Carl Dahlhaus and the "Ideal Type"

Author(s): Philip Gossett

Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Summer, 1989), pp. 49-56
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/746211
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 Viewpoint

Carl Dahlhaus and the "Ideal Type"

PHILIP GOSSETT

The statement that Carl Dahlhaus exercises his ods which have a footing in the empirical but
encyclopedic activities as aesthetician, critic,venture beyond its frontiers are to be con-
editor, historian, and theorist from a position demned on principle" (BRM, pp. 75-76). Look-
just slightly west of the Berlin wall is more than
ing East, he accepts the notion that "a history of
a claim about geography. Both implicit and ex-music which examines the subject primarily
plicit through much of his published writings is from the standpoint of compositional issues is
one-sided and requires augmentation," but in-
the goal of reconciling (dare one say dialecti-
cally?) a music history so focused on the "rubble sists that "the assumption that the context of
of facts" (the phrase is his)' that it fails to in-musical works is always society as a whole is an
volve itself with the process of concept forma- exaggeration, dogmatic in origin" (BRM, p. 77).2
tion, and the equally pernicious approach that The historiographical principle through
considers the individual work of art little more
which this reconciliation might be effected, a
than the manifestation of concepts. principle to which Dahlhaus returns again and
The last section of one of Dahlhaus's most again, is the so-called "ideal type." In the con-
provocative essays, "Issues in Composition," clusion to his Realism in Nineteenth-Century
addresses both constituencies. Looking West, Music, he offers the following definition:
he perceives a fear of "making broad generaliza-
An 'ideal type,' briefly, is a hypothetical construction
tions" and asserts that "the writing of any kind
in which a historian assembles a number of phenom-
of history would be severely impeded if meth-

2The gulf that continues to exist between Eastern and West-

19th-Century Music XIII/1 (Summer 1989). ? by the Re-
gents of the University of California. ern scholars can be measured by opposing reviews of
Dahlhaus's Nineteenth-Century Music [1980], trans. J.
An earlier version of this study was read at the national
Bradford Robinson (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989), hence-
meeting of the American Musicological Society in Cleve-
land in November 1986. It was conceived as a contribution forth NCM. For Douglas Johnson (Journal of the American
to the discussion of methodology in musical scholarshipMusicological Society 36 [1983], 532-43), one of the book's
strengths is the "attention paid to music that was closely
largely generated by Professor Dahlhaus's work. There is no
bound to social activity" (p. 537), including "Trivialmusik."
more fitting way to honor his achievement than by continu-
Georg Knepler ("Uber die Niutzlichkeit marxistischer Kate-
ing to engage ourselves with these issues. But his death robs
us of contemporary musicology's most provocative voice. gorien fiir die Musikhistoriographie: Reflexionen anlaiflich
des Erscheinens von Carl Dahlhaus' Die Musik des 19.
1Between Romanticism and Modernism: Four Studies in Jahrhunderts," Beitrdge zur Musikwissenschaft 24 [1982],
the Music of the Later Nineteenth Century [1974], trans.
31-42), on the other hand, takes a dim view both of the way
Mary Whittall (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1980), p. 38this concept is defined by Dahlhaus and of the limited role
(henceforth, BRM). music that is not "high art" plays in his history (p. 32).

