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Desire in Chromatic Harmony
A Psychodynamic Exploration of Fin de Siecle Tonality. Oxford Studies in Music Theory
By (author)
Kenneth M. Smith
Genres:
Theory of music & musicology, Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, Philosophy
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Synopsis
How does musical harmony engage listeners in relations of desire? Where does this desire come from? Author Kenneth Smith seeks to answer these questions by analyzing works from the turn of the twentieth- century that are both harmonically enriched and psychologically complex. Desire in Chromatic Harmony yields a new theory of how chromatic chord progressions direct the listener on intricate journeys through harmonic space, mirroring the tensions of the psyche found in Schopenhauer, Freud, Lacan, Lyotard, and Deleuze. Smith extends this mode of enquiry into sophisticated music theory, while exploring philosophically engaged European and American composers such as Richard Strauss, Alexander Skryabin, Josef Suk, Charles Ives, and Aaron Copland. Focusing on harmony and chord progression, the book drills down into the diatonic undercurrent beneath densely chromatic and dissonant surfaces. From the obsession with death and mourning in Suk's asrael Symphony to an exploration of "perversion" in Strauss's elektra; from the Sufi mysticism of Szymanowski's Song of the Night to the failed fantasy of the American dream in Copland's The Tender Land, Desire in Chromatic Harmony cuts a path through the dense forests of chromatic complexity, revealing the psychological make-up of post-Wagnerian psychodynamic music. New & Used
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What Reviewers Are Saying
In this simultaneously psychodynamic and music-theoretical discussion of the Oedipal triangle of Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant functions in fin-de-si`ecle music, Kenneth Smith offers a potent new theory of how late tonal musicplayed its part in the development of modern concepts of psychological desire. Scintillating, challenging, and always engagingly written, this book makes a decisive contribution to our understanding of the libidinal landscape of musical modernity. * J. P. E. Harper-Scott, Professor of Music History and Theory, Royal Holloway, University of London * In Desire in Chromatic Harmony, Kenneth Smith explains the unexplainable. And does so in compelling readable prose. Lying at the intersection of psychology, critical theory, philosophy, music theory, and historical musicology, Smith invites the reader into an in-depth yet unassuming contemplation of complicated music-analytical themes DL through the chromaticism of Ives, Copland, Szymanowski, Strauss, Suk and Skryabin DL from the 19th century right up to today. Something of a post-poststructuralist account of the philosophy of desire in music through the useful psychoanalytic notion of psychodynamics, Smith's incisive work will surely be required reading for all in the music academy, and beyond. In short, a great read. * Philip Ewell, Associate Professor, Hunter College * Kenneth Smiths scintillating new book is the best kind of interdisciplinary work: psychoanalysis becomes not a goal of music theory here, but its drive, the engine for a real adventure in concept-making. It rewards the mind but also the ears, which cannot hear this endlessly beguiling repertoire in the same way afterwards. A rabbit-hole of a good read! * Seth Brodsky, Associate Professor of Music, University of Chicago * This book is integrative, since Smith has considered the various approaches to chromatic music with an ecumenical attitude...An attractive addition is that he broadens the usual scope of these kinds of studies to consider music outside the German tradition...Up front, Smith's Desire in Chromatic Harmony brings to fruition many of the promises of the scholarly inquiry around chromatic harmony. * Michael L. Klein, Temple University, Music and Letters *