Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History makes a superb contribution in that it complicates and nuances the often monolithic view of a crucial formative period in the history of musicology. The result is a fascinating portrayal of musical thinkers pulled between the conflicting tidal forces of aesthetics and the natural laws of science, of Musikwissenschaft and Criticism, of empiricism and intuition. Karnes's book demands to be reckoned with, and it will invite useful critical engagement in the new terms of its refurbished field of inquiry. * Scott Burnham, Princeton University * Kevin Karnes's Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History is a considerable achievement, offering at once a probing account of the philosophical underpinnings of the emerging field of Musikwissenschaft and a novel point of entry into intellectual currents in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century. Especially welcome is the appreciative reevaluation of the entire body of writings by Hanslick, a figure who has often been misunderstood because the different types of writing have been read in isolation. Throughout his book Karnes shows the ways in which the positivism that motivated early musicologists was complicated by their reception of other philosophical trends and by their realization of the inevitable subjectivity of musical experience. * Margaret Notley, Author of Lateness and Brahms: Music and Culture in the Twilight of Viennese Liberalism (Oxford University Press, 2006) * In this thoughtful, imaginative and carefully researched study, Kevin C. Karnes reevaluates a key moment in the institutionalization of musicology as a modern academic discipline. Karnes's deep knowledge of this period is evident on every page, and his patient sifting of sources enables him to find connections that others have overlooked. For readers whose ideas about Hanslick derive primarily from his essay Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, for example, this book will be full of surprises, and Karnes also revises the conventional wisdom about Adler. * Kevin Korsyn, author of Decentering Music: A Critique of Contemporary Musical Research (Oxford University Press, 2003) * Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History makes a superb contribution in that it complicates and nuances the often monolithic view of a crucial formative period in the history of musicology. The result is a fascinating portrayal of musical thinkers pulled between the conflicting tidal forces of aesthetics and the natural laws of science, of Musikwissenschaft and Criticism, of empiricism and intuition. Karnes's book demands to be reckoned with, and it will invite useful critical engagement in the new terms of its refurbished field of inquiry. * Scott Burnham, Princeton University * In this thoughtful, imaginative and carefully researched study, Kevin C. Karnes reevaluates a key moment in the institutionalization of musicology as a modern academic discipline. Karnes's deep knowledge of this period is evident on every page, and his patient sifting of sources enables him to find connections that others have overlooked. For readers whose ideas about Hanslick derive primarily from his essay Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, for example, this book will be full of surprises, and Karnes also revises the conventional wisdom about Adler. * Kevin Korsyn, Author of Decentering Music: A Critique of Contemporary Musical Research (Oxford University Press, 2003) * An impressive achievement, offering a provocative and useful reappraisal of a key phase in the history of musicology. Its clear organization, as well as pithy and unpretentious prose, make it accessible to advanced students as well as scholars, and I have no doubt that it will continue to stimulate further work in this field for years to come. * Music & Letters *
