Desire in Chromatic Harmony: A Psychodynamic Exploration of Fin de Siècle Tonality

Author:   Kenneth M. Smith (Professor of Music Theory, Professor of Music Theory, University of Liverpool)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN:  

9780190923426


Pages:   360
Publication Date:   29 June 2020
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Desire in Chromatic Harmony: A Psychodynamic Exploration of Fin de Siècle Tonality


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Overview

"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."

Full Product Details

Author:   Kenneth M. Smith (Professor of Music Theory, Professor of Music Theory, University of Liverpool)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 24.60cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 15.50cm
Weight:   0.658kg
ISBN:  

9780190923426


ISBN 10:   0190923423
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   29 June 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Acknowledgements Preface Chapter 1: A Linguistic Theory of Chromatic Harmonic Substitution and Progression in the Diatonic Unconscious Chapter 2: Romantic Provenance Chapter 3: Transcending Root Motion: Productive Death Drives and Cybernetic Cycles in Charles Ives & Aaron Copland Chapter 4: Karol Szymanowski's Dominant Drive Model and the Excess of the Cycle Chapter 5: Tragedy and the Gaze of the Living Dead: Functional Harmonic Rotation in Strauss's Elektra Chapter 6: The Thanatonic and the Hexatonic: Repetition, Mourning, and ""Mother"" in Suk's Asrael Chapter 7: When Octatonic and Hexatonic Collide: Skryabin's Accelerationist Last Piano Sonata Epilogue: The Way Forwards (and Backwards) Bibliography"

Reviews

Kenneth Smiths scintillating new book is the best kind of interdisciplinary work: psychoanalysis becomes not a goal of music theory here, but its drivethe 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 *


In this simultaneously psychodynamic and music-theoretical discussion of the Oedipal triangle of Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant functions in fin-de-siecle music, Kenneth Smith offers a potent new theory of how late tonal musicAplayed 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 Smith's 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


Author Information

Kenneth M. Smith is Professor of Music Theory at University of Liverpool and serves as Vice President of the Society for Music Analysis. He is the author of Skryabin, Philosophy and the Music of Desire and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis.

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