Review

Reviewed Work(s): Analysis and Value Judgment by Carl Dahlhaus and Siegmund Levarie
Review by: Eric Werner
Source: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Dec., 1983), pp. 281-283
Published by: Music Library Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/941303
Accessed: 15-01-2018 11:34 UTC

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Book Reviews 281

Analysis and Value Judgment. By Carl Dahlhaus. Translated by Sieg-

mund Levarie. (Monographs in Musicology, 1.) New York: Pendragon
Press, 1983. [viii, 87 p.; $32.00]

This serious treatise enters the ancient cipient dogmatism of the aesthetics of the
arena of contention between de gustibusnineteenth
non century. He boldly claims "A
piece
est disputandum (the popular belief) and de of theory, explicitly or tacitly, pro-
vides the starting point for each analysis .."
gustibus est disputandum (the musicologist's
position)-this dispute is at the core ofThereupon
the he reviews Heinrich Schenk-
book. However, its instrument of decision
er's "reductive" method, comparing it (later
in the book, p.
is not personal taste, but musical analysis. 40) with the less dogmatic,
There are, of course, many kinds of but anal-musically more adequate method of
August
yses, and the author is fully conscious of Halm. This reviewer remembers
the diversity of aesthetic judgmentswell
andthe feelings of revolutionary novelty in
1920-1921 when he attended Egon Wel-
value judgments. Carl Dahlhaus starts with
"Premises," and continues with "Criteria";
lesz's lectures in Vienna on "The Principle
of of
finally he gives some specific examples Integration in the Symphonies of G.
Mahler."
analysis of his own, applied to works by J. There Wellesz stressed his con-
S. Bach, Johann Stamitz, Joseph Haydn,viction that the unity of a composition must
Schubert, Liszt, Mahler, and Schoenberg.
be intelligible, something Dahlhaus echoes:
The book is introduced by a preface, which
"Only when the interlacing network of the
various . . . moments . . . has been ren-
poses a number of fundamental questions,
but answers none-the age-old destiny of clear and intelligible will there emerge
dered
problems between rationality and meta-the particularity of an individual work."
physics, of which more anon. Dahlhaus wrestles with Adorno's concept
The preface grasps the hot iron ofof "attuned" and/or "authentic" music,
the
central problem by emphasizing the which
inti- indeed are all but impossible to de-
mate relationship between analysisfine.
and What Adorno demands is nothing less
aesthetic judgment on the one hand,thanand that the composition be the "authen-
that of analysis and value judgment on theexpression of what "the hour calls for
tic"
other-which "cannot be disposed ofhistorically
as a and philosophically." This,
bad utopia." Everybody will agree with
frankly, is either a chimera or a definitio post
Dahlhaus's statement that "because eventum,
dog- for it would eliminate composers
likeof
mas have become fragile, the question Bruckner, who harks back to a ba-
proving a musical value judgment arises in image of the world, or Eduard Grell,
roque
almost every classroom." The chapter who wrote "original" imitations of a-cap-
pella Renaissance music. Dahlhaus also
"Premises" is divided by the subheadings
"Value judgment and objective judgment,
rightly rejects the frequent appearance or
aesthetics, analysis, theory," "Functional,
disappearance of a work on the concert-
aesthetic and historical judgment," "Anal-
repertory as a valid criterion of value, or
ysis and paraphrase," "Moral implications,"
even as an admissible judgment, and not
"Historical-philosophical categories,"without
and irony he observes: "to be quickly
"Aesthetics and investigations of recep-
forgotten is a mark that the avant-garde
tion."
shares with fashion, thereby becoming sus-
Right at the outset the author admits
pecttoof being itself a fashion."
being wary of the impartiality of the Itso- is surprising to find Dahlhaus defend-
called "objective judgment": "Whoever ing the value of historical analysis and crit-
icism: he finds important "the extent to
presumes a rigorous concept of objectivity
and demands that a musical phenomenon which a work enters influentially into the
.. .must have a cause grounded in development
the of musical thought and meth-
acoustical structure could deny the objec-
ods of composition." These criteria bestow
tive existence of strong beats in a measure
a prize upon a work that sets "a new pace"
. ." Subsequently the author examines to musical thinking or is, in a word, origi-
Heinrich Christoph Koch's treatise on nal.
com- This was a catchword of historical aes-
position and Adolf Bernhard Marx's Kom-
thetics, but in this reviewer's opinion it is
ofin-
positionslehre and their influence on the dubious value and effect. It was Bee-

