| Summary: | E.T.A. Hoffmann discovered the notion of structure to describe musical form, and used it in his review of Beethoven’s Fifth symphony to reject the charges of unbridled fantasy and untidy imagination. Does that mean, however, that Hoffmann – in his romantic approach – was a forerunner of structuralism ? According to him, the musical language has a spiritual meaning, so it can’t be reduced to a structural analysis. The notion of structure is necessary to the thought of music – but it is not enough, precisely because it’s relevant only to linguistic thought. To get over a chaotic listening, structure is a ladder we have to get rid of if we want to recover musical meaning. From the point of view of Hoffmann’s romanticism, the thought of art also implies self-criticism of thought in relation to art.
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