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Alexander Rehding , Music and Monumentality: Commemoration and Wonderment in Nineteenth‐Century Germany ( New York and Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2009 ). vii + 308 pp. $49.95. ISBN 978‐0‐19‐538538‐0 (hb).

Alexander Rehding , Music and Monumentality: Commemoration and Wonderment in Nineteenth‐Century... Most of us would claim to know musical monumentality when we hear it. Trombones and other heavy brass would seem to be its aural signifiers; in league with soaring strings, sweeping chorales, military rhythms and rigid forms, they sound in vivid creation of open spaces and towering edifices, great architectures of masonry piled high. Generically speaking, the nineteenth‐century symphony (and other related phenomena) would seem to be its usual habitat, and Germanic pomp of bygone days its primary incentive – even if the Hollywood film score, with titles disappearing into the backdrop universe, might provide a more immediate contemporary venue in which to experience its power. Thought of in this way – as a musical style – monumentality may even provide the fault line along which our preferences diverge. I know of colleagues who treat it as precisely the sound of everything they hate in music (and musical study); it defines exactly the point at which their concert‐going enthusiasm flags, their scholarly interest switches off. For them, it is not so much awe inspiring or impressive or seductive as emptily bombastic and falsely superior: monumentality as supremacy, a totalitarian tool for subjugation of the masses – and thus http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Music Analysis Wiley

Alexander Rehding , Music and Monumentality: Commemoration and Wonderment in Nineteenth‐Century Germany ( New York and Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2009 ). vii + 308 pp. $49.95. ISBN 978‐0‐19‐538538‐0 (hb).

Attfield, Nicholas
Music Analysis , Volume 31 (2) – Jul 1, 2012
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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Music Analysis © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
ISSN
0262-5245
eISSN
1468-2249
DOI
10.1111/musa.12001
Publisher site
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Abstract

Most of us would claim to know musical monumentality when we hear it. Trombones and other heavy brass would seem to be its aural signifiers; in league with soaring strings, sweeping chorales, military rhythms and rigid forms, they sound in vivid creation of open spaces and towering edifices, great architectures of masonry piled high. Generically speaking, the nineteenth‐century symphony (and other related phenomena) would seem to be its usual habitat, and Germanic pomp of bygone days its primary incentive – even if the Hollywood film score, with titles disappearing into the backdrop universe, might provide a more immediate contemporary venue in which to experience its power. Thought of in this way – as a musical style – monumentality may even provide the fault line along which our preferences diverge. I know of colleagues who treat it as precisely the sound of everything they hate in music (and musical study); it defines exactly the point at which their concert‐going enthusiasm flags, their scholarly interest switches off. For them, it is not so much awe inspiring or impressive or seductive as emptily bombastic and falsely superior: monumentality as supremacy, a totalitarian tool for subjugation of the masses – and thus

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Music Analysis – Wiley

Published: Jul 1, 2012

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