German Music Culture And Nationalism In The First Half Of The Nineteenth Century

Nationalism, a historical phenomenon which generally emerged in the 19th century, is a driving force for the cohesion and development of a nation. Politically, it is characterized by the pursuit of national independence and unity as well as of the establishment of a national state. Ideologically, it is an idea of the identity of a nation held by its people. In music, nationalism is more considered in the ideological sense, as an attitude and a point of view. In Central Europe, Germany, with various factors of instability and fragmentation in its history, had already witnessed cultural nationalism in the 18th century. In the first half of the 19th century, however, when Germany underwent decades of political turbulence—the collapse of Roman Empire, the anti-Napoleonic war in 1813 and the revolution in the 1830s and 1840s—nationalism in Germany spread from culture to other fields, such as economy and politics, and expanded from the intellectuals to common people. As a result, the idea of nationalism was held as a general and deep-rooted belief and permeated all aspects of the musical life of Germany. Thus, nationalism and German music influenced and promoted each other.This dissertation is a study of German music in the first half of the 19th century from the perspective of nationalism, dealing with the relevant intellectual history, the musical life and musical works and styles of that time. The dissertation consists of introduction, four chapters and conclusion. The first chapter is mainly concerned with the national consciousness in German culture before the 19th century. The author makes clear the definitions of the key words and examines the cultural nationalism in the German literature and history before the 19th century, especially in the 18th century. Therefore, this chapter acts as a background of the main point. The second chapter examines the nationalistic tendency in the ideas and criticism of German music in this period of time. Through the study of the criticism in periodicals and the idea of seriousness in music, this chapter offers a discussion about how this kind of nationalistic tendency came into existence in the course where the characteristics of German music were gradually established. The third chapter is an exploration of the nationalistic idea in German operas of that time and its role in the formation of the tradition of German opera, with the examples of works by Weber and Wagner. The final chapter focuses on the mutual influence between nationalism and the musical life in German in that time, including the rediscovery of works by Bach, the revival of folk songs as well as music festivals, concerts and music education.