The Metaphysics of Music in Romanticism

Abstract

Philosophy was always fascinated by music for several reasons. German Romanticism represents a pinnacle of this fascination beginning from its fundamental break with neo-classical underestimation of instrumental music, raising it, on the contrary, to a paradigm expressive of the search for the absolute and ineffable. The article starts with the interesting and ambiguous Kantian reflectionon music, and from there on approaches the main authors of this concept of music: Michaelis; the poets L. Tieck and Wackenroder; and E.T.A. Hoffman, who shaped the romantic interpretation of Beethovenas a crystallization of this sought-after music. Despite the anti-romantic mood of much of 20th-centurymusic, this concept is still an unavoidable horizon for understanding what we nowadays understand by music. Furthermore, this concept also offers an essential key in making an accurate assessment of the outstanding philosophical contribution of Romanticism.