Introduction

Abstract The introduction discusses Busoni’s aesthetic views about material and spatial aspects of musical tones. In addition, it addresses Busoni’s historiographic significance as a composer. In particular, it positions Busoni’s ideas and compositions within recent scholarly discourse about modernism in music. It shows that even if Busoni remained closely connected to past musical traditions, he simultaneously contributed to contemporary ideals of fragmentation, a bringing together of the arts, an expansion of the tonal language, and an exploration of new timbres, textures, and formal structures. In so doing, it presents Busoni’s compositional approach as multifaceted and situates Busoni’s idiosyncratic musical voice among a plurality of musical modernisms.