Musical Revolutions in German Culture Musicking against the Grain, 1800-1980 [Hardcover]

Drawing upon the philosophical insights of Friedrich Schlegel, Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno, and Blixa Bargeld, this book explores the persistence of a critical-deconstructive approach to musical production, consumption, and reception in the German cultural sphere of the last two centuries.Introduction: Musicking as a Cultural Practice 1. Friedrich Schlegel and Romanticized Music 2. Walter Benjamin and the Dialectical Sonority 3. Theodor W. Adorno and Radical Music 4. Blixa Bargeld and Noise Coda: Toward a Musical Future Perfect

Halls book is engaging, stimulating and generative. & Hall provides readers with enough critical-musicking instruments to equip themselves as destructive musiciansor better, destructive musickersin their own right. & Musical Revolutions is a compelling and well-crafted provocation for future scholars to Bring the Noise. (Martin Law, Marx and Philosophy, marxandphilosophy.org.uk, April, 2016)

Mirko M. Hall is Associate Professor of German Studies and Affiliate Faculty in Philosophy in the Department of Languages, Cultures, and Literatures at Converse College, USA. Hall interweaves music, philosophy, and politics in this book in order to challenge the reader with the same 'hermeneutic inexhaustibility' that the author also verifies in the 'counterhegemonic possibilities of music.' By exploring the concepts of 'dialectical sonority' and 'dialectical listening,' even within the context of so-called 'lower art,' Hall provides a very original and pioneering contribution through his critical-deconstructive philosophy of music. The subtitle, 'Musicking against the Grain,' not only depicts brilliantly the book's content, but also reflects the author's endeavor: thinking against the grain. - M?rio Vieira de Carvalho, Professor Emeritus of Sociology of Music, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal

In four steps, spanning two centuries of German thought, Hall unlocks a fascinatlƒ8