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282 MLA Notes, December 1983

thoven's Pandora's box, and after him no- deficient feature would be aesthetically
body dared to write non-original music. It necessary as complement and counterpart
is extremely difficult to pinpoint "original- of a given property" (p. 33). A following
ity" within a given style. The style itself chapter on "badly composed" and trivial
might be original, while the individual work music contains some well-known truths
is not. The author calls this a "double con-
which deserve to be repeated, for example,
cept," explaining it as "the presentation of
that one "may detest as kitsch Gounod's 'Ave
the immediate and non-reflective and that Maria' ... or one may become indignant
of the new and unpredictable . . . not al-over the abuse of the C-major prelude by
ways reconcilable." He might better have Bach. In terms of compositional technique,
illuminated the historical meaning of the however, the piece is impeccable." My
teacher Busoni abhorred it, but he always
term originality by reference to the "orig-
inal geniuses" of the eighteenth century, emphasized that Gounod was able "to hear
in it a latent melody, which others had
their originality being but a by-product of
missed."
Sturm und Drang. They constituted the ideal
opposition against the principle of "objec- For one generation of scholars (Sachs,
tivity" and its champions. Adler, Abert, even Riemann) analysis was
The most difficult and also the most just an instrument of style-criticism; for the
questionable aspect of the problem arises present generation it bears a considerably
with the postulate that a work be "genu- deeper significance. Hence the author warns
ine"-for the question of truth in the quite phil- appropriately of pseudo-transcend-
osophical sense enters with it. (I surmiseent analysis in these words (p. 39): "There
that
the German text has here the word "echt" is no reason for letting one's self be intim-
or "wahrhaft"). Dahlhaus's book, so rich inidated by the pretension of irrationalisms
thought, attempts to solve the dilemma be- which nestle down in the interstices of
tween the cognitive, the aesthetic, and theknowledge . . ." On the other hand, the
moral spheres of ideas. He seems to be un-analysis of our day is characterized by its
willing to accept Kierkegaard's severe dic- "ambition to discover a system of relation-
tum that the aesthetically perfect and theships hidden behind the acoustic skin of a
morally perfect are incompatible, but hemusical work," its audible facade. Without
offers us a way out only by introducing theusing these terms, Dahlhaus distinguishes
problematic concept of "kitsch" as that kindbetween autogene, heterogene, dialectic-
of art which is not "genuine." This was thedualistic, and variational developments. He
favorite critical term of Schoenberg and hisalludes to such concepts in a chapter enti-
disciples. After treating the phenomena oftled "Differentiation and Integration." As
"epigonism" and "traditionalism" Dahlhaus much as I love calculus and its ingenious
reaches the paradox-not the only one inpremises, I object to the all too easily mis-
this deeply searching book-that the his-understood terminology borrowed from
toric burden of present musical repertorymathematics, which began with the mis-
makes epigonism superfluous, but at thebegotten term "parameter" and might lead
same time challenges it. Here referenceto such creations as "elliptic integration."
might have been made to Karl R. Popper's I cannot agree with the author's evalu-
celebrated study on "The Poverty of His-ation of John Cage and his acoustic world,
toricism." The author contemplates the al-which I hesitate to term "music"; Dahl-
haus's remarks come, however, close to the
ternatives of quantification and qualifica-
tion and correctly refers the former to the
bull's-eye when he speaks of a "violent drive
natural sciences, rejecting any criterion towards loose anarchy" (p. 38). He is con-
based upon "empirical-statistical investiga-vinced that the trend of Western art music
tion of reception." (of folksong, or orally transmitted tunes he
Another debated issue in new music does not speak) goes in the direction of au-
warrants clarification: the matter of cohe- togene invention and elaboration, towards
siveness. Dahlhaus refers to it rather un- "ever stricter integration." Of considerable
decidedly, hardly considering it a criterion interest are his critical remarks about Adolf
of the first magnitude. "A negative deci- Bernhard Marx, once Mendelssohn's friend,
sion-the reproach of insufficient coher- later his enemy; Dahlhaus stresses the He-
ence or integration-is adequately sus- gelianism of Marx's concept of musical
tained only by the demonstration that the form, originally a vivid ideology, which

