Music in German Politics / Politics in German Music PDF
Preview Music in German Politics / Politics in German Music
a particularly iconic image of German Reunification is that of E D Mstislav Rostropovich playing J. S. Bach’s cello suites in front I of the Berlin Wall on November 11, 1989. Thirty years on, it is N Music in German Politics / timely to reconsider the crossfertilization of music and politics within the B U German-speaking context. Frequently employed as a motivational force, a R Politics in German Music propaganda tool, or even a weapon, music can imbue a sense of identity G and belonging, triggering both comforting and disturbing memories. H Playing a key role in the formation of Heimat and “Germanness,” it serves g ideological, nationalistic, and propagandistic purposes conveying political e messages and swaying public opinion. r This volume brings together essays by historians, literary scholars, m and musicologists on topics concerning the increasing politicization a of music, especially since the nineteenth century. They cover a broad n spectrum of genres, musicians, andthinkers, discussing the interplay of y music and politics in “classical” and popular music: from the rediscovery e and repurposing of Martin Luther in nineteenth-century Germany to the a exploitation of music during the Third Reich, from the performative politics r of German punk and pop music to the influence of the events of 1988/89 on b operatic productions in the former GDR—up to the relevance of Ernst Bloch o o in our contemporary post-truth society k Contributors: Peter Brandes, Siobhán Donovan, Maria Euchner, Florian Gassner, Rolf J. Goebel, Andrew Wright Hurley, Matt Lawson, Wolfgang Marx, Moray McGowan, David Robb. Siobhán Donovan The editors are , Assistant Professor of German at Maria Euchner University College Dublin, and , Faculty Fellow in the V Foundation Year Program at the University of King’s College in Halifax, O L Nova Scotia. U V O L U M E 1 3 M Cover image: Russian cellist and composer Mstislav Rostropovich playing Bach next to the Berlin wall at E Checkpoint Charlie, November 12, 1989. {{CREDIT NEEDED}}. 1 3 E D I N B U R G H 668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA german yearbook PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK www.boydellandbrewer.com Edinburgh German Yearbook 13 Edinburgh German Yearbook General Editor: Frauke Matthes Vol. 1: Cultural Exchange in German Literature Vol. 2: Masculinities in German Culture Vol. 3: Contested Legacies: Constructions of Cultural Heritage in the GDR Vol. 4: Disability in German Literature, Film, and Theater Vol. 5: Brecht and the GDR: Politics, Culture, Posterity Vol. 6: Sadness and Melancholy in German Literature and Culture Vol. 7: Ethical Approaches in Contemporary German-Language Literature and Culture Vol. 8: New Literary and Linguistic Perspectives on the German Language, National Socialism, and the Shoah Vol. 9: Archive and Memory in German Literature and Visual Culture Vol. 10: Queering German Culture Vol. 11: Love, Eros, and Desire in Contemporary German-Language Literature and Culture Vol. 12: Repopulating the Eighteenth Century: Second-Tier Writing in the German Enlightenment Vol. 13: Music in German Politics / Politics in German Music Vol. 14: Politics and Culture in Germany and Austria Today Vol. 15: Tracing German Visions of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century (forthcoming) Music in German Politics / Politics in German Music Edinburgh German Yearbook Volume 13 Edited by Siobhán Donovan and Maria Euchner Copyright © 2022 by the Editors and Contributors All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. First published 2022 by Camden House Camden House is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA and of Boydell & Brewer Limited PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK www.boydellandbrewer.com ISSN: 1937-0857 ISBN-13: 9781640140608 (hardcover) ISBN-13: 9781787445956 (ePDF) Cover image: Russian cellist and composer Mstislav Rostropovich playing Bach at the Berlin Wall near Checkpoint Charlie, November 11, 1989, two days after the fall of the wall. Credit: ullsteinbild/TopFoto. The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Edinburgh German Yearbook appears annually. Please send orders and inquiries to Boydell & Brewer at the above address. Edinburgh