IGNAZ MOSCHELES: AN ILLUSTRIOUS MUSICIAN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) lived during a time when Britannia ruled the seas, monarchs ruled nations, and patriotism ruled societies. From monarchy and royal splendor, from sailing vessels and horse-drawn carriages, a generation's time saw the flowering of industry and capitalism, steamboats,...
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-1980
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) lived during a time when Britannia ruled the seas, monarchs ruled nations, and patriotism ruled societies. From monarchy and royal splendor, from sailing vessels and horse-drawn carriages, a generation's time saw the flowering of industry and capitalism, steamboats, factories, and railroads. He lived in an age when the hand of man was preparing to carve the earth in his image. He lived in a time of change that, during his and the succeeding generations, occurred at an ever-increasing pace. During this time, as the many facets of man's existence were rapidly changing, so was his music. The Classical style, developed only a generation hence, was already regarded as antiquated and the Baroque as obsolete in the face of the emerging Romantic style. Music, as many of man's other creative endeavors, was being relinquished to the control of the middle class and thus subjected to their approval. What the printed book had done to literature in this regard, the pianoforte was in the process of doing to music.('1) Ignaz Moscheles, though now little regarded and remembered by the musical world, was a musician of pre-eminent standing, a contemporary of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Weber, Schubert, and many others, and judged by many musicians of these times as their equal or superior. While his compositions indisputably lack the quality of those of his best contemporaries and his piano virtuosity remains unheard in the irretrievable past, Moscheles was influential to his art. The following work addresses itself to Moscheles' varied musical contributions in the hope that it will elucidate further a time of immense significance in the development of music. ('1)For more information on the impact of the pianoforte on society, see Arthur Loesser, Men, Women and Pianos (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954). |
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| ISBN: | 9798403436236 |