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Book Reviews 283

during
during the
thelater
laternineteenth
nineteenth century
century
be-aration
be- of
aration ofhearing
hearing andand
reading
reading
is abstract
is abstract
came
came aa nominalistic
nominalisticempty
empty
shell.
shell. in
in aa bad
badsense"-right!,
sense"-right!, andand
even
even
bolder:
bolder:
Skepticism
Skepticismisisthe
theauthor's
author'sattitude
attitude
to-"The
to- category
"The categoryofof 'understanding'
'understanding'musicmusic
is is
ward
ward the
thequestion
question ofof
progress
progress in music.
in music.
problematic
problematicinin musical
musical aesthetics"
aesthetics"
(p. 56).
(p. 56).
Here
Here and
andhere
herealone
alonedoes
does
he he
operate
operate
withwith
But
But is
isititnot
notthe
the
object
object
of of
analysis
analysis
to facil-
to facil-
concepts
conceptsofofstyle,
style,which
whichotherwise
otherwise
holds itateno
holds
no in rational terms the aesthetic and the
central
centralposition
positioninin
the
the
book.
book.
"Analogy andvalue
"Analogy and judgment? Highly interesting and
Compensation"
Compensation"isis
probably
probably
thethe
most
most
con-con-
original in the best sense is the author's
troversial section of the treatise: to con- treatment of the "multivalence" of signifi-
sider Bach's work "a challenge to thecant ideamasterworks such as The Magic Flute
of economy" will create some embarrass- or The Creation, directed both at the naive
and
ment for its lack of specific verification. the reflective hearer-a lost paradise,
The
lex parsimoniae sacred to Schoenberg was forto"in modern music, the unity of the
be obeyed in all dimensions of music
popular and the esoteric . . . has com-
(rhythm, harmony, timbre, and so forth).
pletely fallen apart, probably forever."
The book concludes with analyses of
Against this postulate, however, stands the
entire oeuvre of Beethoven with specificseven
but specific works from J. S. Bach to
very different economies in homophonic
Schoenberg. While the vocabulary of these
and polyphonic Gestalten. analyses is not innovative (thank good-
The last section deals with the question
ness!), Dahlhaus's approach to each of them
is different
of"audibility," a concept that exists only in and enlightening, combining
criteria of an historical, aesthetic, and in-
Western art music of the last two centuries;
as such, it may be a transient phase. While
tegrative nature.
discussing the reading of a score with the ERIC WERNER
"inner ear," the author observes: "The sep- The Hebrew Union College

Dufay. By David Fallows. (The Master Musicians.) London: J. M. Dent

& Sons Ltd., 1982. [xii, 321 p.; £9.95]
This book-length
book-length study
study ofof the
thelife
lifeand
and
for
for the
the most
mostpart
parthas
hasbeen
been
well
welldone.
done.
TheThe
works ofof Guillaume
Guillaume Dufay
Dufay isisboth
bothlong
long
prose
prose style
styleisisclear
clearand
andreadable.
readable.AndAndal- al-
overdue and welcome. It is overdue be- though
though written
writtenfor fora ageneral-if
general-if culti-
culti-
cause, if one leaves aside specialized mono-
vated-readership,
vated-readership,the thebook
bookis is
uncompro-
uncompro-
graphs, the volume is the first of itsmising
mising
kind in inits
itsscholarship,
scholarship, courageously
courageously
since the publication of Charles vantacklingden
tackling some
someof ofthe
thethorniest
thorniest problems
problems
Borren's Guillaume Dufay (Brussels, 1926)-currently
currentlyfacing
facingspecialists
specialists
in in
thethe
field.
field.
ForFor
and the first ever in English. In the mean-
a volume
volume of ofrelatively
relativelymodest
modest size,
size,
more-
more-
time an increasing number of significant over, it contains a remarkable amount of
discoveries has altered and enriched con- useful information. A series of appendixes
siderably our understanding of Dufay's provide:
ac- a chronological summary of im-
tivities in particular, and consequentlyportant
of events during Dufay's lifetime; a
the role of churchmen-musicians in fif- list of the compositions ascribed to him,
teenth-century society in general. The com-
either in the sources of the period or by
pletion of a collected edition of Dufay's
present-day scholars; a compendious bio-
music (Rome, 1947-49, 1951-66) has made
graphical dictionary of personages who
possible a much better assessment of his ar-
figured in his career; and a comprehensive
tistic achievement and of his contribution
bibliography. There are, in addition, copi-
to the development of the musical genres
ous notes, a thorough index, a number of
helpful plates and maps, and numerous
and styles of his age as well. In light of these
musical illustrations, most of which are ex-
circumstances, a careful attempt to pull all
of the loose threads together into a coher-
tensive enough to be truly informative. All
ent pattern, summarizing the known facts of this has been accurately printed in an
and defining the areas requiring further attractive typeface with adequate margins.
investigation, was clearly needed. The only concession to economic pressures
This study is welcome because the task is the grouping of the notes at the back of

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