"To Tear the Fetter of Every Other Art": Early Romantic Criticism and the Fantasy of

Emancipation
Author(s): Lisa Fishman
Source: 19th-Century Music , Summer 2001, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Summer 2001), pp. 75-86
Published by: University of California Press

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 LISA
FISHMA
Early
Romanti
Criticism

“To Tear the Fetter of Every Other Art”:

Early Romantic Criticism and the
Fantasy of Emancipation
LISA FISHMAN

Aesthetic conceptions of music experienced a on the issues at stake in the aesthetic debate.
dramatic upheaval during the late eighteenth Belgian theorist Jérôme-Joseph de Momigny and
and early nineteenth centuries. Time-honored German critic August Apel added text to in-
views of music’s subservience to words, and strumental compositions by Mozart, the Ž rst
the concomitant ranking of the literary arts movements of the D-Minor String Quartet, K.
above music and vocal music above instrumen- 421, and E -Major Symphony, K. 543, respec-
tal, were turned on their heads. Together with tively. 2 In so doing, Momigny hoped to clarify
the changes in musical institutions and modes
of reception, these upheavals have been well
charted, their intricacies documented in sev- 2
August Apel, “Musik und Poesi e,” A llgemeine
musikalische Zeitung 8 (16/23 April 1806), 449–57, 465–
eral major studies.1 Two texts appearing in 1806 70. Momigny’s example appears in his Cours complet
are intriguing symptoms of the prevalent anxi- d’harmonie et de composition, 3 vols. (Paris, 1803–06), I,
ety over words and music and offer a new angle 371–73. For considerations of Momigny’s understanding of
the relationship of music to language, see the following:
Albert Palm, “Mozarts Streichquartett d-moll, KV 421, in
der Interpretation Momignys,” Mozart-Jahrbuch 1962/3
(Salzburg, 1964), p. 268; Rüdiger Görner, “Die Sprache in
1
See Bellamy Hosler, Changing Aesthetic Views of Instru- der Musiktheorie Jérôme-Joseph de Momignys,” in Logos
mental Music in 18-Century Germany (Ann Arbor, 1981); musicae: Festschrift für Albert Palm, ed. Rüdiger Görner
and John Neubauer, The Emancipation of Music from Lan- (Wiesbaden, 1982), pp. 100–09; Albert Palm, “Musikalische
guage: Departure from Mimesis in Eighteenth-Century Aes- Analyse als asthetisches Instrumentarium,” Zeitschrift für
thetics (New Haven, 1986). On the relationship between Musikpädagogik, 8/23 (1983), 43–50; Roger Parker, “On
poetry and music, see James Anderson Winn, Unsuspected Reading Nineteenth-Century Opera: Verdi through the
Eloquence: A History of the Relations between Poetry and Looking-Glass,” in Reading Opera, ed. Arthur Groos and
Music (New Haven, 1981). Mark Evan Bonds argues for the Roger Parker (Princeton, 1988), 288–305; and Hermann
in uence of idealist philosophy in “Idealism and the Aes- Danuser, “Vers-oder Prosaprinzip? Mozarts Streichquartett
thetics of Instrumental Music at the Turn of the Nine- in d-Moll (KV 421) in der Deutung Jérôme-Joseph de
teenth Century,” Journal of the American Musicological Momignys und Arnold Schönbergs,” Musiktheorie 7 (1992),
Society 50 (1997), 387–420. 245–63.

19th-Century Music, XXV/1, pp. 75–86. ISSN: 0148-2076. © 2001 by The Regents of the University of 75
California. All rights reserved. Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University
of California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center St., Ste. 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223.

