{"product_id":"9781316618233","title":"Wagner's Melodies : Aesthetics and Materialism in German Musical Identity","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince the 1840s, critics have lambasted Wagner for lacking the ability to compose melody. But for him, melody was fundamental - 'music's only form'. This incongruity testifies to the surprising difficulties during the nineteenth century of conceptualizing melody. Despite its indispensable place in opera, contemporary theorists were unable even to agree on a definition for it. In Wagner's Melodies, David Trippett re-examines Wagner's central aesthetic claims, placing the composer's ideas about melody in the context of the scientific discourse of his age: from the emergence of the natural sciences and historical linguistics to sources about music's stimulation of the body and inventions for 'automatic' composition. Interweaving a rich variety of material from the history of science, music theory, music criticism, private correspondence and court reports, Trippett uncovers a new and controversial discourse that placed melody at the apex of artistic self-consciousness and generated problems of urgent dimensions for German music aesthetics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cambridge University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49771471798520,"sku":"00000_00000_00000_00000","price":113.58,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/8208\/6904\/files\/9781316618233-1.jpg?v=1783683193","url":"https:\/\/kinokuniya.com.au\/products\/9781316618233","provider":"Books Kinokuniya Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}