Abstracts of issue 10-11 (1998)

Markos Tsetsos

Problems of Aesthetic Analysis of a Beethovens Late String Quartet (Op. 131, c sharp minor)

This article investigates problems concerning some of the main attempts of contemporary music analysis to discover technic criteria (tonal, motivic-thematic, structural) that can guarantee and justify the otherwise problematic unity of the Beethovens late style form, and poses the question of the aesthetic validity of the results of such attempts, taking in consideration mainly the philosophical assumptions of Kantian criticism and Adornos views on late Beethoven, based on the recently published fragments of his planned Beethoven-book. The author, closing, proposes the study of the Κantian Τheory of the Aesthetic Idea (Aesthetische Idee) as a means of understanding and evaluation of the aesthetic significance of the paradoxical (in juxtaposition to the dominating form logic of the 19th century) late Beethovens style, form, and tonal structures.

© Musicology