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19TH
ception
ena which in historical reality are observed haphaz-of the "ideal type," and he cites in par-
CENTURY
MUSIC ardly and always in different combinations, and are-
ticular famous essay by Weber entitled " 'Ob-
lates and compares them to each other in order to in Social Science and Social Policy."
jectivity'
bring out the connection between them.3
Written in 1904, on the occasion of Weber's as-
suming
According to Dahlhaus, the theoretical the coeditorship of the Archiv ffir So-
model
zialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, it is availa-
"Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music" offers
ble in an English translation by Edward A. Shils
a way of abstracting results from individual
and Henry A. Finch.7 Before we examine the
analyses, allowing the historian to understand
ways in which Dahlhaus invokes the notion of
and interpret the presence or absence of single
"ideal types," we need to reconstruct Weber's
details as part of a larger functional nexus. And
motivation in advancing this historiographical
Dahlhaus differentiates quite rightly between
approach, as well as the cautions he offers those
"normative" concepts and "ideal types."
What Charles Rosen defines as "The Classi- who employ it.8
cal Style" corresponds essentially to Dahl-
II
haus's notion of an "ideal type," and Rosen's
Following the tenets of nineteenth-century
language is similar to that of Dahlhaus: "It is a
positivism, many social scientists adopted atti-
fiction, an attempt to create order, a construc-
tudes stemming from the then prevailing belief
tion that enables us to interpret the change in
about the nature of knowledge in the natural
the musical language."4 Just as Dahlhaus
sciences. According to this view, the natural
affirms that the characteristics grouped under
sciences seek to order empirical reality analyti-
the heading of a single "ideal type" need not be
cally so as to arrive at universally valid, "objec-
present in all works of a period, or be found to
tive" truths. Weber does not deny that some
the same degree even in the works he chooses
such knowledge is possible in the social sci-
for examination (his "facts" of music history),5
ences, but he carefully circumscribes its nature,
so too Rosen seeks to avoid by his formulation
as we shall see. In his own words, "a social sci-
"the difficulties of the 'anonymous' period
ence journal . . to the extent that it is scientific
style, which fails to distinguish between paint-
should be a place where those truths are sought,
ing and wallpaper or between music and com-
which ... can claim, even for a Chinese, the va-
mercial background noises for dinner." Histori-
lidity appropriate to an analysis of empirical re-
cal writing based on the concept of the "ideal
ality" (OSS, p. 59). (He is here pursuing an ex-
type," in short, must not be confused with style
ample in which "a Chinese" represents an
analysis that seeks, in the words of Jan LaRue,
observer with different cultural values.) We
to identify "the predominant choices of ele-
hardly need to wait for Thomas Kuhn's analysis
ments and procedures a composer makes" and
concerning the development of scientific
to generalize from them in order to identify
knowledge for a clear awareness that the ex-
"common characteristics that may individual-
treme positivist approach was as little valid for
ize a whole school or chronological period."6 An
"ideal type" is not an "average."
Dahlhaus acknowledges the writings of the
sociologist Max Weber as the source for his con-
7Weber's original essay is printed in his Gesammelte Auf-
siatze zur Wissenschaftslehre, ed. Johannes Winckelmann
(2nd edn. Tilbingen, 1951), pp. 146-214. The translation
forms part of a collection of Weber's essays entitled The
3Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music [1982], trans. Mary Methodology of the Social Sciences (New York, 1949), pp.
Whittall (Cambridge, 1985), p. 121 (henceforth RNM). In his 59-112 (henceforth OSS).
review of this volume, Christopher Hatch rightly asserts 8My own understanding of the issues has been greatly
that the paragraphs in which Dahlhaus finally sets forth this helped by Susan Hekman's, Weber, the Ideal Type, and
concept "encapsulate the theretofore unstated burden of the Contemporary Social Theory (Notre Dame, 1983). I wish to
whole book" (this journal 10 [1986], 188). thank Professor Donald L. Levine of the University of Chi-
4The Classical Style (New York, 1972), p. 22. cago for clarifying several points in Weber's formulation, as
5Foundations of Music History [1976], trans. J. B. Robinson well as for his sympathetic reading of an earlier version of
(Cambridge, 1983), pp. 33-43 (henceforth FMH). this essay. Thoughtful readings from Joseph Kerman and
6Guidelines for Style Analysis (New York, 1970), p. ix. Ruth Solie were also extremely helpful.