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 19 TH the music’s true expression, and Apel strove to in eighteenth-century musical aesthetics, that
CENTURY
MUSIC show that the same Idee may be projected by music is at core a translation of words.5
two such diverse arts as poetry and music.3 Cramer’s œuvre of criticism is illuminating
Both projects deliver the same product: a verbal in this respect. In 1783, in an essay titled “On
complement to Mozart’s musical ideas, or, if Beauty and the Expression of Passion in a Can-
you will, a linguistic translation of musical tata by J. Haydn,” Cramer offers remarks on
prose. the concert version of the recitative and aria
Although Apel creates his verse—a celebra- “Ah, come il core,” from Haydn’s 1781 opera
tion of love, replete with stock Romantic imag- La Fedeltà Premiata.6 This work was favorably
ery—as a freestanding monument to Mozart’s received from the Ž rst and continues to be held
movement, Momigny’s rendition entails an in high regard.7 Yet as its title implies, Cramer’s
actual underlay of the music with his own verse reading of it reverses the modern hierarchy: he
recounting Dido’s lament. As such, it is among favors textual expression over musical struc-
the last in the tradition that includes ture. His comments on mm. 21–22 of the
Gerstenberg’s underlay of Carl Philipp Emanuel recitative are typical (ex. 1a, b, and c): “On the
Bach’s C-Minor Probestücke Fantasy with the word ‘tu,’ Haydn has not given the note the
German translation of Shakespeare’s “To be or correct position. He has assigned it to an up-
not to be” soliloquy. The critic Carl Friedrich beat, when it should fall on a downbeat. It
Cramer warns his readers in the 1780s not to should be not: tu per salvàrlo, but tù per
consider Gerstenberg’s achievement “mere salvarlo. One should thus sing it as if notated
whimsy” and confesses his own admiration: {one quarter note and two eighth notes}, or,
“By my accounting it must be incomprehen- even better, one could pause after the word ‘tu’
sible to the keyboard player how this {feat} and sing the two syllables ‘per sal’ in sixteenth
becomes possible even once within the con- notes.” Thirty-Ž ve measures later, Haydn engi-
Ž nes of a fantasy that wanders with such speed neers three shocking fortissimo unisons, each
through all octaves.”4 Appraisals from Cramer elongated with a decrescendo to pianissimo,
and many others spring from a conviction about complete with sudden tympani entrances and
the nature of music: a conviction, deep-seated  utter tonguing in the horns (ex. 2, mm. 56–
62). H. C. Robbins Landon calls this moment
an “almost unbelievable . . . interruption,” but
Cramer swallows this camel, remarking only
that the text at this point should be sung with
an anguished tone of voice.8
3
Gernot Gruber relates Apel’s project to the early Roman- Throughout his analysis, Cramer’s unspo-
tic understanding of the symphony in “Johann August Apel
und eine Diskussion um die Ästhetik der Sinfonie im frühen ken assumption is that music’s place is clearly
19. Jahrhundert,” in Studien zur Instrumentalmusik: Lothar to illuminate the words, which are of primary
Hoffman-Erbrecht zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. A. Bingmann importance within the artwork. This textual
et al. (Tutzing, 1988), pp. 261–83.
4
“{Denn ich glaube gern}, daß nach meiner bloßen Erzählung orientation pervades Cramer’s criticism, beyond
es den Clavierspielern unbegrei ich seyn muß, wie dieß
bey dem Umfange einer mit solcher Schnelligkeit durch
alle gebiete der Octaven schweifenden Phantasie nur einmal
möglich gewesen sey” (Carl Friedrich Cramer, Magazin
der Musik, 1/2 {1783}, 1253–54). Cramer describes
Gerstenberg’s project, which he published with an intro-
duction in the Flora collection, in more detail in vol. 2.2 of 5 See Mary Sue Morrow, German Music Criticism in the
the Magazin, pp. 1359–63. Eugene Helm sees this project Late Eighteenth Century: Aesthetic Issues in Instrumen-
less as an attempt to unearth the “true” meaning of Bach’s tal Music (Cambridge, 1997).
fantasy than to literalize it in several possible ways, in- 6
Cramer, “Ueber die Schönheit und den Ausdruck der
cluding in Socrates’ monologue. See Helm, “The ‘Hamlet’ Leidenschaft in einer Cantate von J. Haydn,” Magazin der
Fantasy and the Literary Element in C. P. E. Bach’s Mu- Musik, 1/2 (1783), 1073–1115.
sic,” Musical Quarterly 58 (1972), 277–96. For a broader 7 See Marc Vignal, “La Fedeltà Premiata in Holland,” Haydn

discussion of literary-musical collaborations at this time, Yearbook 8 (1971), 295–98; and H. C. Robbins Landon,
see Paul F. Marks, “Aesthetics of Music in the Philosophy Haydn: Chronicle and Works, vol. 2, Haydn at Eszterháza,
of Sturm und Drang: Gerstenberg, Hamann and Herder,” 1766–1790 (Bloomington, 1978), 537–44.
Music Review 35 (1974), 247–59. 8 Landon, Haydn at Eszterháza, p. 540.

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a. “Ah, come il core,” mm. 20–23. LISA
FISHMAN
20 Early
Flute Romantic
Criticism

Oboe

Bassoon

Violin I

Violin II

Viola

Vocal
{ }
in - u - ma - na pie - tà, tu per sal - var - lo fo - sti l’em - pia ca gion del - la sua mor - te . . .

Bass

b. Cramer’s first revision. c. Cramer’s second revision.

- tà tu per sal - - tà tu per sal -

Example 1

the Haydn and Gerstenberg examples.9 In his original seventh chord in the modulating pas-
review of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s fourth sage might be likened to shooting pain whose
Sammlung für Kenner und Liebhaber (1783), pricking stabs would personify vexation in the
Cramer struggles to make sense of the two soul.”11
concluding fantasies.10 Of the second fantasy The assumption underlying Cramer’s
(E major), which Bach in jest labeled in analytics is that all music has a text—be it a
tormentis in reference to his rheumatism, description or a soliloquy—even if that text is
Cramer fancies that the composer might well suppressed. Such an assumption says much
have abstracted an entire theory of gout while about both Cramer’s understanding of the com-
working out the piece. In this way, “the very positional process and his hearing of instru-

9
As a critic, Cramer was unusual in that he was not a
professional musician, but rather a professor of Greek and “Beym zweyten Ansatze so gleich so orginal in die
11

Oriental languages. Nevertheless, his linguistic approach Secondquartsexte ausweichended Laufe ihre herum iegende
to analysis is representative of much of the criticism of his Pein, in den kleinern stoßenden Stellen ihre Stiche, den
day. Eindruck des Aergers auf die Seele u. leibhaftig gewahr
10Cramer, Magazin der Musik, 1/2 (1783), 1239–55. würde” (ibid., p. 1253).

