Sacred and Secular: Understanding Beethoven in his Religious Context

Professor Chua, Daniel Kwan Liang   (Principal Investigator (PI))

42

2019-06-01

465500

Sacred and Secular: Understanding Beethoven in his Religious Context

Adorno, Beethoven, Musical analysis/hermeneutics, Religious Enlightenment, Secularisation narratives

Musciology/Music History

Humanities & Social Sciences (H)

17608018

General Research Fund (GRF)

2018

Completed

1 To re-evaluate contemporary research and its use of archival sources to bolster the 'secular' or 'unorthodox' narrative of Beethoven (e.g. in the work of Theodor Adorno, Maynard Solomon, Birgit Lodes, Jan Swafford); to re-consider these sources and interpretations in the context of the religious reforms in Vienna (and Bonn). 2 To understand Beethoven's music in a more complex context that holds in tension the sweep of intellectual history (the secularising Enlightenment narrative) and the details of local history (the religious Enlightenment under the Catholic reforms under Joseph II). 3 To provide a more nuanced and rich theological understanding of the religious context in Bonn and Vienna for future Beethoven scholarship and reassess the representation of autonomy, progress and freedom in this light. 4 To provide new hermeneutic readings for understanding Beethoven sacred and non-religious works in the light of objectives 1, 2 and 3.