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 VIEWPOINT
significance which we attribute to the particular
the natural sciences as for the social sciences.9
Weber himself remarks: "even the knowledge event in a given case (OSS, p. 64).
of the most certain proposition of our theoreti-
cal sciences-e.g., the exact natural sciences or When Dahlhaus, in answer to the question
mathematics, is, like the cultivation and refine- "What is a fact of music history?," responds
ment of the conscience, a product of culture" that "facts [are] selected on the basis of particu-
(OSS, p. 55). lar interests, and [rise] from the status of mere
But Weber's concept of the "ideal type" is source material to that of historical fact solely
less a reaction to positivism itself than to the by virtue of a conceptual system of the histo-
challenge to positivism that came with the rian's own making" (FMH, p. 42), he is simply
mode of historical thought known as "Verste- restating Weber's proposition.
hen." Throughout its various manifestations in According to Weber, the social scientist or
the work of writers such as Dilthey, Rickert, historian, from his subjective viewpoint, em-
and Windelband, "Verstehen" sees the histo- ploys conceptual patterns against which to un-
rian as a subjective agent seeking to understand derstand the elements of reality he has selected.
the past by establishing an "imaginary dialogue These conceptual patterns are defined as "ideal
... with historical agents in an effort to dis- types":
cover," in Dahlhaus's words, "their aims and
motives" (FMH, p. 72). As such, it emphasizes An ideal type is formed by the one-sided accentua-
the "subjectivity" of historical knowledge at tion [einseitige Steigerung] of one or more points of
view and by the synthesis of a great many diffuse, dis-
the expense of the "objective" knowledge,
crete, more or less present and occasionally absent
through framing laws, to which positivist concrete individual phenomena, which are arranged
thought aspired. Raising the individual "subjec- according to those one-sidedly emphasized view-
tive" to the group "intersubjective" (both in points into a unified analytical construct. In its con-
terms of the historian in relation to other histo- ceptual purity, this mental construct cannot be
found empirically anywhere in reality. It is a utopia.
rians and historical agents in relation to one an-
Historical research faces the task of determining in
other) provides a more broadly based concept, each individual case, the extent to which this ideal-
but does not fundamentally alter the nature of construct approximates to or diverges from reality
the intellectual endeavor. (OSS, p. 90).
It was in order to find a methodological mid-
dle ground between these extremes that Weber For Weber, the same historical phenomena can
introduced the concept of the "ideal type." Hebe described by a multiplicity of ideal types. As
sought to define the nature of the "subjective" he puts it:
activity of the social scientist in a way that nev-
ertheless preserved a place for the objective Those phenomena which interest us as cultural phe-
evaluation of data. According to Weber, everynomena are interesting to us with respect to very dif-
historical enterprise initiates with "subjective" ferent kinds of evaluative ideas to which we relate
considerations: "the very recognition of the ex- them. Inasmuch as the "points of view" from which
istence of a scientific problem coincides, per- they can become significant for us are very diverse,
the most varied criteria can be applied to the selec-
sonally, with the possession of specifically ori- tion of the traits which are to enter into the construc-
ented motives and values" (OSS, p. 61). Just as tion of an ideal-typical view of a particular culture
the questions we ask reflect our individual mo- (OSS, p. 91).
tives and values, so too does the choice of the
events we consider:
"Ideal types," for Weber, then, are essentially
heuristic devices, "primarily analytical instru-
The quality of an event as a "socio-economic" event ments for the intellectual mastery of empirical
is not something which it possesses "objectively." It data" (OSS, p. 106).
is rather conditioned by the orientation of our cogni-
Where, in this scheme, does the "objectivity"
tive interest, as it arises from the specific cultural
of the social sciences lie? Precisely in the mea-
surement of empirical data against the ideal
9The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago, types.
1962). However subjective the choice of ideal