German Yearbook does not accept unsolicited submissions: a Call for Papers for each volume is circulated widely in advance of publication. For editorial correspondence, please contact either the General Editor, Dr. Frauke Matthes, or the editor(s) of individual volumes, by post at: Edinburgh German Yearbook German Section Division of European Languages and Cultures 59 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 3JX United Kingdom or by email at: [email protected] Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Music and/as Politics in the German Context 1 Maria Euchner and Siobhán Donovan Part I. Appropriations and Misappropriations Martin Luther in Nineteenth-Century Music, Literature, and Politics 19 Florian Gassner The 1848 Revolutionary Lyrics of Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Herwegh, and Freiligrath in the German Folk Song Movement 35 David Robb “Der Kampf geht weiter”: The Politics of Cover Versions in German Punk Rock 55 Peter Brandes Son of Kraut and an Old Herero? The Politics of German Pop Musical Memory around 1990 71 Andrew Wright Hurley Part II. The Political Gesamtkunstwerk: Opera and Film Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung: Opera as Political Defiance 91 Maria Euchner “Volk eilt herzu”: Beethoven’s Opera Fidelio in Dresden on October 7 and 8, 1989, and Its Ambivalent Afterlife 115 Moray McGowan vi Contents Soundtracks of the Holocaust in East and West German Cinema: Jakob der Lügner (1974) and Hitler, ein Film aus Deutschland (1977) 133 Matt Lawson Part III. The Uses and Abuses of Music and Politics Political Ideology, Authentic Performance, and the Romantic Metaphysics of Music: The Case of the Pianist Elly Ney 153 Rolf J. Goebel The Spirits of Utopia and of Disenchantment: Ernst Bloch, Hope, and Music in the Age of Post-Truth 169 Wolfgang Marx Notes on the Contributors 187 Acknowledgments Av olume of ColleCted essays is, by its very nature, a collaborative project, and therefore the editors would like to thank all the con- tributors, peer-reviewers, and Jim Walker and his team at Camden House for their input, cooperation, and forbearance. The editors also wish to acknowledge the funding provided by the UCD Output-Based Research Support Scheme (OBRSS). Introduction: Music and/as Politics in the German Context Maria Euchner, University of King’s College, Halifax, and Siobhán Donovan, University College Dublin [D]ie Musik ist die Nationalkunst in Deutschland, und eher, als andere Mächte, eher, als Literatur und Politik, darf sie hoffen, zu binden und zu vereinigen. [Music is Germany’s national art, and more than other powers, more than literature and politics, it may hope to bind and unite.] —Thomas Mann, “Musik in München” (Music in Munich, 1917)1 In many ways, music and politics have always been in a relationship with one another, albeit not always a harmonious, or necessarily a balanced one. The potential(ly negative) influence of music on pol- itics has especially interested thinkers throughout the ages. As early as the fifth century BCE, Plato warned “against innovations in music . . . counter to the established order,” since “the modes of music are never disturbed without unsettling of the most fundamental political and social conventions.”2 Plato’s student Aristotle follows suit, and discusses music and its role in the polis in his Politics, concluding that music has “a power of forming the character.”3 He highlights the connections between music and emotions, as well as the manipulative power music can exert: “rhythm and melody supply imitations of anger and gentleness, 1 Thomas Mann, “Musik in München. Teil III,” ed. Georg Potempa, in Thomas Mann Jahrbuch 7 (1994): 293–97, here 295. Mann’s essay is an hom- age to his close friend, the Jewish conductor Bruno Walter, who fled Germany in 1933. It was first published in the Berlin newspaper Der Tag in three installments on January 20, 21, and 24, 1917. Only parts I and II were reproduced in the early collected works, as well as in Gesammelte Werke in dreizehn Bänden (Frank- furt am Main: Fischer, 1990), namely in volume 11, 339–50. 2 Plato, Republic 424b–c, in The Collected Dialogues, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961). 3 Aristotle, Politics 1340b, in The Basic Works of Aristotle, ed. Richard McKeon (New York: Random House, 1941).
The list of books you might like
