MUS 114 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Gustav Mahler, Richard Gerstl, Maurice Maeterlinck
Document Summary
Expressionism: movement in literature, painting, film, architecture and music, art that delves into the unconscious, instinct, the irrational, the animal side of the human. Influenced by freud, the world of dreams, secret desires, interiority, sexuality. Human sickness was largely to do with the sickness of the psyche. Could be cured by understanding the psyche, imagination, dreams, etc. Developed understanding of human behavior and how they react in society and the relationships between children and parents, spouses, etc. Brought about human sub consciousness into reality: largely centered in vienna and germany, repressive society spawning a kind of cultural protest in art and literature. In opposition to cult of technology and industrialization: a focus on the emotional, the wild side, organic growth, the unpredictable, the grotesque, the unknown: hence, non-mechanical and non-repetitive, undivided, form emerging out of itself. In some of the music, the non-repetitiveness is obvious newness at all moments: hinting at abstraction: newness as unrecognizability.
