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      • Trusted Partner
        November 2021

        Perspektiven der Musikphilosophie

        by Wolfgang Fuhrmann, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf

        Musik ist eine Herausforderung für die Philosophie – die von dieser oft nicht angenommen wurde. In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat sich jedoch die Musikphilosophie im deutschsprachigen Raum als ein zunehmend dynamisches interdisziplinäres Feld zwischen Philosophie, Ästhetik und Kunsttheorie, Musikwissenschaft, Musiktheorie und musikalischer Praxis entwickelt. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes, u. a. von Daniel Martin Feige, Gunnar Hindrichs, Richard Klein, Cosima Linke und Matthias Vogel, ziehen erstmals ein Fazit und beleuchten die Perspektiven des mittlerweile ausdifferenzierten Diskurses über diese scheinbar unmittelbarste und zugleich begrifflich am schwersten fassbare künstlerische Ausdrucksform.

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      • Trusted Partner
        March 2013

        Wagners Frauen

        by Dietrich Mack

        Richard Wagner revolutioniert nicht nur das Musikdrama; eine Naturgewalt ist er auch im Lieben wie im Leiden und, so nennt er sich selbst, »ein Verherrlicher der Frauen«. Eine Frau weist dem Sechzehnjährigen den künstlerischen Weg, eine Frau hält die Totenwache und festigt sein künstlerisches Erbe. Zweimal heiratet er; mit 23 Jahren als vagabundierender, verschuldeter Musikdirektor die hübsche Schauspielerin Minna Planer, mit 57 Jahren als berühmt gewordener Komponist die seinetwegen geschiedene Cosima von Bülow, mit der er zuvor drei Kinder gezeugt hat. Die Ehen gefährden stürmische Affären: mit der reichen Mäzenin Mathilde Wesendonck, die die Geduld ihres Ehemanns strapaziert, mit der Engländerin Jessie Laussot oder der schönen, 33 Jahre jüngeren begeisterten Wagnerianerin Judith Gautier. Die Lebensstürme dienen der Inspiration, die Ruhephasen der beharrlichen Arbeit.

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      • Biography: general

        Simply Wagner

        by Thomas S. Grey

        More than 130 years after his death, the operas and philosophy of Richard Wagner (1813–1883) continue to provoke controversy. A man of unquestioned artistic brilliance, he was also a fierce nationalist and outspoken anti-Semite, who was posthumously embraced by the Nazis and became a cultural hero of the Third Reich. Though he changed the course of classical music, in his personal life Wagner was an overbearing and ruthless megalomaniac, who stopped at nothing to achieve his ambitions.   In Simply Wagner, musicologist and author Thomas Grey navigates the turbulent course of Wagner’s life, as he sought to create a total “musical-dramatic art work of the future.” From his early “romantic operas” through the harmonic cataclysm of Tristan und Isolde, to the epic 16-hour cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, Grey traces Wagner’s musical development, clearly explaining the nature of his achievement. Grey also shares key events in Wagner’s personal life, including the composer’s relationship with his patron, “mad” King Ludwig of Bavaria, and his extended affair with Cosima von Bülow—eventually his second wife—who bore him three children while still married to someone else.   Written for a general readership, Simply Wagner offers a complete portrait of Wagner the man, the thinker, and the artist, and explores the circumstances that made him the most discussed artistic figure of his time, and one of the most controversial ever since.

      • Against the Arrogance of Those Who Read

        Texts to rethink the act of reading

        by Cristian Vázquez

        It seemed to me that the different texts that appear in this book needed each other, and that each one of them knew the exact place it had to occupy, and that its limits fitted in so well with those around it as if they were the pieces of a detailed puzzle. I also feared that this collection might be superfluous and banal. Moreover, is it not even contradictory that under the title Against the 'Arrogance of Those Who Read', the mere notes of a reader are printed? In any case, I like to think of this book as the child of that tension. And of other tensions, such as that between reading and writing. Or the one that asks if there are differences between the writers who read and the readers who write, and if so, what are they? Or the one that seeks the last frontier in the eagerness to express love for books, in order to promote reading, without falling into the trap of becoming a crude propagandist or an obnoxious show-off.

      • Music
        September 2012

        Bach, Beethoven and the Boys

        Music History as it Ought to be Taught

        by David W. Barber

        David W. Barber has delighted readers around the world with Accidentals on Purpose, When the Fat Lady Sings and other internationally bestselling books of musical humor. His bestselling Bach, Beethoven and the Boys chronicles the lives of the great (and not-so-great) composers as you've never read them before – exploring their sex lives, exposing their foibles and expanding on our understanding of these all-too-human creatures. Filled with information, interesting facts and trivia, this hilarious history covers music from Gregorian chant to the mess we're in now. From Bach's laundry lists to Beethoven's bowel problems, from Gesualdo's kinky fetishes to Cage's mushroom madness, Barber tells tales out of school that ought to be put back there. (Think how much more fun it would be if they taught this stuff.) As always, Dave Donald had provided witty and clever cartoon illustrations to accompany the text. "My heartiest commendation for an admirable work of scholarship... I will not say again that it is funny, since this will compel you to set your jaw and dare Barber to make you laugh." - Anthony Burgess, on Bach, Beethoven and the Boys

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