Nineteenth-century musical form and instruments mirrored industrial aggression

Evidence

Even the musical forms cultivated by the nineteenth century seem to have an imperialistic bias: thus, in the first-movement form of the symphony, home base is established (exposition), colonies are developed (Durchführung) and the empire is consolidated (recapitulation and coda). … The substitution of the punched-string piano for the plucked-string harpsichord typifies the greater aggressiveness of a time in which objects were punched and beaten into existence by means of new industrial processes. Material had once been stroked, carved or kneaded into shape; now it was slugged. — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 392

Categorization

• SEED: The analogy between sonata form and imperialism, and punched-string piano as industrial violence, is a striking essay lens on how machining changed sonic aesthetics.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 392
• XREF: connects to: Music and machines have traded acoustic effects both ways — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 405; Sound power constitutes a form of imperialistic acoustic domination — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 267; Music’s post-French-Revolution evolution is capitalism working within the musical material itself — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 754 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Sound power constitutes a form of imperialistic acoustic domination #corroborates (0.75) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 267
• Music and machines have traded acoustic effects both ways #expands (0.70) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 405