Developing Variations: Style and Ideology in Western Music

by Rose Rosengard Subotnik

Music, even at its formal level, says Rose Rosengard Subotnik, is to be understood as an embodiment of specific cultural and social values, as defined within the interpreter’s own context. In Developing Variations, Subotnik critically employs the insights of Adorno, Kant, Hegel, and Marx to analyze the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Schoenberg.Combines into a cohesive statement the author’s pathbreaking critical essays on Western music."Rose Subotnik stands out as perhaps the most interesting and provocative person to have written from a nonpositivist, nonvenerative position about music in society, rather than music as autonomous art. Her massive project on post-Kantian philosophy, as embodied in and carried forward by music, is in a class by itself. In her philological and interpretive reading of Adorno, she is, I believe, the major voice."— Edward W. Said, Columbia University

Genres: Music, Essays

372 pages, Hardcover

First published June 18, 1991

About the author

Rose Rosengard Subotnik is a leading American musicologist, generally credited with introducing the writing of Theodor Adorno to English-speaking musicologists in the late 1970s.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I completely disagree with most of Subotnik's points. But these music-philosophies are so enjoyable to read, the disagreement doesn't get in the way.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Requires a lot more knowledge of Kant than I have to fully appreciate, but contains some excellent essays.