{"product_id":"9781107064966","title":"Wagner's Melodies: Aesthetics and Materialism in German Musical Identity","description":"Since 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.","brand":"Cambridge University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47134514282736,"sku":"9781107064966","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781107064966_p0.jpg?v=1763690696","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781107064966","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}