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 19 TH 54
CENTURY
MUSIC Flute
{ }

Oboe I
{ }

Oboe II
{ }

Bassoon
{ }
{a sempre tremolante, ma in Ž ne perdendosi}
Horn { . . . .} { . . . .}
{ . . . .} { . . . .}
con un continuo bischero ed in Ž ne perdendosi
Timpani
in D-A
coll’arco

Violin I

coll’arco

Violin II

coll’arco

Viola

Vocal

Te - co - sa - rò . . . Che sen - to! Ah tu sde - gno - sa, dal

coll’arco

Bass

{ }

Example 2: “Ah, come il core,” mm. 54–62.

mental music. Why is it so important for Another of music’s inadequacies was that it
Cramer that music always serve words, whether stimulated the emotions while offering noth-
implicitly or explicitly? What is the lack that ing for the understanding. Here, too, the rem-
words supply? In the gout example, Cramer edy was to join music to a text. British
wants each tone to correspond to some event aesthetician James Harris expressed the advan-
in the external world, in keeping with the man- tage of this union by describing “the genuine
date, made popular by Batteux, that all art imi- Charm of Music, and the Wonders, which it
tate an object in nature.12 For music, the object works, thro’ its great Professors: a Power, which
of this imitation is human emotions, and the consists not in Imitations, and the raising Ideas,
means of imitation resides in music’s likeness but in the raising Affections, to which Ideas
to impassioned speech. may correspond {through poetry}.”13

13James Harris, Three Treatises: The First Concerning Art,

Charles Batteux, Les Beaux-arts réduits à un même
12
the Second Concerning Music, Painting and Poetry, the
principe (Paris, 1746). Third Concerning Happiness (London, 1744), p. 99.

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 59 LISA
FISHMAN
Flute Early
Romantic
Criticism
Oboe I

Oboe II

Bassoon

Horn { . . . .}
{ . . . .}

Timpani
in D-A

Violin I

Violin II

Viola

Vocal

mar - gi - ne di Le - te mi - ri - spon - di, tra so - spi - ri - fu - ne - sti:

Bass

Example 2 (continued)

Thus far, words assure Cramer of two things: most vivid impression of their effect.”14 The
an object of imitation, and a means of engaging movement in question possesses a motivic,
the faculty of reason. A third advantage of a rather than melodic, character. In contrast, other
text also emerges: the provision of structure movements in this collection—presumably the
and unity. Cramer writes of the Ž rst movement movements to which Cramer refers—project a
of the E-Minor Sonata from the fourth collec-
tion for Kenner und Liebhaber: “I am conscious
of no clear character of unity, as in the other
14
“Ich wüßte mir hierbey keinen solchen bestimmten und
Einheit enthaltenden Character zu denken, wie bey den
rondos and sonatas in this collection. The in- übrigen Rondos und Sonaten dieser Sammlung; die
terweaving of its melody escapes my memory Verwebung seiner Melodie entwischt meinem Gedächtniße
when I leave the keyboard; the others, how- wenn ich vom Clavier aufstehe, dahingegen ich alle die
übrigen nur ein einzigesmal zu hören brauche, um das
ever, I need to hear only a single time in order lebendigste Bild ihres Ganges meiner Imagination eingeprägt
to have imprinted upon my imagination the zu haben” (Cramer, Magazin der Musik, 1/2, p. 1248).

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 19 TH structure based on repetition of an easily recog- only with regard to pitch and strength but also with
CENTURY regard to its various tones of sweetness, roughness,
MUSIC nizable melody. In posing this contrast, Cramer
responds to the characteristically instrumental harshness, mellowness, used in their proper places,
nature of the E-minor movement as exhibited then that natural music arises to which every heart
is sure to respond because we feel that it issues from
in two ways: lack of a melodic line, and lack of
the heart, and that art has only part in it so far as art
a melodically based unifying structure. Both of
is nature.16
these attributes (melodic line and unifying struc-
ture) are closely associated with vocal music
Lessing’s requirement for instrumental music
and are the landmarks Cramer seeks out when
contrasts sharply with the above description.
getting his bearings in instrumental music.
Speaking of entr’actes, Lessing speciŽ es that
After such complaints of disunity, Cramer’s
music must maintain a uniŽ ed character be-
praise for the variety that Haydn brings to bear
cause it has no words to perform this task. An
on his text, particularly in connection with
actor declaiming a text, however, must draw
declamation, is striking. He Ž rst invokes a se-
out of this text as much variety as possible,
ries of binary oppositions that encompasses the
because the unity is already provided by the
range of expression that a good declaimer might
sense of the text and the cohesion of the narra-
hope to extract from the text: these include,
tive. For Lessing, a text provides music with
“strength and weakness, slowness and swift-
not only a conceptual unity supplying linguis-
ness, a  owing melody or one interrupted by
tic meaning but also a literal unity by supply-
pauses, gentleness or vehemence, clarity or ob-
ing a skeleton on which the notes themselves
scurity, joy or mournfulness.” Transferring
may hang. For Cramer, then, as for Momigny
these qualities to the art of composition, Cramer
and Gerstenberg, music is not so much an au-
calls on Hiller’s proclamation that “taste re-
tonomous artistic system with its own proper-
quires diversity of all the Ž ne arts, and of none
ties, but rather a voice that articulates words.
more than music. The requirement extends it-
For all their synchronicity, Momigny and
self also to the various gradations of strength
Apel entertain markedly different ideas about
and weakness of which the voice is capable.”15
instrumental music. Apel comments on the
Hiller, like Cramer, stresses the need for vari-
rhythmic Ž nale to Mozart’s E Symphony,
ety particularly in instrumental music.
“which extends itself to the apparent possibil-
In the Bach instrumental works, Cramer
ity of textual underlay.”17 He goes on to cau-
searches for the kind of unity provided by a
tion, however, that the actualization would cre-
text, whereas in the Haydn critique he empha-
ate an impression contrary to the meaning of
sizes the need for variety in vocal music. Why
the music, just as a speaking pantomime would
does the standard invoked for one not hold for
contradict his gestures with his words. In re-
the other? One clue lies in the quotation that
jecting the very notion of text underlay, Apel
Cramer himself provides, from Lessing’s
in fact rejects—or at least throws into ques-
Dramaturgie, regarding proper declamatory
tion—all projects that draw on this technique,
technique:
including Momigny’s. In fact, the very contem-
poraneousness of Momigny and Apel signal not
The effect produced by this constant change {in
only two very different conceptions of the mu-
declamatory expression} is incredible, and if besides
this all changes of voice are taken into account, not sical art, but also the collision of these concep-
tions in theory and practice.

