Laurie McManus, Ph.D. 2011

Advisor: Jon W. Finson

Dissertation Title: The Rhetoric of Sexuality in the Age of Brahms and Wagner

Find it in the library here.

Dissertation Abstract:

As an enduring theme in histories of nineteenth-century music, the Brahms-Wagner debate often takes the problem of form as its main thesis: it has long been cast as the struggle of “absolute” versus “program” music. Recent musicology has focused on its intersections with nationalism and politics, historicism, and the nascent fields of music history and theory. Employing a discourse analysis that reveals overlooked cultural influences, I have examined the debate through the lens ofsexual rhetoric employed in music criticism, such as Wagnerian attacks on the “chaste” Brahms, or the accusations of “wanton lust” in Wagner. By incorporating documents that relate music explicitly to sexuality, gender roles, and notions of the body, I argue that we reassess the debate as a fundamental struggle between sensuality (Sinnlichkeit) and purity (Reinheit) in music. This global approach extends the debate beyond traditional generic boundaries and modes of scholarly inquiry, and contextualizes it against cultural ideas of sexuality, purity, and the women’s emancipation movement. 

Dr. McManus is currently Associate Professor of Music History and Literature at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, where she also serves as Coordinator of Music Literature. Her first book, Brahms in the Priesthood of Art, was published in 2021. She has also published numerous articles, and is a member of the American Brahms Society Board of Directors.