When Machines Play Chopin: Musical Spirit and Automation in Nineteenth-Century German Literature

When Machines Play Chopin brings together music aesthetics, performance practices, and the history of automated musical instruments in nineteenth-century German literature. Philosophers defined music as a direct expression of human emotion while soloists competed with one another to display machine-like technical perfection at their instruments. When Machines Play Chopi n looks at this paradox between thinking about and practicing music to show what three literary works say about automation and the sublime in art.