A few weeks after the reunification of Germany, Leonard Bernstein
raised his baton above the ruins of the Berlin Wall and conducted a
special arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The central
statement of the work, that "all men will be brothers," captured
the sentiment of those who saw a brighter future for the newly
reunited nation. This now-iconic performance is a palpable example
of "musical monumentality" - a significant concept that underlies
our cultural and ideological understanding of Western music since
the nineteenth century. Although the concept was first raised in
the earliest years of musicological study in the 1930s, a
satisfying exploration of the "monumental" in music has not yet
been made. Alexander Rehding, one of the brightest young stars in
the field takes on the task in Music and Monumentality, an elegant,
thorough treatment that will serve as a foundation for all future
discussion in the area. Rehding sets his focus on the main players
of the period within the Austro-German repertoire - Beethoven,
Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler - as he unpacks a
twofold definition of musical monumentality. In the conventional
sense, monumentality is a stylistic property often described as
'grand,' 'uplifting,' and 'sublime,' rife with overpowering brass
chorales, sparking string tremolos, triumphant fanfares, and
glorious thematic returns. Yet Rehding sees the monumental in music
performing a cultural task as well: it is employed in the service
of establishing national identity. Through a clear theoretical
lens, Rehding examines how grand sound effects are strategically
employed with the view to overwhelming audiences, how supposedly
immutable musical halls of fame change over time, how challenging
musical works are domesticated, how the highest cultural
achievements are presented in immediately consumable form - in
short, how German music emerges as a unified cultural and musical
brand. Music and Monumentality is an important addition to the
libraries of students and scholars of Western musicology and music
theory, as well as all readers and listeners interested in music
theory, nationalism, and the nineteenth century.
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