American Writers on Beethoven, 1838-1849: Dwight, Fuller, Cranch, Story

Abstract

The history of instrumental music has included persistent considerations of its and the degree to which it has been perceived to partake of nonmusical properties. Contextual or historical factors can affect those perceptions. Edward A. Lippman has asserted: To maintain that musical meaning is internal and peculiar is not to insist that it is unconnected with other types of experience; indeed it cannot fail to resemble experience in general and even to suggest it. Nonetheless, he emphasizes the specifically musical nature of musical meaning.' Jacques Barzun takes a different stand: All music is programmatic, explicitly or implicitly, and in more than one way. He links the program in its complexity to an evaluative aesthetic tradition in the statement that [t]o answer these questions of purity and autonomy is a prerequisite of any intelligent critical practice.2 The early years of the American critical tradition in music are notable for discussions exploring the nature, role, and significance of largescale orchestral music precisely at the time of, and in direct response to, the earliest clearly identified public orchestral performances of Ludwig van Beethoven's complete symphonies in this country. Although individual Beethoven symphonies may have been presented before 1841-H. Earle Johnson lists several possible earlier performances of the first two-that year marks the beginning of the important performances in New York and Boston that centrally influenced the think-

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