<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Thanks to Matthew for the citations here. The following summarizes several things I have published on Goethe and early twentieth-century Vienna. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">
<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">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).</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">John Covach</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">University of Rochester</div></div><div class="gmail_extra">
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 11:51 PM, Arndt, Matthew <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:matthew-arndt@uiowa.edu" target="_blank">matthew-arndt@uiowa.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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Dear
Michael,
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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,’” <i>19th-Century Music</i> 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 <i>Schenker-Traditionen</i>, ed. Martin Eybl and Evelyn Fink-Mennel (Vienna: Böhlau, 2006), 29–50.</div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
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Matthew Arndt</div>
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Assistant Professor
<div>The University of Iowa School of Music</div>
<div>2700 University Capitol Center</div>
<div>Iowa City, IA 52242</div>
<div><a href="tel:319-353-2181" value="+13193532181" target="_blank">319-353-2181</a><br>
<a href="mailto:matthew-arndt@uiowa.edu" target="_blank">matthew-arndt@uiowa.edu</a><br>
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<div>On May 16, 2013, at 9:25 PM, Gregory Karl wrote:</div>
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<div>Hi Michael,</div>
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<div>If I remember correctly, this article uses the <i>Urpflanze</i> as its prime example of bad science. It may cite some useful sources:</div>
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<div>David L. Montgomery , "The Myth of Organicism: From Bad Science to Great Art,"
<i>The Musical Quarterly</i>, 75 (1991) </div>
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<div>Ruth Solie's "The Living Work: Organicism and Musical Analysis," (<i>19th-Century Music</i> 4 (1980)) might have some good leads. It's been a while; I just don't remember.</div>
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<div>Bye now,</div>
<div>Greg Karl</div>
<div>Jay NY</div>
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<div>On May 16, 2013, at 10:31 AM, Michael Morse wrote:</div>
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<div dir="ltr">Dear Folks,
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<div> 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
<i> Variations for <span style="font-size:12pt">Orchestra </span></i><span style="font-size:12pt">explicitly ties that work to Goethe's
</span><i style="font-size:12pt">Urpflanze</i><font size="3"> 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 </font>here<font size="3"> ever been involved with
this set of issues?</font></div>
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<div><span style="font-size:12pt">Thx,</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-size:12pt">Michael Morse</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:12pt">Trent University </span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:12pt">Peterborough, Oshawa</span></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>John Covach<br>Professor of Music and Chair, College Music Department, University of Rochester<br>Director, Institute for Popular Music, University of Rochester<br>
Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Rochester<br>Professor of Theory, Eastman School of Music<br>
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