Carl Maria Von Weber

About this book

"Despite its enormous popularity throughout the 19th century, Weber's swan song, Oberon has remained separate from the mainstream thrust of our modern understanding of German Romantic opera. In Carl Maria von Weber: Oberon and Cosmopolitanism in the Early German Romantic, music historian and theorist Joseph E. Morgan reassesses Weber's work and aesthetics not just for their influence but also as an expression of the aesthetics and cosmopolitanism that underlay the early Romantic and Nationalist movements in Germany. With analyses supported by nearly one hundred musical examples, Morgan tracks the development of Weber's musical style across his career. The investigation culminates with Weber's last and long-misunderstood work, explaining its thematic and harmonic organization, its stylistic idiosyncrasies, and the tenuous place that it holds on the margins of the operatic canon. The discussion is enhanced and corroborated by attention to correlating developments in other art forms of the period, including painting, poetry, and literature"--Page [4] of cover.