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19TH types, however subjective the choice of "histor-
While these dangers may seem evident, Weber
CENTURY
MUSIC ical facts," the extent to which the latter are ap-how difficult they might be to avoid
recognized
propriately measured by the former is in subject toThey are certainly worth bearing in
practice.
verification. Weber concludes, finally,mind as we examine several instances of how
that:
Dahlhaus uses the concept of the ideal type.
The "objectivity" of the social sciences depends ...
on the fact that the empirical data are always related III
to those evaluative ideas which alone make them
In his essay on "neo-romanticism," which
worth knowing and the significance of the empirical
data is derived from these evaluative ideas. But these
opens the collection Between Romanticism
data can never become the foundation for the empiri- and Modernism, Dahlhaus places the term in
cally impossible proof of the validity of the evalua- quotation marks in his title and in its first ap-
tive ideas (OSS, p. 111). pearances in the text, suggesting its status as a
historical construct. As his argument pro-
I have summarized Weber's discussion at
gresses, however, he gradually eliminates these
length because an understanding of his argu-
quotation marks, a stylistic maneuver that sub-
ment helps us to perceive certain significant
tly grants the term ever increasing stature. For
problems both in Dahlhaus's use of the term
Dahlhaus, the musical "neo-romanticism" of
"ideal type" and in the way he relates "empiri-
the second half of the nineteenth century is "ro-
cal reality" to "concepts." Many of these prob-
mantic art in an unromantic, positivist age"
lems were already anticipated by Weber,(BRM,who p. 14), and he uses the term to define this
recognized fully the dangers inherent in the in the history of music. In the same
period
epistemological model he was recommending breath, he affirms that "neither realism nor the
for research in the social sciences. Indeed, in of the early years (the Griinderjahre) of
spirit
one sense his entire essay can be understoodthe
as a
new German empire proclaimed in 1871,
demonstration that "all specifically Marxianneither naturalism nor symbolism had any ef-
'laws' and developmental constructs--insofarfect on the major musical works of the second
as they are theoretically sound-are ideal
half of the nineteenth century, with a few ex-
types." For Weber, Marxist concepts and hy- that did not influence style in general"
ceptions
potheses are extraordinarily significant as (BRM,
heu- p. 6).
ristic devices for the "assessment of reality";
Dahlhaus's treatment of "neo-romanticism"
they become pernicious only when they in are
his book on Realism in Nineteenth-Century
thought to be "empirically valid" (OSS, p. 103). Music is similar, but now the term "realism" is
The potential dangers Weber perceived can
rehabilitated, with the aid of Max Weber. "Real-
be summarized as a series of cautions to histo- ism" turns out to be an "ideal type," a hypothet-
rians: ical construct in the Weberian sense, which can
(1) One must not confuse theory and history by be- be used to relate and compare individual charac-
lieving that theoretical constructs are the "true" teristics found in a diverse set of historical
content of historical reality. "facts" (in this case, "works"), and which pro-
vides a significant and functional nexus
(2) One must not use these constructs as a procrus-
tean bed into which history is to be forced, or, put an- through which to understand and interpret the
other way, one must not do violence to reality in or- individual details (RNM, pp. 120-23). It is, as
der to prove the validity of a construct. Weber himself would argue, the synthesis of a
great many diffuse and discrete individual phe-
(3) One must not confuse an "idea" as it may appear nomena, not all of which need be present at
in historical documents pertaining to an epoch with
the theoretical construct of an "ideal type," even if once, arranged according to a one-sidedly em-
the same term is used for both. phasized viewpoint into a unified analytical
construct.
(4) One must exercise what Weber calls "the elemen- The problem is not Dahlhaus's use of the
tary duty of scientific self-control" (OSS, p. 98) by term "ideal type" to refer to the construct "rea
sharply distinguishing between the analysis of his-
torical data comparatively, using ideal types, and the
ism"; rather it is his failure to recognize tha
imposition of value judgements about those data on "neo-romanticism" is no less an ideal type, i
the basis of extraneous ideals. Weber's sense, than is "realism." Nor is it

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enough to cover one's flank by proclaiming, rests on a dogmatic preference for classicism: the
VIEWPOINT

