Choral Fantasies
Music, Festivity, and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Germany

The first study to connect the exponential growth in amateur choral singing to the culture of public celebrations and festivals.

Ryan Minor (Author)

9781107543638, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 August 2015

284 pages, 2 b/w illus. 37 music examples
24.5 x 17 x 1.5 cm, 0.5 kg

'With admirable deftness, and an avoidance of the sociological or musicological jargon so often attendant upon such studies, Minor sketches a long-term shift in culture and class …' R. J. Arnold, European History Quarterly

Most histories of nineteenth-century music portray 'the people' merely as an audience, a passive spectator to the music performed around it. Yet, in this reappraisal of choral singing and public culture, Minor shows how a burgeoning German bourgeoisie sang of its own collective aspirations, mediated through the voice of celebrity composers. As both performer and idealized community, the chorus embodied the possibilities and limitations of a participatory, national identity. Starting with the many public festivals at which the chorus was a featured participant, Minor's account of the music written for these occasions breaks new ground not only by taking seriously these often-neglected works, but also by showing how the contested ideals of German nationhood suffused the music itself. In situating both music and festive culture within the milieu of German bourgeois liberals, this study uncovers new connections between music and politics during a century that sought to redefine both spheres.

Introduction
1. Choral fantasies from Beethoven to the Vormärz
2. Memory and multiplicity in Felix Mendelssohn's 'Gutenberg' works
3. Prophet and populace in Liszt's 'Beethoven' cantatas
4. Songs and states in Brahms's Triumphlied and Wagner's Kaisermarsch
5. Occasions and nations in Brahms's Fest- und Gedenksprüche.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD], Romantic music [c 1830 to c 1900 AVGC5], Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4]