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Prometheus in Music: Representations of the Myth in the Romantic Era.

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Prometheus in Music: Representations of the Myth in the Romantic Era. By Paul Bertagnolli. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007. [xv, 369 p. ISBN-13:9780754654681. $99.95.] Illustrations, music examples, bibliographical references, index.

Of the many mythical subjects that inspired artists throughout the nineteenth century, few had as wide-ranging an influence as the Prometheus legend--the story of the defiant Titan, who, having stolen the gift of fire from Olympus, was chained by Zeus to a rock, where an eagle fed upon his liver. In spite of his isolation and physical suffering. Prometheus never repented. Finally freed by Hercules, he was hailed as a savior whose audacious theft had served to provide both literal and metaphorical "enlightenment" to mankind. While treatments of the Prometheus legend abound throughout the centuries, aspects of the story were especially appealing to artists of the romantic era.

As Paul Bertagnolli explains in his new volume from Ashgate, the identity of Prometheus as both "rebel and liberator" spoke powerfully to artists working in the shadow of the revolutions and national movements that reshaped the European continent during the nineteenth century. Furthermore, Bertagnolli suggests that the image of Prometheus as an "outcast" destined to a life of suffering at the hands of an uncomprehending public resonated strongly with the era's emergent understanding of the lot of artists--willing exiles from society who nonetheless felt the emotional pain of their isolation. But, within the framework of these two general viewpoints, treatments of the myth in nineteenth-century music offered compelling and often radical commentaries on issues of political, social, religious, and aesthetic significance. Bertagnolli's examination of Prometheus music considers not only canonical works by Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, and Wolf, but also lesser-known...

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