Necesidad de música. Artículos, reseñas, conferencias

by George Steiner

Melómano tanto o más que hombre de letras, George Steiner ha escrito a lo largo de medio siglo una gran variedad de textos sobre compositores, géneros musicales y algunas piezas en particular, siempre con una sensibilidad que le permite ir más allá del fenómeno sonoro. Nunca antes reunidos en un volumen, estos artículos, reseñas, notas de programa y conferencias -e incluso un original ensayo a tres voces que puede escenificarse ante un público- son un testimonio de su devoción por el arte al que accedemos por el oído pero que involucra al cuerpo entero, las emociones, la mente.

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

George Steiner was a French and American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator whose work explored the relationship between language, literature, and society, with a particular focus on the moral and cultural consequences of the Holocaust. Multilingual from an early age, Steiner grew up speaking German, English, and French, and studied the classics under his father, while overcoming a physical handicap with his mother’s encouragement. His family relocated to the United States during World War II, an experience that shaped his lifelong reflections on survival, morality, and human cruelty. He studied literature, mathematics, and physics at the University of Chicago, earned an MA at Harvard, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. Steiner held academic posts across Europe and the United States, including Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva, Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, the first Lord Weidenfeld Professor of Comparative European Literature at Oxford, and Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard, teaching in multiple languages. A prolific writer, he produced influential works in criticism, translation studies, and fiction, including Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, The Death of Tragedy, After Babel, and The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H., blending historical insight with philosophical reflection. His essays and books explored the power and ambivalence of human language, the ethical responsibilities of literature, and the persistence of anti-Semitism, while his fiction offered imaginative examinations of moral and historical dilemmas. Steiner was celebrated for his intellectual breadth and lecturing style, described as prophetic, charismatic, and sometimes doom-laden, and he contributed extensively to journals such as The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. He was married to Zara Steiner, with whom he had two children, David and Deborah, both of whom pursued academic and public service careers. Steiner’s work remains widely respected for its integration of rigorous scholarship, ethical inquiry, and literary sensitivity, marking him as one of the foremost thinkers in twentieth-century literature and comparative studies.

Reviews

[Pollo]

Necesidad de seguir leyendo a George Steiner. De seguir siendo iluminado, educado, desasnado, emocionado, deslumbrado. Esto es música para mis oídos. El ensayo erudito, sin ser árido; riguroso, sin ser abrumador. Qué tremendos textos son "Mysterium Tremendum" o "Solo a tres voces".

Aunque no sé nada de ópera, y por eso me costó un poco al comienzo, sus artículos, reseñas de libros o conferencias terminan transmitiendo esa pasión que tiene el autor por el tema y se puede discurrir entre la magnificencia de Verdi, el fanatismo por Liszt, las manías de Gould, las curiosas relaciones entre Wagner, la hija de Liszt y Nietzsche, la Briefwechsel de Theodor Adorno, con gente de peso como Thomas Mann, entre muchos otros temas.

Como sugerencia, si se me permite, aunque este volumen incluye un prólogo, índice de compositores y varias notas muy útiles, no le caería mal un índice de autores, por las múltiples referencias que van de Huxley a Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, los románticos, Artaud o Walter Scott. Incluso hay un par de menciones deportivas como las de Bobby Fisher y las vuvuzelas del mundial de Sudáfrica.

Que su estela y que su estilo no se pierdan en el siglo XXI.