15“Stärke und Schwäche, der Langsamkeit und Schnellig-

keit, des eilenden oder durch Pausen unterbrochnen
Gesangs, der Sanftheit oder Heftigkeit, der Klarheit oder
DumpŽ gkeit, der Fröhlichkeit oder der Trauer” (ibid., p.
1075). “Von allen schönen Künsten fordert der Geschmack
Mannigfaltigkeit, und von keiner mehr als von der Music. 16
Lessing, Hamburg Dramaturgy, trans. Helen Zimmerman
Diese Forderung erstreckt sich auch auf die verschiedenen (New York, 1962), p. 24.
Grade der stärke und Schwäche, deren die Stimme fähig 17
“Welche bis zur scheinbaren Möglichkeit einer wortlichen
ist” (ibid., p. 1074). Unterlegung geht” (Apel, “Musik und Poesie,” col. 452).

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 II tion (§53) Kant claims the following: “Among LISA
FISHMAN
At the scene of the accident we Ž nd the all the arts poetry holds the highest rank. . . . It Early
age’s chief critical authority, Immanuel Kant. expands the mind: for it sets the imagination Romantic
Criticism
His aesthetics as detailed in the Kritik der free, and offers us, from among the unlimited
Urteilskraft (1790) consummate one century variety of possible forms that harmonize with a
grappling with the relative worth of the Ž ne given concept, though within that concept’s
arts while anticipating the next. For Kant, the limits, that form which links the exhibition of
primary value of any Ž ne art lies in its capacity the concept with a wealth of thought to which
to promote what he calls aesthetic ideas, which no linguistic expression is completely adequate,
he deŽ nes in §57 of the Third Critique as ideas and so poetry rises aesthetically to ideas.”19 By
“referred to a merely subjective principle of the presenting us with many possible forms for a
mutual harmony of the cognitive powers (imagi- single concept, poetry simultaneously works
nation and understanding).” This notion that within a concept and yet transcends it. Poetry
the imagination and understanding enjoy har- thus engages both the imagination and the un-
monious interplay informs Kant’s conception derstanding to the highest degree.
of the Ž ne arts’ modus operandi, in which the In terms of the visual arts, to which Kant
role of concepts (Begriffe) becomes central. A with qualiŽ cations assigns the next rank after
concept is a product of our understanding that poetry, he gives preference to painting over
enables us to make sense of intuitions, or pre- sculpture and architecture: “Among the visual
sentations, that we encounter. For example, if arts I would give priority to painting, partly
presented with a horse, we match this presen- because it is the art of design and as such un-
tation with a concept of a horse that we have derlies all the remaining visual arts, partly be-
come to possess through our experience of cause it can penetrate much further into the
horses. In contrast to a concept, which is pre- region of ideas, and in conformity with them
sented to the understanding, an aesthetic idea can also expand the realm of intuition more
is presented to the imagination: the imagina- than the other visual arts can do.”20 We may
tion for Kant is a productive cognitive power, infer that for Kant painting possesses a greater
which “creates, as it were, another nature out capacity to penetrate into the region of ideas
of the material that actual nature gives it.” In because it is not as limited by corporeality or
other words, the imagination contributes to representationalism as are sculpture and archi-
the production of aesthetic ideas by expanding tecture. By the same token, poetry is less lim-
on the concepts presented to us. Hence, para- ited still than painting. Freedom to represent
doxically, although the presence of concepts is ideas is hindered Ž rst by the visual orientation
necessary in order for aesthetic ideas to exist, of the representation, and second by the mate-
these aesthetic ideas must, by their very na- riality of the visual representation itself. Hence,
ture, surpass the boundary of the concept. Kant while corporeality and representationalism are
elsewhere (§49) describes an aesthetic idea as not in themselves ultimate criteria in assessing
“a presentation of the imagination which Ž ne arts, they nevertheless determine a par-
prompts much thought, but to which no deter- ticular medium’s ability to “penetrate into the
minate thought whatsoever, i.e., no {determi- region of ideas.”
nate} concept, can be adequate, so that no lan- Kant’s categorization of music among the
guage can express it completely and allow us to Ž ne arts is ambiguous.21 At base, however, mu-
grasp it.”18 sic lacks concepts, and is thus incapable of
Possession of aesthetic ideas hereupon
emerges as an essential property for a work of
art and is a primary criterion for assessing and 19Ibid., p. 196.
comparing the various Ž ne arts. In this connec- 20
Ibid., p. 201.
21Herman Parret duly notes this phenomenon, referring to

Kant’s judgment of music as “mutable, fragmented, and

contradictory” in “Kant on Music and the Hierarchy of the
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, trans. Werner S.
18
Arts,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (1998),
Pluhar (Indianapolis, 1987), pp. 215, 182. 255.

