Absolute music

As absolute music (Latin absolutus " detached ", " independent") is referred to music that is free of non- musical influences and requirements ( such as text, stage, dance, nature, technology ) and very committed to their own ideal as art. Thus, it is in contrast to program music. The idea of ​​the absolute in music was mainly composed of the sonatas and symphonies of the later 18th and 19th century. Representatives of absolute music, for example Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann.

The term comes from Richard Wagner, who him in terms of a historical aberration cars and his idea of the musical drama, however, that: " Absolute music " is from the other arts and separate from life. With Beethoven's 9th Symphony for the climax of this development had been achieved and been overcome by the addition of choir and text. Wagner's musical drama is the logical consequence. Music should not be even "purpose", but had a "means " to stay ( Opera and Drama ).

An opponent Wagner was the music critic Eduard Hanslick, who declared "pure" instrumental music to the ideal in his work From Beautiful in Music (1854 ).

Literature and sources

  • Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, Absolute Music. In Riemann music lexicon, 12 Auflg. Vol 3 Property, part, 1967, pp. 4-5.
  • Carl Dahlhaus, The idea of absolute music. In 1978. 3rd edition. Barenreiter, Kassel et al, 1994, 151 pp. ISBN 3-7618-0821-6.
  • Albrecht von Massow, Absolute Music. In: Handbook of musical terminology, 22 delivery, 1994, 17 pp.
  • Rudolf Flotzinger: Absolute music. In: Oesterreichisches music lexicon. Online edition, Vienna 2002 et seq, ISBN 3-7001-3077-5; Print Edition: Volume 1, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7001-3043-0.
  • Aesthetics of music
Musikdrama Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) Integrated Authority File
1019
de