rightly, that: "Definitions of a period in the his- early developmental stage of the form, in which tonal
order is decisive, would appear as a rudimentary on-
tory of music or any of the other arts are never
set; the late stage, in which thematic elaboration pre-
completely independent of value judgments" dominates, as decay (A VJ, p. 84).
(BRM, p. 6). In effect, Dahlhaus grants the status
of historical truth (neo-romanticism, without Part of our difficulty in reconciling the two
its cautionary quotation marks) to what he val- statements lies in the cross-purposes to which
ues most (in this case, a concept largely derived the term "ideal type" is being put.
from a consideration of some of the music of
In the first case, Dahlhaus considers the
Wagner and Liszt), while he explains as mani-"ideal type" musically real around 1800 be-
festations of an "ideal type" ("realism") workscause it is an idea present in history that also
he considers peripheral (in this case, restrictingfunctions as a historical fact-that is, it has
ourselves to the period 1850-90, a concept that "the power to intervene positively in historical
seeks to join together aspects of the music ofdevelopments" (BRM, p. 79). In the second case,
Berlioz, Verdi, Bizet, and Mussorgsky). But suchDahlhaus decries as a dogmatic preference for
a methodological distinction is antithetical toclassicism the definition of sonata form as an
Weber's meaning. It also reveals German ethno- "ideal type" mediating between a harmonic-
centricity masquerading as value judgement. tonal and thematic-motivic foundation. In both
In his Analysis and Value Judgment, Dahl- cases, he falls directly into the dangers against
haus employs the expression "ideal type" twice which Weber cautioned.
to refer to sonata form.'1 The first reference oc- The first statement fails to differentiate satis-
curs in the chapter entitled "Principles offactorily between a theoretical construct and
Form" and follows on a discussion of the ideas
historical reality. There is no denying that some
of Adolf Bernhard Marx, for whom, according tocontemporary concept of sonata form had his-
Dahlhaus, "[t]he individual work appeared as torical substance around 1800, but this concept
the sample of a formal type, as the partial and must not be confused with the theoretical con-
one-sided realization of a formal idea fully and struct, the heuristic device that an "ideal type"
comprehensively realized only by the whole of sonata form represents to a historian. In fact,
history of a form" (A VJ, pp. 45-46). He sets this Dahlhaus commits an error he recognizes in
dynamic vision of form against what he views other circumstances when he equates the Allge-
as the schematic approach of recent critics (he is meinbegriff and the Idealtypus of sonata form,
writing in 1970), who ignore general formalconfusing the general view of the form at a given
principles in their pursuit of the individual. And historical moment with a Weberian ideal type.
to underline his point, he writes: The second statement criticizes a particular
formulation of the "ideal type" of sonata form
The general concept or ideal type [Allgemeinbegriff as a "dogmatic preference for classicism." But
oder Idealtypus] of a musical form (sonata or fugue), here Dahlhaus fails to observe Weber's precise
which gradually faded to a schema in the late nine-
teenth century and eventually degenerated to a label, caution: the "ideal type" as a theoretical con-
still possessed historical substance around 1800. It struct is always a one-sided accentuation, and
was musically real (A VJ, p. 46). never a presuppositionless copy of objective
facts. To quote Weber, substituting "sonata
Later in the book, discussing Schoenberg's form" for his "Christianity":
approach to sonata form in his Third String
Quartet, Dahlhaus comments: All expositions ... of the "essence" of sonata form
are ideal types enjoying only a necessarily very rela-
The thesis that the median compromise between tive and problematic validity when they are intended
harmonic-tonal and thematic-motivic foundation to be regarded as the historical portrayal of empiri-
provides the ideal type [Idealtypus] of sonata form cally existing facts.

They serve as "conceptual instruments for

comparison with and the measurement of real-
1oAnalysis and Value Judgment [1970], trans. Siegmund
Levarie (New York, 1983), henceforth A VJ. ity" (OSS, p. 97).
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19TH This methodological confusion hasone direct
sidedly, to draw into a functional nexus cer-
CENTURY
MUSIC consequences for Dahlhaus's analysistain of elements
the of Beethoven's, Schubert's, and
finale of the Schubert C-Minor Piano Sonata in Schumann's procedures. With respect to such
Analysis and Value Judgment (pp. 73-75). an "ideal type," the Schubert movement takes
Again and again he sees as problematic certain on a very different meaning, its expansive me-
elements in Schubert's design--a particular use lodic groups and the lyrical, nonmodulatory
of variation technique in a sonata movement, a opening of its development section providing a
factual difference from Beethoven's formal pro- perspective from which to view the procedures
cedures, the presentation of what he takes to be of earlier and later composers. None of these al-
a third theme after the initial two thematic and ternative meanings is, in Weber's terms, true:
tonal groups, and the construction of themes in they reflect the relationship between observ-
a way he considers more typical of a rondo than able phenomena and differing "ideal types";
a sonata. But in every case his point of reference each provides new aspects of significance.
is an "ideal type" of sonata form defined in
terms of Beethoven. This is a perfectly accept- IV

able procedure, as long as it is done consciously: Particularly revealing is Dahlhaus's treat-