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 19 TH engendering aesthetic ideas in the same man- still long enough for him to contemplate it. In
CENTURY
MUSIC ner as poetry or the visual arts. He claims of both instances, Kant is missing the physical
music that “it speaks through nothing but sen- containment of both the visual arts and poetry
sations without concepts, so that unlike poetry in music. His vexation is all the more paradoxi-
it leaves us with nothing to meditate about.”22 cal considering Kant’s assertion that poetry’s
He reafŽ rms this notion in the Anthropologie lack of corporeality enables it to penetrate fur-
(1798): “As for vital sense, music, which is a ther than painting or sculpture into the region
regular play of aural sensations, not only moves of ideas.
it in a way that is indescribably vivacious and Kant echoes Cramer’s anxiety to Ž nd unity
varied, but also strengthens it; so music is, as it in music. His stance on representationalism,
were, a language of mere sensations (without however, constitutes a departure from the mi-
concepts.)” 23 Kant does attribute to music the metic ideal of art that held sway through the
power to awaken aesthetic ideas. These ideas, middle of the eighteenth century. For Kant, the
however, are of a different and inferior kind to less corporeal the artistic medium, the less con-
the ones provoked by poetry in that they fea- strained it is to execute a literal imitation of
ture not conformity to a concept, but rather nature. Yet music goes too far in dispensing
conformity to what Kant refers to as a theme. entirely with physical boundaries that might
In the case of music, the theme is the principal serve to impart unity and that deŽ ne it as a
affect of that composition (§53). Yet in the end, subduable object of contemplation. Kant also
aesthetic ideas that rely on themes are no bet- shares Cramer’s concern that music Ž nd for
ter than those provoked by humor, and lead to itself meaning of the sort only supplied by
no end more exalted than improved digestion. words. By constructing a system that envisions
Kant further complains that music possesses both concepts and aesthetic ideas as vital to
within it nothing that serves to contain and the workings of Ž ne art, Kant partakes of his
delimit it: era’s anxiety to ensure the sort of intelligibility
provided by a text, while yet foreshadowing
Music has a certain lack of urbanity about it. For Romantic dissatisfaction with the limitations
owing chie y to the character of its instruments, it of both linguistic and corporeal representation.
scatters its in uence abroad to an uncalled-for ex- Kant thus responds to contradictory desires
tent (through the neighborhood) and thus, as it were, within the critical community: the desire for
becomes obtrusive and deprives others, outside the
intelligibility, and the desire for freedom from
musical circle, of their freedom. . . . The case is
that very intelligibility. In this way, Kant’s won-
almost on a par with the practice of regaling oneself
with a perfume that exhales its odours far and wide. derful ambivalence falls within the penumbra
. . . This is a thing that the arts that address them- between his age and the age to come.
selves to the eye do not do, for if one is not disposed
to give admittance to their impressions, one has III
only to look the other way.24 Kant’s discomfort with Enlightenment aes-
thetics explodes in the work of several music
A few paragraphs later, Kant complains that critics writing for the Allgemeine musikalische
“the {visual} arts produce a lasting impression, Zeitung in the Ž rst decade of the nineteenth
the {musical arts} only a transitory one.”25 In century. In the company of Franz Christoph
the Ž rst case, Kant seems annoyed at the in- Horn and Christian Friedrich Michaelis, Au-
ability of music to remain within Ž xed bound- gust Apel shows his true colors as a progressive
aries, as does a painting. In the second, he lev- to Momigny’s conservatism. All three critics
els the converse charge: music will not hold incorporate Kant’s notion of the aesthetic idea
into their philosophical language.26 In each case,

22Kant, Critique of Judgment, p. 198.

23
Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, 26
As evidenced by his book-length study Ueber den Geist
trans. Mary J. Gregor (The Hague, 1974), p. 34. der Tonkunst mit Rücksicht auf Kants Kritik der
24
Kant, Critique of Judgment, p. 196. ästhetischen Urteilskraft (Leipzig, 1795 and 1800), Michae-
25Ibid., p. 200. lis studied Kant’s ideas in particular depth. In addition to

