: rational commentary and reflection, development of its own actions, and representation of the musical-lyrical element. In order to capture these in the artistic work of the future too, however, Wagner felt that he could no longer use conventional opera choruses. Instead, the ancient chorus was divided up into its supposed functions and these were assigned to different parties: actions on stage would be presented by the individual protagonists, while the task of representing the musical-lyrical aspect was given to the orchestra, as was that of commentary and reflection upon events. It was for this latter purpose that Wagner, as this study attempts to show, developed the leitmotif technique.

The Time of Opera – The Time of Film. Der Rosenkavalier as a Silent Movie


In the silent movie Der Rosenkavalier from 1926, which uses an arrangement of the original music by Richard Strauss, is one of the few documents of a cinematic opera adaptation from the time of silent movies. Its medial setting is unique, as the transfer to film necessitates abandoning such fundamental components of the opera as song, text, staging and the symphonic unity of Richard Strauss´s music. This text examines stragies of translation from opera into silent movie using, among other examples, the Prehauser scene, in which a stage situation is quoted in the film, and also the scene in which the rose is handed over. Here it transpires that the film, for all its narrative and musical modifications, follows the opera down to subtle details. As well as a privileging of movement, which brings a reflexivity and temporality of its own into the film, we can also point to translation strategies that, compared to the 1912 opera, mark a break with the Old Europe of the pre-war era. The silent movie of Der Rosenkavalier thus appears as a typical film document of the 1920s.

Truth in Art and Music


In a first step, the simplicity of the positivistic concept of truth is critically rejected; in a second, it is replaced with an emphatic concept of truth that is made concrete as a concept of artistic truth, taking cues especially from Hegel, Heidegger and Adorno. The fourth step is a critique of Albrecht Wellmer´s work aesthetic, which appears to equate truth with artistic success (in the sense of accomplishment, not acclaim). In a fifth step, three fundamental validity claims are formulated instead: beauty, success (in the aforementioned sense) and truth. Firm criteria for each of these are developed in a sixth step. Concluding reflections apply these results to music.

On Sense and Meaning in Music


In a musical semantics, pieces of music are viewed as signs that can have a content (an intension) and, under certain circumstances, also a referent (an extension). This article, using the comprehension model for musical sense of Alexander Becker and Matthias Vogel, investigates whether pieces of music are perhaps not signs at all, concurring with Albrecht Wellmer that the concept of meaning is indispensable for musical works, and concludes by suggesting, in connection with Wellmer´s reflections, an interpretation of reference in musical works.