[Smt-talk] Metamorphosis

[John Covach]

Thanks to Matthew for the citations here.  The following summarizes several
things I have published on Goethe and early twentieth-century Vienna.

Goethe's influence lies largely in two domains: 1) organicism and
morphology, drawn mostly from his writing on plants (Schenker and
Schoenberg); and 2) the theory of color, used to defend the idea that the
12 tempered tones are more "perfect" and "spiritual" than the tones as they
exist in the physical realm (Hauer).  These two sources share the notion
that the ultimate form of the phenomenon or thing at hand exists in a
perfection achieved in the mind, and this notion of vision was adopted by
artists as embracing a kind of artistic perception that often had ethical
and/or spiritual dimensions.  Most of these musicians, I argue, were
influenced by Rudolf Steiner's interpretations of Goethe's science.
 Steiner stressed the spiritual-vision element, using it as a way of
supporting Theosophy, and later his own Anthroposophy.  If you know
Steiner's work, there is little surprise when reading the more broadly
philosophical remarks of Schenker, Schoenberg, and Hauer.  Add Balzac's
philosophical novels and Schopenhauer's remarks on music to the mix, and
it's not hard to see how they could all assemble around the idea of the
composer as a kind of, well, prophet or seer.  That a more careful study of
these influences would reveal contradictions between them seems not to have
bothered any of the figures I mention; they often took an idea and ran with
it (Schoenberg especially).

John Covach
University of Rochester


On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 11:51 PM, Arndt, Matthew <matthew-arndt at uiowa.edu>wrote:

>  Dear Michael,
>
>  Gary W. Don wrote a dissertation on the topic: “Music and Goethe’s
> Theories of Growth” (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1991). A few
> pieces by John Covach touch on the broader reception of Goethe's scientific
> ideas at the turn of the twentieth century, notably “The Sources of
> Schoenberg’s ‘Aesthetic Theology,’” *19th-Century Music* 19/3 (1996):
> 252–262. And there have been several pieces about Goethe's influence on
> Schenker and Schoenberg in particular, the most notable of which
> is Severine Neff, “Schenker, Schoenberg, and Goethe: Visions of the Organic
> Artwork,” in *Schenker-Traditionen*, ed. Martin Eybl and Evelyn
> Fink-Mennel (Vienna: Böhlau, 2006), 29–50.
>
>  Matthew Arndt
>  Assistant Professor
> The University of Iowa School of Music
> 2700 University Capitol Center
> Iowa City, IA 52242
> 319-353-2181
> matthew-arndt at uiowa.edu
>
>
>  On May 16, 2013, at 9:25 PM, Gregory Karl wrote:
>
>  Hi Michael,
>
>  If I remember correctly, this article uses the *Urpflanze* as its prime
> example of bad science. It may cite some useful sources:
>
>  David L. Montgomery , "The Myth of Organicism: From Bad Science to Great
> Art," *The Musical Quarterly*, 75 (1991)
>
>  Ruth Solie's "The Living Work: Organicism and Musical Analysis," (*19th-Century
> Music* 4 (1980)) might have some good leads. It's been a while; I just
> don't remember.
>
>  Bye now,
> Greg Karl
> Jay NY
>
>
>
>
>  On May 16, 2013, at 10:31 AM, Michael Morse wrote:
>
>  Dear Folks,
>
>    I've been at least tangentially intrigued by the influence of Goethe
> on musicians and music theory for quite a while. Anton Webern's letter to
> his friends Josef Humplik and Hildegard Jone about the conception of his *
>  Variations for Orchestra *explicitly ties that work to Goethe's *
> Urpflanze* notion. And I recently read a critical but very respectful
> study by Helmholtz of the contemporary status, ca. 1860, of Goethe's
> scientific ideas. It made me wonder; has anyone tried to synthesize the
> scattered but clearly considerable influence of Goethe's scientific ideas
> on music theory and practice? Are there studies you can recommend about
> particular musicians or theorists? Finally, has anyone here ever been
> involved with this set of issues?
>
>  Thx,
>
>  Michael Morse
> Trent University
> Peterborough, Oshawa
>
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-- 
John Covach
Professor of Music and Chair, College Music Department, University of
Rochester
Director, Institute for Popular Music, University of Rochester
Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Rochester
Professor of Theory, Eastman School of Music
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