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however, the notion veers from the original wherein lies the poetic artwork. Thus is po- LISA
FISHMAN
such that the importance of the concept dimin- etry, and all art, beyond concepts.”28 Early
ishes. For Kant, lack of concepts in music rel- Among the three Romantic critics, Horn serves Romantic
Criticism
egates it to the condition of “mere sensations” up the most nihilistic take on Kant, touting
and calls into question its status as a Ž ne art; music’s downright inability to deal in concepts:
for the critics, however, this lack of concepts is
an unmitigated asset. Michaelis’s adaptation of Poetry, especially dramatic poetry, is still capable of
Kant’s formula abolishes the balance and inter- providing some enjoyment for the intellect in this
dependence between idea and concept and em- way. Even though such enjoyment may be inŽ nitely
phasizes the richness of the former at the ex- less than that which is experienced by the true con-
noisseur, it will still be sufŽ ciently interesting to be
pense of the latter: “These (aesthetic ideas) are
of value. . . . The intellect knows how to derive a
presentations of the imagination so deep and
similar pleasure from painting and sculpture, though
full in their contents that no concept can ever it inevitably does greater violence to sculpture, which
attain or encompass them. They serve there- needs to be appreciated in its totality if it is fully to
fore not for cognition, but rather for the anima- be enjoyed. From this standpoint, however, how can
tion of the mind.” Not only does the poet have the intellect, despite all efforts, derive the slightest
to battle with the abstraction of speech and the bit of pleasure from music? Music cannot form con-
generality of the concept, Michaelis indicates, cepts or express truths, nor can it occupy the con-
but “poetry connects itself to an object of templative faculty. . . . This may explain the odd
knowledge or an idea of reason; its pronounce- ideas that men have about music, who often judge
ment always Ž nds evidence in the actual or the things profoundly and correctly, and accounts for
the clumsy remark made by one of our most emi-
possible world.”27 The concepts induced by
nent philosophers {Kant} to the effect that music is
words entail a second liability: through objec-
uncouth because it imposes itself on people.29
tive or rational reference, they bind us to the
possible world, which restricts music to the
Such disdain for the role of the intellect in
function of imitation. Without concepts, an art
comprehending art was a trademark of the Ger-
form is freed from any obligation to act in a
man critical community in the early nineteenth
signifying, linguistic capacity. To Michaelis,
Kant’s dissatisfaction with representationalism
swells to encompass all that reason might de- 28“Nicht der Ton, sondern die Verbindung der Töne giebt
note as well. Apel departs yet further from Kant das musikalische—eben so nicht der Begriff, sondern die
Verbindung der Begriffe, das poetische Kunstwerk. Eben
in demoting the role of the concept not only in darum ist Poesie und alle Kunst über dem Begriff” (Apel,
music, but in all the art forms. Hence, it is “Musik und Poesie,” cols. 451–52n.).
“not tones, but the uniting of tones wherein
29
“Bey den Werken der Poesie, besonders der dramatischen,
weis er sich auf diese Art allerdings noch einigen Genuss
lies the musical artwork—in the same way it is zu verschaffen, der, wenn er gleich unendlich dürftiger ist,
not the concept, but the uniting of concepts als der, des wahren Kunstliebhabers, doch immer Interesse
genug hat, um sie ihm bedeutend zu machen. . . . Einen
ähnlichen weis er sich auch bey den Werken der Mahlerey
und Bildhauerkunst zu verschaffen, ob er gleich bey der
leztern fast noch gewaltsamer verfahren muss, da sie
durchaus die reine Anschauung seiner Gesammtheit
his contributions to the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, verlangt, um ganz genossen zu werden; —allein wie wird er
several articles by Michaelis also appear in Reichardt’s auf seinem Standpunkte, selbst bey der gröss ten
Berlinische musikalische Zeitung. Anstrengung, sich auch nur einen ganz geringen Genuss
27
“Dies sind Vorstellungen der Einbildungskraft, von solcher verschaffen können, bey der Tonkunst? Sie vermag es nicht,
Tiefe und Fülle des Inhalts, welche kein bestimmter Begriff Begriffe zu bilden, nicht Wahrheiten auszusprechen, nicht
erreichen oder umfassen kann. Sie dienen daher nicht zur die Re exion zu beschäftigen. . . . Daher denn auch die
Erkenntniss, sondern zur Belebung des Gemüths” (“Ueber seltsamen Urtheile über diese Kunst von Männern, die
die wichtigsten Erfordernisse und Bedingungen der sonst in mancher Hinsicht tief und richtig blicken, daher
Tonkunst, also schöner Kunst,” Berlinische musikalische das harte Wort von einem unsrer ehrwürdigsten Philoso-
Zeitung 1/33 {1805}, 134). “Auch bezieht sich die Poesie phen, sie sey eine schreiende Kunst, die sich aufdringe”
immer auf Gegenstände der Erkenntnis oder auf Ideen der (Michaelis, “Musikalische Fragmente,” Allgemeine
Vernunft; ihre Mittheilung Ž ndet immer Belege in der musikalische Zeitung 4 {24 March 1802}, 418–19). Trans-
wirklichen oder möglichen Welt” (“Ueber das Idealische lated in consultation with the excerpt in Peter leHuray and
der Tonkunst,” Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 10 {13 Day, Music and Aesthetics in the Eighteenth and Early
April 1808}, 451). Nineteenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 272–73.

