Celia Applegate, Pamela Potter. and German National Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. 296 S. broschiert, ISBN 978-3-593-37007-1.

Reviewed by Ryan Minor

Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (February, 2003)

Willi Apel, one of the deans of modern musi‐ It is against this backdrop that Music and Ger‐ cology, once defned nationalism in music as “a man National Identity, a book of essays edited by reaction against the supremacy of German mu‐ Celia Applegate and Pamela Potter, makes a wel‐ sic.” Willi Apel, “Nationalism,” Harvard Dictio‐ come appearance. Its subject is not German musi‐ nary of Music (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Har‐ cal nationalism per se nor the place of German vard University Press; rev. ed., 1969), 565, cited in music within other musical cultures—although Richard Taruskin, “Nationalism,” The New Grove both of these topics demand future attention. Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie Rather, as the title suggests, Applegate’s and Pot‐ and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), XVII, ter’s volume examines the centrality of music to 689. Apel’s comment comes as no shock insofar as German identity. Ranging from eighteenth-centu‐ it refects the long history of placing Germany at ry aesthetics to jazz, and from the Hotel Don Gio‐ the forefront of musical composition; but the fact vanni in Prague to the NASA Voyagers somewhere that this was published in 1969 in the Harvard in outer space, the book is an exploration of how, Dictionary of Music suggests the surprising extent when, and even why German identity became so to which the ideology of a Germanic musical na‐ strongly associated with music. tionalism continues to shape the values of Anglo- The range of topics is impressive; this volume American musicology. Indeed, the notion that Ger‐ ventures far beyond the concert hall and its stal‐ man music speaks to all nations—and does so in a wart repertoire of the three “Bs” (Bach, way that other music cannot—has yet to be funda‐ Beethoven, Brahms). In particular the twentieth mentally challenged by either the century is granted a rich treatment, with essays industry or the academicians whose historiogra‐ encompassing subjects as remote as church music phies systematically grant the Germanic canon a in the Third Reich and the Fantastische Vier in the normative centrality. 1990s. The contributions spanning broader peri‐ ods of time are also illuminating in their scope: H-Net Reviews the editors’ excellent introduction and Bernd identity it takes as its subject can never be expli‐ Sponheuer’s historical survey illustrate both the cated. The volume implicitly reifes the old claim lasting appeal of a German Sonderweg in music that Germanness is tangential to all but the most (if not, as Sponheuer admits, anything else) as blatantly “national” German music before the well as the diverse meanings Germany’s musico- 1920s. national identity came to encompass at diferent Indeed, both the editors and Sponheuer claim times. Jost Hermand’s level-headed history of the that any attempt to link particular music to an al‐ German national anthem—its evocations of both leged Germanness is inevitably futile. True Vormärz liberalism and right-wing nationalism, enough. But the absence of any strictly musical ar‐ the tainted beauty of Haydn’s melody—is similar‐ gumentation in the volume efects more than the ly sympathetic in its attention to the radically dif‐ choice of subject matter. Readers who can read ferent ideologies one seemingly straightforward music will sorely miss musical examples. And es‐ expression of German national sentiment could pecially given the broad range of musical reper‐ take. toire, the lack of musical examples (save for some But if the essays which open and close this illustrations in Philip Bohlman’s study of the se‐ volume provide a valuable contextual frame ries Landschaftliche Volkslieder) renders the few spanning three centuries of German musical cul‐ discussions of actual music oddly silent. Undoubt‐ ture, this frame belies a serious gap at its very edly many readers do not need help conjuring the heart: the nineteenth century. Only two of the six‐ familiar melodies of national anthems or Die teen essays focus on the century in which both Meistersinger. But those not familiar with Schu‐ German music and German national identity mann’s patriotic choral works, Pftzner’s musical came into their own. And the two which are in‐ lingua franca, or postwar German popular music cluded—John Daverio’s survey of Robert Schu‐ may fnd themselves searching for some aural mann’s patriotic choral music and Thomas Grey’s context. consideration of Wagner’s Meistersinger as the Yet within the volume’s limitations there is German national opera—limit themselves to the much to be recommended. Thomas Grey’s contri‐ usual suspects of German musical nationalism. bution regarding Die Meistersinger and its sordid This amounts to more than a chronological past is a model of engaged historical scholarship. hole, for skipping the nineteenth century also Particularly valuable is his research into the means skipping most of the Austro-Germanic work’s reception history, noting for instance that canon of instrumental music upon which a signif‐ the opera’s nationalist tones do not seem to have icant portion of Germany’s musical identity was mattered much to contemporary critics—German based; only German music which loudly an‐ or otherwise. His footnote on pp. 97-98 concern‐ nounces its Germanness seems to have been con‐ ing the work’s possible anti-Semitism is the most sidered. And this is a curious drawback, for in ex‐ balanced argument to date. cluding German music which claims to be “only” Hans Rudolf Vaget’s essay on Thomas Mann music—that is, the so-called absolute instrumen‐ and his Doktor Faustus is also exemplary. To my tal music from Bach to Schoenberg which forms knowledge, it marks the frst time some new re‐ the core of both concert and academic canons— search into the Munich campaign against Mann the book both lightens its task by removing a siz‐ has been printed in English: most importantly, the able swath of music from its purview while simul‐ fact that Pftzner and Hans Knappertsbusch, not taneously ensuring that the unique relationship the Nazis, initiated the campaign. Furthermore, between German music and German national Vaget’s essay is an excellent introduction to some

