SURVEY SAYS ... THE MAKINGS OF A THESIS?

Dear Robert Fink,

In your essay "Beethoven Antihero", you observe that early Romantic critics overuse the word 'sublime' to describe Beethoven's first symphony. I, in turn, will observe here that modern critics overuse the word 'subjective' in describing Romantic criticism.

(For serious, though, y'all need to learn how to jack yourselves off the normal way.)

As critics chart the trends from the days of Beethoven to Brahms to Schoenberg, they note the ongoing debate between those who see music as an articulation of the unconscious and those who reject this in favor of a more technical view. From Schoenberg to the postmodern critics, however, there has been a progression towards criticism that is both more technical and more subjective. As the years progress, we find ourselves superimposing our own paradigms and modes of listening onto the music of our predecessors -- and as the layering continues the image becomes unrecognizable. In the search for the ultimate definition of music, have we obscured our own ability to listen?

In the days since Beethoven, we have undoubtedly evolved in how we think about, discuss and listen to the symphony ... and one of the most interesting facets of this change has been the evolution of our criticism. I beg you, Finkster, to examine the paradox of modern criticism, specifically the juxtaposition of the technical against the subjective, and argue for a mode of thinking that spends less time glorifying itself and more time -- well, listening.

Love, The Monty