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 19 TH century. Foreshadowing Apel’s dismissal of the nal senses, but which is never perceived in space, as
CENTURY other objects of external sense, but merely in time,
MUSIC practice of text underlay, Rochlitz hails music’s
capacity to surpass the intellectual limitations and therefore can be exhibited as a sign for not being
of language: “Language does not let go of its in space. As to what may be represented in music,
we are left to expect with certainty from the mate-
auxiliary verbs, its particles, and such, which
rial of this art, that it either must express an object
are merely for the understanding. . . . There is
of inner appearance, thus our own inner feelings
none of this in tones, the material of music. (affects), or an external object which, heard in the
They are pliable and  uid, like the softest wax, perception of time, thus can be {expressed} chie y
in the hand of true artists; they yield to all by its movement.33
changes, shades, and nuances of feeling—they
are, in themselves, for feeling alone.”30 The critics emphasize the  eeting, immaterial
Horn in fact embraces music’s conceptual as quality of music particularly in connection with
well as physical incomprehensibilities, the very its nonrepresentational character, or, more spe-
attributes for whose disparagement he takes ciŽ cally, its suitability to express or represent
Kant to task. Kant experiences music as impos- the inner or the invisible. Flüchtigkeit ensures
ing itself, but Michaelis remarks that “it speaks the transcendental, transsymbolic nature of
to us through our sense of hearing; its medium, music. In this way, high esteem for music’s
the air, is invisible, as are tones, in which mu- transitory quality is part and parcel of the pre-
sic has its sphere; not offering expansion or vailing move away from the imitative aesthetic.
resistance in space, its operation is of an imma- Music’s stunning liberation from its obliga-
terial sort.”31 He further invokes Herder to tion to reenact the real world, be it representa-
praise this quality in music: “In coming and tionally or conceptually, is what E. T. A. Hoff-
 eeing, in being and becoming lies the trium- mann delights to celebrate as he exalts music
phant power of tones and feeling. In contrast, above any of its sister arts:
the visual arts adhere to limited objects and
appearances, fully to local color; although they Music reveals to man an unfamiliar region, a world
show everything at once, yet they will be un- that has nothing in common with the external sen-
derstood only slowly.”32 Apel acknowledges the sible world which surrounds him: a world in which
same immateriality in music: he abandons all concepts of deŽ nite feelings in order
to yield oneself to an inexpressible longing. How
The general sign which serves music for representa- insufŽ ciently instrumental composers recognize this
tion is sound, an appearance certainly for the exter- peculiar essence of music, who seek to represent
those deŽ nite emotions or even events, thus per-
versely treating music as a plastic art! . . . In singing,
30“Die Sprache lässt sich ihre Artikel, ihre Hülfszeitwörter; where the poetry speciŽ es moods through words,
ihre Partikeln, u. d. gl., die blos für den Verstand sind, the magical power of music acts like the wondrous
nicht nehmen, u.s.w. Das alles is bey dem Materiale der
Musik, bey den Tönen, nicht. Sie sind bildsamer und
gefügiger, als das weichste Wachs, in der Hand des wahren
Künstlers; sie schmiegen sich in alle Wendungen,
Uebergänge und Nüancen der EmpŽ ndungen—sind, an sich,
allein für die EmpŽ ndung” (Rochlitz, “Einige  üchtige 33
“Das allgemeine Zeichen, dessen sich die Musik zu ihren
Worte über die Verbindung der Musik mit der Poesie,” Darstellungen bedient, ist der Klang, eine Erscheinung zwar
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 1 {10 April 1799}, 437). für den äussern Sinn, welcher aber nie im Raume, wie
31“Sie spricht durch den Sinn des Gehöhrs zu uns; ihr andre Gegenstände des äussern Sinnes, sondern blos und
Medium, die Luft, ist unsichtbar, wie die Töne. Indem die allein in der Zeit wahrgenommen wird, und daher schon
Musik im Unsichtbaren ihre Sphäre hat, nichts Ausgedehn- deswegen auf kein Seyn im Raume als Zeichen bezogen
tes oder im Raume Widerstehendes darbietet, wirkt sie auf werden kann. Was also immer das Darzustellende in der
eine geistige Art” (Michaelis, “Noch einige Bemerkungen Musik seyn mag; so lässt sich doch aus dem Material
über den Rang der Tonkunst unter den schönen Künsten,” dieser Kunst soviel mit Sicherheit erwarten, dass es
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 6 {15 August 1804}, 769). entweder ein Gegenstand innerer Anschauung, also unsrer
32
“Im Kommen und Fliehen, im Werden und Gewesenseyn eignen innern EmpŽ ndungen (Affekte) seyn muss, oder
liegt die Siegeskraft des Tons und der EmpŽ ndung. Dagegen von den äussern Gegenständen nur das, was bey ihrer
jede Kunst des Anschauens, die an beschränkten Wahrnehmung der Zeit angehört, also hauptsächlich ihrer
Gegenständen und Gebehrden, gar an Lokalfarben haftet, Bewegung seyn kann” (“Ueber musikalische Behandlung
obwohl sie auf einmal Alles zeigt, dennoch nur langsam der Geister,” Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 8 {27 No-
begriffen wird” (ibid., p. 766). vember 1805}, 129).

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elixir of wisdom, a few drops of which make any transubstantial, holistic, and transferable among LISA
drink marvelous and exquisite. . . . So strong is the FISHMAN
the arts. Deeming Momigny’s project an “act Early
magic of music, growing as it does ever more power- of translation,” Roger Parker notes that “wher- Romantic
ful, that it must tear the fetter of every other art.34 Criticism
ever there is music, Momigny seems to as-
sume, words will lurk beneath the surface.”36
IV Yet Momigny’s endeavor more closely re-
To return to our original dichotomy: if sembles an excavation: a search for an Ur-text
Momigny’s purpose is to clarify a musical (albeit arbitrary) of which Mozart’s music is
work’s true expression, then what is Apel’s the translation. “Act of translation” is perhaps
purpose? He seeks to effect a representation of a Ž tter description of Apel’s effort to render
the same idea (Idee) through two very different Mozart’s Idee in verse.
media—music and poetry. Furthermore, “this With his symbolic conception of musical
symphony, as an artwork of a deŽ nite charac- works, Apel engages an entire spectrum of early
ter, is the representation of an idea through the Romantic critical rhetoric. Michaelis, who else-
sensuous appearance of tones . . . the idea itself where describes the necessity of formal unity,
however is not Ž xed in the tones; these are the and who considers form the essence of music,
means through which the musical work ap- observes that “the beautiful adheres to the per-
pears.”35 The Idee is present in any work of art, ception of form, not to mere charm for the
but never through the “stuff” (words, marble, senses, not to mere concepts of thought.”37 Horn
etc.) of the medium. In this respect, he even qualiŽ es that “music does not give us the feel-
cautions that one must resist the temptation to ing itself, but it envelops the highest feelings
underlay the Ž nale with words, because the within us with the purest form.”38 Form re-
two media cannot mix. The Idee is therefore places words as a structuring device: it is in-
voked, however, not merely as a compositional
technique but as a metaphor for the unity that
the listener has come to perceive in absolute
music. Nearly two decades later, the Idee be-
comes the cornerstone of A. B. Marx’s critical
apparatus, now laden to signify a work’s spiri-
tual essence, its outward form, and its connec-
tion to concrete reality, generally manifestable
34“Die Musik schließt dem Menschen ein unbekanntes
Reich auf; eine Welt, die nichts gemein hat mit der äußern through extramusical representation.39 As such,
Sinnenwelt, die ihn umgibt, und in der er alle durch Begriffe Marx’s Idee is very much the brother of Apel’s.
besti mmbaren Gefühle zurückläßt, um si ch dem The search for unity, designation of a symbolic
Unaussprechlichen hinzugeben.Wie wenig erkannten die
Instrumentalkomponisten dies eigentümliche Wesen essence, and the rendering of music in narra-
der Musik, welche versuchten, jene bestimmbaren tive and imagery—still fresh with Horn, Michae-
EmpŽ ndungen, oder gar Begebenheiten darzustellen, und
so die der Plastik geradezu entgegengesetzte Kunst plastisch
zu behandeln! . . . In dem Gesange, wo die hinzutretende
Poesie bestimmte Affekte durch Worte andeutet, wirkt die
magische Kraft der Musik, wie das Wunder-Elixier der
Weisen, von dem etliche Tropfen jeden Trank köstlich und
herrlich machen. . . . So stark ist der Zauber der Musik,
und, immer mächtiger wirkend, müßte er jede Fessel einer 36Parker, “On Reading Nineteenth-Century Opera,” p. 290.
andern Kunst zerreißen” (E. T. A. Hoffmann, review of 37
“Das Schöne haftet an der Wahrnehmung der Form, nicht
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Allgemeine musikalische am blossen Sinnenreiz, nicht am blossen Begriff oder
Zeitung 12 {4 and 11 July 1810}, in E. T. A. Hoffmann, Gedanken” (Michaelis, “Erfordnerisse und Bedingungen der
Schriften zur Musik Nachlese {Munich, 1960}, pp. 34–35, Tonkunst,” p. 130).
translated in consultation with E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Musi- 38
“Die Musik giebt uns nicht die EmpŽ ndung selbst,
cal Writings). sondern sie umhüllt das Höchste derselben in uns mit der
35
“Ist die Sinfonie . . . ein Kunstwerk von bestimmtem reinsten Form” (Horn, “Fragmente,” col. 417).
Charakter, so ist sie Darstellung einer Idee durch die 39Scott Burnham identiŽ es this unity, within Marx’s dis-

