Chung-Sun Kwon (review)

Abstract

MLRy ioo.i, 2005 255 wealth of well-organized bibliographical information, thereby empowering readers to set out on the long road to Mundigkeit already partly travelled by the women writers whom she discusses. University of Manchester Judith Purver Studien zur Idee des 'Gesamtkunstwerks' in der Fruhromantik: Zur Utopie einer Musikanschauung von Wackenroder bis Schopenhauer. By Chung-Sun Kwon. (Europaische Hochschulschriften: Musikwissenschaft, 229) Frankfurt a.M., Berlin, and Bern: Peter Lang. 2003. 266 pp. SwF 59; ?25. ISBN 3-631-50534-5. The product ofa doctoral dissertation, Chung-Sun Kwon's book skilfully assembles theories by the early Romantics from Wackenroder to Schopenhauer on the concept of a 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. He also interprets three works as examples of synaesthesia : Ludwig Tieck's Franz Sternbalds Wanderungen, Philipp Otto Runge's Die vier Tageszeiten, and Clemens Brentano's Die Romanzen vom Rosenkranz. Emphasizing the development of music as the key feature, Kwon includes chapters on absolute music as understood by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Eichendorff's use of 'klingende Leitmotive ' towards a musical whole, and Schopenhauer's metaphysics of music. Each chapter points towards Wagner's assimilation of these earlier concepts and practices and provides evidence of extensive reading of secondary literature. The strength of the book lies in the presentation of original texts reinforced by the findings of other scholars. Occasionally the reader will want to know more about Kwon's own reactions; he seems to have embarked on an exercise of presenting 'Geistesgeschichte' rather than offeringnew interpretations. Only once does he suggest he departs from earlier published opinions; however, he often provides extra evidence to support earlier re? search findings. Thus the distinction is made between 'synthesis' and 'synaesthesia' through others' writings, but it is never fully defined. Kwon's main aims (to show the parallels between musical form and the structures of poetry and painting, the function of musical feeling, i.e. the dissolution of subjec? tive feelings in the work of art, the interchange of effectsbetween differentgenres, and the transformation of ideas in other genres into a musical work) centre on the primacy of music. Thus he shows that Wackenroder and Tieck, because of their understand? ing of nature, were able to portray the indissoluble relationship between the self and the cosmos through any genre that approached music, especially instrumental music, itself a metaphor of transcendence. Novalis's and Schlegel's vision of an ideal world attained through 'Universalpoesie', while recognizing the variety and individuality of differentforms, reaches towards synaesthesia in music that heightens the expressivity of other genres. This leads to a 'sympathetic reunion' of the disunited soul, a step towards Wagner's aims for the Bayreuth festivals. Kwon's presentation of the underlying theories is justified when he examines Tieck's evocation of a lost paradise through the horn-motif and its influence on Weber's opera Der Freischiitz, which in turn was praised by Wagner. Runge's Die vier Tageszeiten is seen against t^ie background of Tieck, the composer Ludwig Berger and Haydn's Jahreszeiten, ajid a link is^rnade forward to Brentano's Romanzen vom Rosenkranz. The cyclical and allegorical nature of these works is traced, and Brentano's sonata formquoted from Gunther Reinhardt's 1934 dissertation (on p. 175 wrongly cited as Reichard). Brentano's Marchen Gockel, Hinkel und Gackeleia is pre? sented as an arabesque of different forms as described by Friedrich Schlegel, and the arabesque is defined in Runge's work as 'gleichsam sichtbar gewordene Musik' (p. 182). Kwon relates Hoffmann's ideal of instrumental music to the Platonic idea of a mirroring of universal nature by the subjective self. Schopenhauer's emphasis on 256 Reviews the need for the will to re-establish the link between the world of appearances and a lost human capacity to interact with them is seen as an essential further step from the synaesthesia ofthe arts in early Romantic art towards Wagner's use of synthesis. Wagner thus evokes through 'Gesamtkunstwerke' the totality of a universe in rela? tionship to man. This book is useful as a reference short-cut through the often tortuous theories of the early Romantics. It casts light on the role of music as a co-ordinating and intensifyingfactor and will be...