Page 74 - 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. 74
glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes | music criticism – yesterday and today
their quasi-dogmatic relevance to the views within the Catholic Church.”24 As
has become apparent in the preceding discussion, a similar situation, albe-
it in a weakened form, pertains to selected moments of the Viennese recep-
tion of Liszt’s symphonic programme music.
Concluding the reflection on 43 years of reception history, it can be
stated that the cited critics’ purpose was section is twofold. First, they
wished to legitimise selected symphonic works by Liszt, primarily by using
his religiosity as a non-aesthetic criterion. And second, the critics’ charac-
terisation of Liszt as a Christian artist indicates a strategy to promote the
Catholic faith as a “religion of grace” by using a famous composer who was
also praised as an exemplary Christian – a missionary agenda that is con-
sistent with statements made by Liszt himself. Thus Liszt is reputed to have
said – if one is to trust an unsubstantiated claim made by Friedrich W.
Riedel – that “the arts are not a religion in themselves, but rather the formal
embodiment of the true, Catholic, apostolic, Roman religion.”25
Bibliography
Literature
Brodbeck, David. Defining Deutschtum. Political Ideology, German Identity, and
MusicCritical Discourse in Liberal Vienna (= The New Cultural History of
Music Series). New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Diettrich, Eva. “Die Neudeutschen im Spiegel der Wiener katholischen Presse.”
In Bruckner Symposion. Bruckner, Wagner und die Neudeutschen in Öster-
reich im Rahmen des Internationalen Brucknerfestes Linz 1984. 20.–23. Sep-
tember 1984, Bericht, edited by Othmar Wessely, 67–70. Linz: Linzer Verlags-
gesellschaft, 1986.
Fallon-Ludwig, Sandra J. “Religious, Philosophical and Social Significance in the
Symphonic Poems of Franz Liszt.” Dissertation, Brandeis University, 2010.
Locke, Ralph P. “Liszt on the Artist in Society.” In Franz Liszt and His World (=
The Bard Music Festival Princeton), edited by Christopher H. Gibbs and
Dana Gooley, 291–303. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006.
24 Eva Diettrich, “Die Neudeutschen im Spiegel der Wiener katholischen Presse,” in
Bruckner Symposion. Bruckner, Wagner und die Neudeutschen in Österreich im
Rahmen des Internationalen Brucknerfestes Linz 1984. 20.–23. September 1984, Beri-
cht, ed. Othmar Wessely (Linz: Linzer Verlagsgesellschaft, 1986), 69.
25 Friedrich W. Riedel, “Die Neudeutsche Schule – ein Phänomen der deutschen Kul-
turgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts,” in Franz Liszt und Richard Wagner. Musikalis-
che und geistesgeschichtliche Grundlagen der neudeutschen Schule. Referate des 3.
Europäischen Liszt-Symposiums Eisenstadt 1983 (= Liszt-Studien 3), ed. Serge Gut
(Munich, Salzburg: Katzbichler, 1986), 18.
74
their quasi-dogmatic relevance to the views within the Catholic Church.”24 As
has become apparent in the preceding discussion, a similar situation, albe-
it in a weakened form, pertains to selected moments of the Viennese recep-
tion of Liszt’s symphonic programme music.
Concluding the reflection on 43 years of reception history, it can be
stated that the cited critics’ purpose was section is twofold. First, they
wished to legitimise selected symphonic works by Liszt, primarily by using
his religiosity as a non-aesthetic criterion. And second, the critics’ charac-
terisation of Liszt as a Christian artist indicates a strategy to promote the
Catholic faith as a “religion of grace” by using a famous composer who was
also praised as an exemplary Christian – a missionary agenda that is con-
sistent with statements made by Liszt himself. Thus Liszt is reputed to have
said – if one is to trust an unsubstantiated claim made by Friedrich W.
Riedel – that “the arts are not a religion in themselves, but rather the formal
embodiment of the true, Catholic, apostolic, Roman religion.”25
Bibliography
Literature
Brodbeck, David. Defining Deutschtum. Political Ideology, German Identity, and
MusicCritical Discourse in Liberal Vienna (= The New Cultural History of
Music Series). New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Diettrich, Eva. “Die Neudeutschen im Spiegel der Wiener katholischen Presse.”
In Bruckner Symposion. Bruckner, Wagner und die Neudeutschen in Öster-
reich im Rahmen des Internationalen Brucknerfestes Linz 1984. 20.–23. Sep-
tember 1984, Bericht, edited by Othmar Wessely, 67–70. Linz: Linzer Verlags-
gesellschaft, 1986.
Fallon-Ludwig, Sandra J. “Religious, Philosophical and Social Significance in the
Symphonic Poems of Franz Liszt.” Dissertation, Brandeis University, 2010.
Locke, Ralph P. “Liszt on the Artist in Society.” In Franz Liszt and His World (=
The Bard Music Festival Princeton), edited by Christopher H. Gibbs and
Dana Gooley, 291–303. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006.
24 Eva Diettrich, “Die Neudeutschen im Spiegel der Wiener katholischen Presse,” in
Bruckner Symposion. Bruckner, Wagner und die Neudeutschen in Österreich im
Rahmen des Internationalen Brucknerfestes Linz 1984. 20.–23. September 1984, Beri-
cht, ed. Othmar Wessely (Linz: Linzer Verlagsgesellschaft, 1986), 69.
25 Friedrich W. Riedel, “Die Neudeutsche Schule – ein Phänomen der deutschen Kul-
turgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts,” in Franz Liszt und Richard Wagner. Musikalis-
che und geistesgeschichtliche Grundlagen der neudeutschen Schule. Referate des 3.
Europäischen Liszt-Symposiums Eisenstadt 1983 (= Liszt-Studien 3), ed. Serge Gut
(Munich, Salzburg: Katzbichler, 1986), 18.
74
