Motivführung 101: Introduction to the Haydn-Mozart Revolution

by John Sigerson
March 11, 2017

Filippo Brunelleschi’s use of the principle of higher-order, non-mathematical curvature in the construction of the cupola of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, Italy was not only a crowning architectural achievement of the Italian Golden Renaissance; it also posed a challenge to apply that same principle in all domains of human endeavor, including physical economy and art. In this fifth class of the series on Lyndon LaRouche’s economic thought, Schiller Institute Music director John Sigerson introduces the layman to the two revolutions which finally succeeded, three centuries later, in fully grasping the implications of Brunelleschi’s principle in the musical domain: the discovery of the well-tempered musical domain elaborated by Johann Sebastian Bach, and Haydn’s (and Mozart’s) discovery of an entirely new method of composition, Motivführung (motivic thorough-composition), which eliminates all arbitrary formalisms, making possible the full development of what Lyndon LaRouche describes as a “musical thought-object.”