it allows us to measure a group of works (the ment of Rossini operas and Schubert songs in
late piano sonatas of Schubert) against an "ideal Nineteenth-Century Music. In considering the
type" that, through its one-sided accentuation nature of Schubert's aesthetic of the song,
of certain features (those that characterize the he defines what could be considered (and what
piano works of Beethoven's major middle per- he calls) an "ideal type," one that mediates be-
iod works), reveals relationships between his- tween the two extreme categories of through-
torical facts. composed song and strophic song. Such an
What is not acceptable is a dogmatic defini-"ideal type" could certainly be used as a heuris-
tion of the form of Schubert's sonata that re- tic device for examining a wide range of actual
sults from its failure to correspond to this un-songs from a number of different viewpoints:
acknowledged "ideal type": "The finale is indeed, most writings on the nineteenth-cen-
not an amputated rondo tending toward a pot- tury Lied explicitly or implicitly adopt just this
pourri but a special case of sonata-rondo, aes- methodology.
thetically motivated down to the smallest de- And yet, in the case of the Schubert Lieder,
tail" (AVJ, p. 75). Were it not for Dahlhaus's Dahlhaus rejects the model. He does so because
conceptual model, one would have hardly imag- he considers it to lead to a superficial analysis:
ined that the finale was in any sense an "ampu-
tated rondo," or that its formal procedures were However, it is not enough to construct a dialectical
a "special case" of elements in Beethoven's so- evolution culminating in "the" lied [die in einem
nata designs. Indeed, "Schubert's innovations Idealtypus "des Liedes" terminiert] if we wish to do
justice to an art that consists less in transformations
in sonata forms," to quote Charles Rosen, "are of an ideal form-of what we might call the mid-
less extensions of classical style than com- point of the formal inventory- than in ever-different
pletely new inventions, which lead to a genu- answers to a formal problem that will not admit a
inely new style--at least one that cannot easily general paradigmatic solution. True, in principle we
be subsumed in classical terms."" (Dahlhaus could proceed from an ideal form suspended between
varied strophic song and cyclic design, taking the
himself in Nineteenth-Century Music attempts through-composed and the strophic song as extreme,
just such a definition of the form of the first peripheral forms that are justifiable only under cer-
movement of the Unfinished Symphony [pp. tain conditions. However, this would remain a super-
153-54].) It would be equally legitimate to de- ficial analytical approach to Schubert's songs, which
vise an "ideal type" for sonata form that seeks, are easier to understand as a configuration of forms
rather than as proceeding from a single pattern. For
the problem that Schubert faced was to find ever-new
ways of striking a balance between criteria and pos-
tulates that sometimes complement one another,
and yet at other times are mutually exclusive and
"Sonata Forms (rev. edn. New York, 1988), p. 360. contradictory. And only the success of the individual

