An Unnatural Attitude traces a style of musical thought that coalesced in the intellectual milieu of the Weimar Republic&;a phenomenological style, which sought a renewed contact with music as a worldly circumstance. Deeply critical of the influence of naturalism in aesthetics and ethics, figures in this milieu argued for an understanding and description of music as something accessible neither through introspection nor through experimental research, but rather in an attitude of outward, open orientation toward the world. With this approach, music acquires meaning when the act of listening is understood to be constitutively shared with others.
Benjamin Steege interprets this discourse as the response of a post-World War I generation amid a virtually uninterrupted experience of war&;actual or imminent&;a younger cohort for whom disenchantment with scientific achievement was to be answered by reasserting the value of speculative thought and imagination. Steege draws on a wide range of published and unpublished texts from music theory, pedagogy, criticism, and philosophy of music, some of which are offered in English translation for the first time in the book&;s appendixes. An Unnatural Attitude seeks to answer the question: what are we thinking about when we think about music in non-naturalistic terms?
Industry Reviews
"In these pages Benjamin Steege recovers, at the very margins of the musical sciences, and against all the odds, a Heideggerian moment, the reverberations of which he traces from the 1920s until they all but fade from hearing three decades later. In the depth and breadth of its synthesis, An Unnatural Attitude provides a model for what it means to write imaginatively about music and conceptual thought." * Brian Hyer, University of Wisconsin-Madison *
"Between the hard-edged Platonism of musical form and the reduction of musical experience to mere psychological effect, an intricate and reflective style of musical thought emerged in Weimar Germany that was influenced by Edmund Husserl's novel method of phenomenology. Steege's deep dive into these forgotten figures-supported by forays into political history, textured close readings, and complete translations of primary texts-is a philosophical feast. It illuminates a complicated strain of European music theory embroiled in evolving debates about musical ontology, cultural difference, and social change." * Michael Gallope, author of 'Deep Refrains: Music, Philosophy, and the Ineffable' *
"Enriched by convincing music-analytical examples, careful handling of philosophical terms of art, and an ethical sensitivity not unlike that of its historical interlocutors, Steege's book-and the writers whose work it examines-is sure to draw attention from music historians and historians of philosophy alike, who will question the relative unfamiliarity of its subject matter and set out to reach out across this gap to explore the models of historical listening it offers." * New Books Network *
"Steege's work is an important contribution to music aesthetics." * Choice *
"An Unnatural Attitude is a serious intellectual history that brings to light the musical thought of actors unfamiliar to the vast majority of music scholars. Ambitiously, Steege writes of both local and global concerns. At times, he suggests that the intentional manner with which one engages with music can shape the history of feeling; at others, he explicates music's role in forging various types of community and in responding to human-led catastrophes. Densely written and always precise, An Unnatural Attitude is likely to establish itself as a central treatment of its topic: musicologists clearly need to think more deeply about the ideological, philosophical and political implications of that strange practice we call listening." * Twentieth-Century Music *
"Even if one might feel the tension differently oneself, there is no question that this text maintains and communicates it with tremendous skill and historical sensitivity, in both its main chapter sequence and the translated essays that make up a rich set of appendixes." * Notes *