2 H-Net Reviews of the aesthetic and political context of the novel’s German musical identity outside Germany. Bruno labyrinthine references and symbolism. Nettl’s account of German musical culture in the Some of the volume’s most interesting contri‐ Sudetenland points in this direction. But much of butions concern themselves with lesser-known the volume seems to operate on the assumption subjects: Philip Bohlman on the series Land‐ that Germany’s musical identity is entirely its own schaftliche Volkslieder and its emergence as a doing, the result of pride, patriotism, nationalism, “simulacrum for national identity” throughout ignorance, and habit. Yet as the Apel quote sug‐ the twentieth century; Bruce Campbell’s study of gests, much of the Western world still shares most the “Spielschar Ekkehard,” an amateur music and of the musical values this book defnes as Ger‐ dance group whose völkisch repertory helped en‐ man-nationalist. Albrecht Riethmüller’s assem‐ voice attacks on the ; Michael blage of evidence pointing towards a continuing Kater’s account of Pftzner’s nationalism and anti- musical nationalism in Germany could just as eas‐ Semitism (the extent of which will surprise many ily have been assembled from musical textbooks, readers who, based on North American music his‐ library holdings, and concert programs in the US. tory textbooks, attributed to the composer at most Still, this book has much to ofer. Its frmly in‐ a benign conservatism); and Joy Calico’s research terdisciplinary scope will appeal to readers in into the DDR and its attempt to promote a new na‐ many disciplines, the coverage of the twentieth tional opera. century is excellent, its programmatic essays cov‐ As one might expect in a collection of essays, er much ground, and readers will fnd some new not all of the contributions are of equal merit. Ed‐ narratives along with revisions of familiar ones. ward Larkey’s account of postwar popular music The absence of music itself in the volume intro‐ has little new to ofer, and in fact relies almost en‐ duces an odd discursive silence that to some ex‐ tirely on other sources for its description of artists tent undermines many of the essays’ aspirations. and musical styles. Similarly, Gesa Kordes’s study On the other hand, given the ubiquity of German of Darmstadt and its participants’ embrace of the music throughout the West, perhaps its silence 12-tone technique simply retells a narrative famil‐ here ofers a useful reminder of just how om‐ iar from most textbooks. Kordes does make the in‐ nipresent it has become. teresting point that the Darmstadt composers ironically had to rely on the government for sup‐ port of their “non-political” music, and the fact that both the West German and occupying govern‐ ments strongly encouraged this new music un‐ doubtedly stands in marked contrast to current government support of avant-garde music. But she ignores the larger musical context: were Boulez and Babbitt, a Frenchman and an Ameri‐ can working on the same musical frontlines, also distancing themselves from a Nazi past? Clearly not—Darmstadt was engaged in a larger mod‐ ernist project in music only partly reducible to German history and aesthetics. Finally, one might expect more of a sustained investigation into the status of German music and

3 H-Net Reviews

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/

Citation: Ryan Minor. Review of Applegate, Celia; Potter, Pamela. Music and German National Identity. H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews. February, 2003.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=17179

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

4