Izvorni znanstveni članak
Biography as Ethics: A Study in the Combat between Respect and Contempt in the Mind of Felix Mendelssohn
Edward Green
; Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Sažetak
In Aesthetic Realism, founded by Eli Siegel, a methodology exists through which biographers can understand the central ethical conflict in the life of every person: the fight between the desire to increase respect for the world and other people, or increase contempt for them. Felix Mendelssohn’s life illustrates this. This paper focuses on his relations with his sister, Fanny; his teacher, Carl Friedrich Zelter; and the contemporary who most deeply troubled him - Hector Berlioz. In each instance, this question arose for Mendelssohn: whether to have more feeling, or less; welcome a larger notion of reality, or be content with something more constrained. It is precisely the question that, in a technical form, was crucial to his art. In keeping with this, a hypothesis is presented concerning the Italian Symphony and Mendelssohn’s inability ever to consider it finished. It is suggested that, unconsciously, his shame about indulging in contempt for the Italian people prevented him from appreciating his own work accurately.
Ključne riječi
Mendelssohn; Eli Siegel; Aesthetic Realism; Italian Symphony; Berlioz; Zelter; Fanny Mendelssohn; Contempt; Respect; Ethics; Biography
Hrčak ID:
32562
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.12.2006.
Posjeta: 1.732 *