Between Romanticism and Modernism

 Carl Dahlhaus here treats Nietzsche's youthful analysis of the contradictions in Wagner's doctrine (and, more generally, in romantic musical aesthetics); the question of periodicization in romantic and neo-romantic music; the underlying kinship between Brahms' and Wagner's responses to the central musical problems of their time; and, the true significance of musical nationalism. Included in this volume is Walter Kauffman's translation of the previously unpublished fragment, "On Music and Words", by the young Nietzsche.

Review: "["Between Romanticism and Modernism] is more comprehensive in scope than its modest size and essayistic style disclose at first sight; while on the vexed question of historical method it makes, both in theory and in practice, a pronouncement of policy that goes beyond the confines of "belles-lettres. . . . In themselves, the topics he broaches are the concern of any literate musician; but the familiar terrain is surveyed as if for the first time, and every turn reveals original perspectives."--Roger Hollinrake, "Music and Letters