The Viennese Waltz: Decadence and the Decline of Austria's Unconscious

by Danielle Hood

Overview

Satiricized by Strauss II to highlight the deceptive aristocratic class, under Schoenberg, Mahler, and Webern’s pens the waltz became the pivot between the conscious and unconscious, forcing a paralytic “second state” analogous with the stagnation of the Habsburg Empire. The Viennese Waltz shows how, between 1864 – 1928, the waltz altered from signifier of upper-class artificeto the link between man and nature and between Viennese and “Other.” Hood wields the Freudian concepts of the uncanny and the doppelgänger to explain this revolution from the simple signification of a dance to the psychological anxiety of a subject’s place in society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793653925
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	06/21/2022
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.28(w) x 8.95(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Danielle Hood received her PhD in musicology from the University of Leeds.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Topics in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

Chapter 2. Evolution of Viennese Cultural-Historical Topics: Romance, Freud, and

Authenticity

Chapter 3. The Waltz and the “Other”

Chapter 4. Narrative and Deception

Chapter 5. The Development of the Uncanny Narrative

Chapter 6 Part 1. The Waltz and the Uncanny in Mahler’s Seventh Symphony

Chapter 6 Part 2. Mahler’s Scherzos and the Uncanny Waltz

Chapter 7. The Waltz as Pivot Point in Webern’s Symphony Op. 21

Editorial Reviews

Danielle Hood’s examination of the waltz in fin-de-siecle Vienna offers, on the one hand, a corrective to the relative absence of analytical accounts of music of this time in terms of topic and on the other, psychologically informed readings that tease out hitherto unexplored connections between diverse repertoires and composers. Hood’s wide-ranging interpretative strategy touches on the musical application of Freudian theory, narratology, and hermeneutics. Readers interested in music’s multiple significations and the interrelationships between musical topics and narrative, culture, and the unconscious will find much food for thought in Hood’s lively account.”

Edward Venn

Drawing on topic theory, along with psychology and philosophy, Danielle Hood makes a compelling argument for reading the waltz as an uncanny narrative and tying the meaning to music as early as Johann Strauss II and Die Fledermaus rather than fin-de siècle Vienna. The case studies are detailed and incorporate tonal, atonal, and serial music and illustrate that the Viennese traditions did not fade away with World War I. The waltz and the Ländler have always been connected, and Hood demonstrates how the opposition between the two grows into an uncanny narrative.”

Erik Heine

Over the long 20th-century fin de siècle(1864–1928), Vienna was a hub of cultural and intellectual activity, with many famous composers, writers, and artists living and working in the city. At the same time, however, Austria was in decline, and the decadence of the Viennese upper class stood in contrast to, and denial of, the sociopolitical reality. Hood looks at how the composers of Vienna used the waltz to critique and give narrative to the city's decadence, artifice, and decay… This book offers a well-researched and fresh take on major canonical works. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

Choice Reviews

The Waltz is bound to become an indispensable contribution to the musical analysis of fin-de-siècle Vienna and particularly the waltz and its symbolic signification. Masterful use of topical and narratological procedures, but also of psychoanalysis as it is provided by the cultural context under scrutiny. Taking into account and relating both art music (Schönberg, Webern, Mahler) and functional genres such as dances and operetta reveals itself a fruitful, clever operation.”

Joan Grimalt Santacana