Subjectivity, Interpretation, and Irony in Gottfried Weber's Analysis of Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet

Abstract

In nearly thirty densely argued pages, Gottfried Weber (1832) analyzed four measures from Mozart's “Dissonance” Quartet; the “ear” subjects each note and chord to multiple possible interpretations. This paper examines Weber's interpretive practice in light of his theory of harmony, considering his cognitive teasing of potential meanings from the perspective of philosophical notions of consciousness (Kant and Fichte) and the poetics of self-reflective subjectivity proposed by the Early Romantics (F. Schlegel and Novalis) in their critiques of linguistic representation, temporality, and subject-object relations. The Early Romantic conception of irony and allegory brings the subject fully within the fold of linguistic representation, as does Weber, marking a key moment in the history of the representation of listening by music theory.

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