19세기 초 예술통합 담론과 낭만주의 음악미학

A discourse of unification of the arts in the early 19th century and romantic aesthetics of music

Even before Wagner the idea of the “Gesamtkunstwerk” was present. While Wagner's idea is the “collective” unification of the arts, the Early Romanticists discuss “the transcendental unification” of all art forms. The artists of the early Romantic period recognize the limitations of their own art form and are aware of the necessity that the other arts have to help them to represent the universe, where man and nature are in unity and where the individual and the universal interrelate. They believe that each art form will gain its “unique self” through the unification of the arts, so that in a work of art individual particularity and universal generality interrelate, just as in the ideal world. Since absolute music is recognized as the metaphor of the universe and the unification of all arts, the Early Romanticists demand that the nature of music as an aesthetic substance become present in all works of art. Thus, the yearning for a “Gesamtkunstwerk” is closely linked to a new perception of music. Finally, it is expected of a work of music of the 19th century that it appear as a “Gesamtkunstwerk” through “musicalization”, i. e. through the “transcendental” unification of all arts.