sinnlichen Erscheinungen der Töne. . . . Die Idee selbst cussions of Beethoven symphonies, as an irreducible sense
aber ist nicht an die Töne gefesselt; diese sind nur das of totality. See his “Criticism, Faith, and the Idee: A. B.
Mittel . . . in welchem jene als musikalisches Kunstwerk Marx’s Early Reception of Beethoven,” this journal 13
erscheint” (Apel, “Musik und Poesie,” col. 450). (1990), 183–92.

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 19 TH lis, and Apel—persevered to become clichés of articulate, mediate, and ultimately make sense
CENTURY
MUSIC Romantic criticism.40 of the myriad forces reshaping their musical
The Romantic critics’ emancipation of mu- culture. For all its polemical tone, this collec-
sic itself turned out to be more symbolic tive critical statement was, Ž nally, the concil-
than actual, much like Napoléon’s liberté. iatory voice that composers, theorists, and lis-
Aestheticians exchanged representationalism teners alike needed to hear.
for structuralism, and music’s coupling with The critics teach us one last lesson: the fan-
speech for its coupling with narrative imagery. tasy of emancipation for music (or any other
The concert hall as the favored venue for musi- art) must remain just that—a fantasy. Although
cal enjoyment gave compositions the physical each Ž ne art operates within the parameters of
containment required by the plastic arts, thus its own medium, each must always partake
answering Kant’s complaint concerning music’s of—in theory and practice, to a greater or lesser
imposition. 41 To tear the fetter of every other degree, depending on the aesthetics of the
art was, perhaps, no more than a dramatic ges- time—qualities associated with other media.
ture. In this light, Momigny’s project and Apel’s These qualities, be they lyricism, texture, or
are not so different after all: both desire to  uidity, are abstract yet very real. What we
make sense of absolute music by invoking hear is never Ž nally the work itself, but the
analogies with other arts, but they draw on two work as invented and reinvented through
distinct paradigms of what the interrelation- reciprocal creative, aesthetic, and phenomeno-
ships among the arts are. Likewise, the critics logical processes. In this light, is a reading of
to whom we have turned our attention, regard- Mozart’s D-Minor String Quartet by Hoff-
less of where in the aesthetic debate they stand, mann—or Schenker, for that matter—really
are all grappling with a common necessity: to more cogent than Momigny’s? Nearly two hun-
dred years of formalist hearings have given us
ears to hear what lies beneath Mozart’s notes.
Yet Momigny’s reading, not Schenker’s, cel-
40For the emergence of structuralist criticism, see Wilhelm ebrates the lyricism that is arguably the most
Seidel, “Zwischen Immanuel Kant und der musikalischen salient feature of Mozart’s genius, and very
Klassik,” in Das musikalische Kunstwerk: Geschichte,
Ästhetik, Theorie Festschrift für Carl Dahlhaus, ed. H. much a consummation of the Enlightenment
Danuser et al. (Laaber, 1988), pp. 69–84. For the trend speech-based musical aesthetic. Likewise
toward narration and imagery in criticism, see Thomas Cramer’s reading of “Ah, come il core” reveals
Grey, “Metaphorical Modes in Nineteenth-Century Music
Criticism: Image, Narrative, and Idea,” in Music and Text: a sensitivity to Haydn’s musical idiom that we
Critical Inquiries, ed. Steven Paul Sher (Cambridge, 1992), today cannot fully share. In the Ž nal analysis,
p. 94. For unity as a salient criterion of music critics during our hearing of music is in part about what
this period, see Mary Sue Morrow, “Of Unity and Passion:
The Aesthetics of Concert Criticism in Early Nineteenth- aestheticians, critics, composers, and even im-
Century Vienna,” this journal 13 (1990), 193–206. presarios, playing off each other, have chosen
41
For the nineteenth century’s changing conception of mu- to foreground. What remains in the background
sic in this regard, see Lydia Goehr, The Imaginary Mu-
seum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of is at times something only history
Music (Oxford, 1992). can show us.

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