Scores of Being

Download or read book Scores of Being written by H.A.E. Hub Zwart and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph studies opera as music drama, guided by four ideas: opera as an ambiance (setting an acoustic stage where dramatic action becomes possible), as a Gesamtkunstwerk (incorporating other arts forms into a coherent whole), as archaeology (revivifying lost worlds of experience) and as a dialectical syllogism (resulting in the negation of a paralysing negation via a dramatic act). We focus on Richard Wagner, as composer and author, but also address other music dramas (by Giacomo Puccini and John Adams), adopting a Hegelian dialectical perspective, but involving other dialectical thinkers (e.g., Marx and Engels) as well.