On capitalist characteristics of modern Austro-German operas

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12865
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: European literature
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: Fujii Tagiru 名古屋大学, 人文学研究科, 教授 (00165333)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 調性 / オペラ / 幻想 / 資本主義 / 価値形態 / イノベーション / 超自我

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Since 1908 tonality has meant to Schoenberg not merely the object which is originally lost but the loss itself. This is why he has been driven to devise dodecaphony. The endless continuation of modulation has not only caused the <emancipation of dissonance> but finally the endless closed loop of 12-tone series.
In "Lulu" Berg derives various 12-tone rows with artistic skills from one 12-tone row which is made up of two hexachord scales in B-flat major and E major. As a result, in this self-multiplication of the 12-tone series, various major and/or minor chords sound in fragments. However, they are no longer based on the already lost tonality but on the chromatic circular movement.

Free Research Field

音楽哲学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

従来の和声進行の連続性とは異なる、調同士の、あるいは全音階と半音階、協和音と不協和音の対比による音楽的事象の非連続的な結合は、調的和声というシステムの枠内に留まりながらも、そのシステムに軌道の変動をもたらす。こうしたワーグナーらによる調的和声の刷新が、やがてその自らの基盤を侵食し、シェーンベルクの12音技法をもたらすことになる一連のプロセスを、経済学者シュンペーターのイノベーション理論と関連付けることによって、音楽史と資本主義の歴史との相関性を明らかにすることができた。