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work stands as proof that a balance has indeed been discussing the nature of Rossini's literary VIEWPOINT
struck (NCM, p. 99). sources, in order to demonstrate the composer's
As in the case of "neo-romanticism," Dahlhaus "lofty disregard of any distinctions between
here misunderstands and distrusts his own 'classical' and 'romantic' subjects" (NCM, p.
methodology: he confuses the "ideal type," 63),a he generalizes from highly selective exam-
hypothetical construct used to gain further of which several are in any case incorrect.'3
ples,
His analysis of Rossinian formal procedures
knowledge, with a superficial analysis of indi-
vidual works. But this is completely at odds grows from a single example-a highly prob-
with Weber's carefully defined concept, whichlematic trio from The Siege of Corinth. Not
never pretends to account completely for his- only does he misread the form in many subtle
torical phenomena, let alone aesthetic ones. (and not-so-subtle) ways,14 he also fails to un-
Mired in his methodological confusion and con- derstand that this piece is an enormous simpli-
vinced of the artistic value of Schubert's art, fication of one of Rossini's most extraordinary
Dahlhaus shies away from the Weberian model. single compositions, the so-called "Terzet-
No such reluctance affects his discussion of tone" (a big, fat trio) of Maometto II. This com-
Rossini, even though he has provided a fuller ac- position lasts more than twenty-five minutes
count than any other modern historian of Ros- and pushes the formal structures of Italian op-
sini's place in music history. But his rehabilita- era almost to the limits of intelligibility. ' Any
tion of Rossini has a particular goal: to provide discussion of Rossini that truly valued his mu-
sic would look toward those instances that
an alternative side of a "stylistic duality" with
Beethoven (NCM, pp. 8-15). According to
Dahlhaus, if Beethoven's music consists of invi-
olable texts, Rossini's scores are merely pro-13The libretto of Rossini's Tancredi has nothing whatsoever
posals for a performance, and, strictly speaking,to do with Ariosto, but is derived from a tragedy by Voltaire;
no version of a Rossini opera can be considered Bianca e Falliero comes not from a play by Manzoni (which
had not yet been written), but from the neoclassical tragedy
"authentic." If Beethoven's music has meaningby Antoine-Vincent Arnault, Blanche et Montcassin. And
that can be decoded through interpretation, thethe statement that "Rossini did not bother with local color
magic of Rossini's music requires no under- until Guillaume Tell in 1829" could only be made by some-
one who has never looked seriously at Rossini's Neapolitan
standing. If in Beethoven musical form is a proc-operas, especially La donna del lago (1819).
ess through which themes gain their meaning, 14His discussion of its cabaletta, for example, refers to a "bi-
in Rossini musical themes have a meaning innary form (ABCABC) without modulation," but this does
not correspond at all to Rossini's structure, which consists
themselves, and form is only a means to bring of: a theme for Pamyra and an ensemble crescendo (all in the
them forward. tonic); a modulatory transitional section (ending on V of vi),
followed by a short return to the tonic; a repeat of the theme
Weber warns against doing violence to reality
and the crescendo; and concluding cadences in the tonic
in order to prove the validity of a construct.(only generically related to the material of the transitional
Though this is not the place to enter into a de- section). Worse is Dahlhaus's mention of the existence in
tailed critique of Dahlhaus's views about Ros- Rossini's works of an alternative cabaletta structure, with
"a rudimentary 'developmental' section and a transposition
sini, it must be said that again and again he com-of the second theme from dominant to tonic" (NCM, p. 62).
mits precisely this error. He mistakes Rossini's The only such example I know is Rossini's parody of sonata
flexible approach to operatic performance as form in Bartolo's aria in act I of I1 barbiere di Siviglia. Fi-
nally, Dahlhaus's statement that "the substance of his form
proof of the nonexistence of "authentic" texts, resides in its pattern of dynamics" fails utterly to appreciate
failing to appreciate the limits within whichthe melodic power of Rossini's lyrical forms. For a correc-
Rossini normally allowed variations.12 Whentive view, see Scott L. Balthazar, "Rossini and the Develop-
ment of the Mid-Century Lyric Form" in Journal of the
American Musicological Society 41 (1988), 102-25.
15Maometto II, written in 1820 at the height of Rossini's Ne-
apolitan period, was a work the composer particularly trea-
sured. After its initial failure to please the Neapolitan pub-
12There are also generic differences that need to be lic, he revised it for Venice in 1823 (where its fate was hardly
brought
into consideration. Our view of Beethoven would be differ- more encouraging), then brought it back to launch his career
ent indeed if his attitude toward variation in performance at the Paris Opera (1826). The revisions were compromises
were to be measured by that shining example of a stable with the limitations and expectations of contemporary au-
text, Leonore/Fidelio. diences.

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19TH true. He confuses the role of a theoretical con-
demonstrate the goals to which the composer
CENTURY
struct
aspired, even if he could not always attain with a historical idea. And he refuses to
them.
MUSIC
That is, after all, precisely what Dahlhaus
applydoes
the methodology to certain works, as if it
in the case of Schubert. would somehow degrade their aesthetic worth.
A methodology based on "ideal types," of The value judgements that enter into these
course, cannot be expected to provide even- choices are, more often than not, largely the
handed justice to individual composers or result of national bias. None of this is meant to
works of art: as Weber asserts clearly, "ideal deny the brilliance of many of Dahlhaus's for-
types" are by definition one-sided. Yet Dahl- mulations. We have all learned enormously
haus's protestations that an analysis of Schu- from these formulations, whether we accept
bert's songs using "ideal types" must necessar- them at face value or are challenged by them to
ily be superficial, while he accepts precisely new formulations of our own. But precisely be-
such a superficial penetration into Rossini's cause they are so challenging, scholars have a
music in order to limit the historical facts toparticular duty to examine their underlying
those favoring his construct of the "duality ofmethodology with great care. Weber's "ideal
style," suggests a lack of that "duty of scientifictypes," or one of their contemporary reinterpre-
self-control" that Weber demanded. tations, may well continue to prove useful to
In short, though Dahlhaus invokes contin- music historians today, but their utility will de-
ually Max Weber's concept of the "ideal type," pend on our employing them with a keener
he restricts the term to certain constructs while awareness of their potential dangers than is
believing that other constructs, methodologi-
cally indistinguishable from the first group, are found in the writings of .P'-.
Carl Dahlhaus.

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