Music Education, Social Identities and Cultural Politics in Germany and Austria, 1840-1933
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Our Conservatories? Music Education, Social Identities and Cultural Politics in Germany and Austria, 1840-1933 by Anthony Jay Cantor A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Anthony Jay Cantor 2015 Our Conservatories? Music Education, Social Identities and Cultural Politics in Germany and Austria, 1840-1833 Anthony Jay Cantor Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2015 Abstract This dissertation is a history of conservatories of music in Germany and Austria from the founding of the first German conservatory in 1843 to 1933. This period allows an investigation of continuities and changes in the cultural work performed by conservatories as political relationships shifted. As music was central to German cultural identity, conservatories were sites in which competing visions of Germany were contested. Chapter 1 analyses the founding and expansion of German conservatories, focusing on local and regional identities. Music education was a way to deepen music’s local grounding while contributing to the culture of the larger fatherland. Chapter 2 explores national visions for German music education both in the absence of a nation- state and as part of the process of moulding national identity after unification. Chapter 3 concerns North American exchanges with German and Austrian conservatories. This sheds light on the discourse of “Americanisation” in Germany and Austria as well as on the place of central-European music in American cultural history. This chapter explores the Austro-German music-educational establishment’s attempts ii to grapple with American culture as well as Germans’ understanding of American modernity, which they found enticing, liberating and threatening. Through analysis of the debate about jazz in German music education, this chapter explores how Germans imagined American culture and the influence of African Americans and Jews on it. Chapter 4 analyses the role of German music education in defining terms of Jewish claims to German cultural belonging. This chapter considers the role of Bildung and music education in the construction of a distinctly German-Jewish identity; it also analyses the consequences of exclusionary racial antisemitism for conservatories. Chapter 5 analyses the position of conservatories in battles between progressives and conservatives. Conservatories could be bulwarks against change, but they could also serve to legitimate new developments. Recent years have seen the development of a body of scholarship devoted to the history of individual music-educational institutions. This dissertation enriches, challenges and extends that work. It does so by treating conservatories throughout German-speaking Europe as a cultural concept, and by anchoring music education in larger scholarly conversations in German and central-European history. iii Acknowledgments I am grateful for the advice, support and encouragement I received while researching and writing this dissertation. My supervisor, James Retallack, offered advice, critiques and suggestions that challenged me to improve my writing and analysis. I benefitted greatly from his careful reading of many drafts, from his rigorous commentary on the arguments in and structure of this dissertation, and from his patient shepherding of this project to completion. Derek Penslar pushed me to make more careful distinctions in my treatment of German-Jewish identity and to position my work in the scholarly conversation about Jewish politics, culture and society in Germany. Alan Stanbridge shared with me his extensive knowledge of and insight into jazz, American music and American musicians’ conflicted relationship to Europe. He also recommended theoretical works that deepened my understanding of the social and cultural work of educational institutions. My external examiner, Toby Thacker, provided comments, questions and insights that will be invaluable for the further development of the ideas in this dissertation. Kenneth R. Bartlett has been a mentor, colleague and friend during my time at the University of Toronto. From him I learned not only how to be an academic professional, but why. His passion for undergraduate teaching made me a better educator and also helped me understand why the work we do matters. In researching this dissertation, I visited archives in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and the United States. I am grateful to the archivists and librarians who took the time to respond to my questions, share their knowledge and guide me in my search for archival materials. Dietmar Schenk, the director of the Universitätsarchiv of the Universität der Künste Berlin, was especially generous with his time and energy in iv talking through my ideas with me and recommending fruitful avenues of inquiry. Much of my understanding of what could be said about conservatories of music grew out of stimulating conversations with Dr. Schenk. At the same archive, Antje Kalcher provided friendly and helpful guidance. Sabine Borchert at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ Leipzig graciously responded to my many requests and provided me with copies of many valuable documents. The staff at the archive of the New England Conservatory in Boston was very enthusiastic about my research into George Whitefield Chadwick and very accommodating during my visit. At the Liechtensteinisches Landesarchiv, Rupert Tiefenthaler made helpful suggestions and directed me to documents related to the life and work of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. I thank all of the archivists and librarians who assisted me in my research and pointed me to sources as well as questions for further analysis. In researching and writing this dissertation, I benefited greatly from the generous financial support of numerous institutions. At the University of Toronto, the Department of History, the School of Graduate Studies and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences provided funding at various stages of my time as a doctoral student. An Ontario Graduate Scholarship was also a great help. I am especially thankful for a Canada Graduate Scholarship, awarded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and a ten-month research scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Conversations with friends and colleagues inspired me to think more deeply and critically about the material in this dissertation. My friends also provided invaluable encouragement as I worked to complete this project. David Stiles was a constant source v of friendship and support from my first day at the University of Toronto. I thank him for our wide-ranging conversations and also for the practical advice about writing a dissertation. Chris Landon always listened when I was experiencing difficulty. He sat across a table from me almost every day during the final stages of writing and revising this work. Meeting to write together was a great source of motivation, and our discussions about history, scholarship, politics and culture provided much inspiration. Edward Snyder was always willing to read works in progress; I am grateful for his constant confidence. Joel Pinsker read many drafts of this dissertation, sometimes on a sentence-by-sentence basis. His intellectual energy, curiosity and genuine investment in the implications of historical scholarship made my work better. David Beffert has been a major influence on my intellectual development since 2001. He read this entire dissertation many times over, both as it was produced and in more polished forms. He paid painstaking attention to the arguments, structure and analytical categories, helping me conceptualise the issues more clearly, think more critically and express myself more precisely. I always see things differently after a conversation with Dave; this dissertation, and my approach to history, would be very different without his insights. With apologies to Schoenberg: dieses Buch habe ich von meinen Freunden gelernt . Finally, I thank my family. My sister, Caitlin Cantor, was always interested in my work, always asked about it and was always willing to listen to me talk about it. I have enjoyed our conversations about the process of writing and look forward to many more. My mother, Nancy Rothkopf Cantor, was unwavering in her belief that I could and should undertake and complete this project. She genuinely cares about whatever I take an interest in and demonstrates real enthusiasm for my passions. I have spoken to her vi in great detail about the ideas and arguments in this dissertation and about German history in general. It is rare to have a parent who understands what one does and why one does it, embraces it so wholeheartedly and shares in it completely. I am grateful for her support and for our relationship. I think both of my parents would see some of themselves in this work. My cousin, Brian Rothkopf, selflessly sacrificed some of his vacation time on numerous visits to Toronto so that I could work on this dissertation. His interest in my experiences researching and teaching are true signs of friendship. His advice, hard won through experience, helped me balance my responsibilities and focus on what was important. My grandfather, Hyman Rothkopf, was my biggest fan. I was touched by his desire to visit me, write to me and, once, accompany me to a conference. I know that seeing me finish my Ph.D. would have made him proud. My grandmother, Selma Rothkopf, was my favourite interlocutor, an engaged, lively and knowledgable conversation partner. She was incredibly well read, interested in discussion and debate and excited to read anything I wrote or recommended. I am grateful to have had both of them in my life for so long and regret that they were not able to read my completed dissertation. My wife, Katrin Urschel, put up with a lot during the years in which I strove to complete this dissertation. She offered love, encouragement and advice, but also a model for how to approach the work of scholarship. I cannot match her work ethic, passion and dedication, but I have learned from them and become a better scholar and a better person through her example.