Page 35 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 35
doi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-299-2.35-51
Innovation, Art, Society, and Life:
Deliberations on Music Criticism’s Past, Presence
and Future
Susanne Kogler
Univerza Karla in Franca v Gradcu
Karl-Franzens-Univesity Graz
By the time of the controversy between Giovanni Maria Artusi and Clau-
dio Monteverdi, as well as in the Querelles des anciens et des modernes, and
up to the aesthetical debates in the 19th and 20th centuries, critical disputes
concerning music have dealt in particular with the question of artistic in-
novation. Whereas initially it was mainly theoreticians and composers in-
volved, during the 19th and 20th centuries philosophers such as Friedrich
Nietzsche or Theodor W. Adorno prominently came up. And it is their texts
in particular which make clear that deliberations on music are always mo-
tivated by social values and certain attitudes not only towards art, but to-
wards life in general. The danger of an ideological usurpation of music and
its critique became dangerously evident during the totalitarian regimes of
the 20th century.1
Today music criticism seems to be endangered for different reasons.
On the one hand the ongoing transformation of public media deeply af-
fects traditional cultural practices; on the other hand, nobody seems to
be convinced any more of an obligation to fight for the “truth” of an aes-
thetical position or a certain form of art.2 In addition, high quality pub-
1 For an excellent overview see: “Criticism,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, vol. 5, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 670–98, resp. Grove
Music online.
2 For this aspect see amongst others: Susanne Kogler, “‘Wahrheit’ und ‘Dichtung’ als
Paradigmen der Kritik: Robert Schumann und Hugo Wolf,” in KünstlerKritiker.
Zum Verhältnis von Produktion und Kritik in bildender Kunst und Musik, ed. Mi-
chael Custodis et al. (Saarbrücken: Pfau, 2006), 28–43.
35
Innovation, Art, Society, and Life:
Deliberations on Music Criticism’s Past, Presence
and Future
Susanne Kogler
Univerza Karla in Franca v Gradcu
Karl-Franzens-Univesity Graz
By the time of the controversy between Giovanni Maria Artusi and Clau-
dio Monteverdi, as well as in the Querelles des anciens et des modernes, and
up to the aesthetical debates in the 19th and 20th centuries, critical disputes
concerning music have dealt in particular with the question of artistic in-
novation. Whereas initially it was mainly theoreticians and composers in-
volved, during the 19th and 20th centuries philosophers such as Friedrich
Nietzsche or Theodor W. Adorno prominently came up. And it is their texts
in particular which make clear that deliberations on music are always mo-
tivated by social values and certain attitudes not only towards art, but to-
wards life in general. The danger of an ideological usurpation of music and
its critique became dangerously evident during the totalitarian regimes of
the 20th century.1
Today music criticism seems to be endangered for different reasons.
On the one hand the ongoing transformation of public media deeply af-
fects traditional cultural practices; on the other hand, nobody seems to
be convinced any more of an obligation to fight for the “truth” of an aes-
thetical position or a certain form of art.2 In addition, high quality pub-
1 For an excellent overview see: “Criticism,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, vol. 5, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 670–98, resp. Grove
Music online.
2 For this aspect see amongst others: Susanne Kogler, “‘Wahrheit’ und ‘Dichtung’ als
Paradigmen der Kritik: Robert Schumann und Hugo Wolf,” in KünstlerKritiker.
Zum Verhältnis von Produktion und Kritik in bildender Kunst und Musik, ed. Mi-
chael Custodis et al. (Saarbrücken: Pfau, 2006), 28–43.
35
