THE RHETORIC of DEMOCRACY in AMERICAN MUSICAL DISCOURSE, 1842–1861 Molly Leeanna Barnes a Dissertation Submitted to the Facult
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THE RHETORIC OF DEMOCRACY IN AMERICAN MUSICAL DISCOURSE, 1842–1861 Molly Leeanna Barnes A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music. Chapel Hill 2016 Approved by: Mark Evan Bonds Tim Carter Annegret Fauser Katherine Preston Philip Vandermeer © 2016 Molly Leeanna Barnes ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT MOLLY LEEANNA BARNES: The Rhetoric of Democracy in American Musical Discourse, 1842–1861 (Under the direction of Mark Evan Bonds) In the United States, art music has long operated in an uneasy cultural space, divided between associations with the elite and aspirations to mass appeal. This tension became especially acute in the antebellum years, when dramatic changes to the country’s social and political landscape, including massive immigration from Europe, conflict over the institution of slavery, and increasing social and economic inequalities posed serious threats to the democratic American experiment. These circumstances prompted many commentators to voice idealistic hopes about the capacity of classical music in general and instrumental music in particular to unify, uplift, and democratize American society. This dissertation examines antebellum American public discourse about classical music and the powerful rhetoric that promoted this music as a means of realizing the ideal of democratic egalitarianism during a period of palpable discord. Commentaries about music and its social role in newspapers, periodicals, and magazines generally addressed one or more of three interrelated currents. First, the spiritual aspect of art music—the tradition of Kunstreligion inherited from early-nineteenth-century central Europe— figured prominently for many writers. They posited that art music could serve as a means of personal and social improvement, a quasi-religion by which listeners might better themselves morally and spiritually, and in doing so, help to realize a more democratic and socially unified society. The New England Transcendentalists especially championed the alleged spiritual power iii of music. Second, given the fact that so much art music was of German origin, the political and national implications of this music constituted a major concern for writers in the public sphere. Many observers harbored profound admiration both for German music and for what they perceived as inherently democratic and communal musical practices among the German immigrants who flooded the country after 1848. Third, commentators portrayed Beethoven’s music as heralding the coming state of human freedom and the perfection of democratic life in the American nation. A study of these three themes makes clear that when numerous internal struggles seemed to jeopardize the democratic project, the idealistic rhetoric of antebellum American writers reflected the hope that high musical culture might salvage and sustain that project. iv To my family, including those members of the canine persuasion v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am fortunate to have an enormous number of people and organizations to thank for helping me to complete this dissertation with my sanity intact. I am grateful to my advisor, Evan Bonds, for his years of patient mentorship, his steady encouragement, and his generosity lending me the key to his library carrel so I could finish the dissertation in peace and quiet during my last year-and-a-half of work. Katherine Preston, an endless font of knowledge of American music history, faithfully talked through issues with me and read chapter drafts, carefully commenting and providing numerous suggestions to strengthen the work. I am indebted also to the other members of my dissertation committee, Tim Carter, Annegret Fauser, and Phil Vandermeer, who have been crucial figures in my development as a scholar, especially during my first years of graduate school. All of them offered seminars in which I learned more about the discipline of musicology than I could have imagined. The rest of the remarkable faculty of the Department of Music at UNC-Chapel Hill have provided models of superb teaching, scholarship, musicianship, and humanity—models which I will emulate for the rest of my career. I am especially grateful to Brent Wissick for his friendship and his generosity with his musical expertise, for training me in Baroque performance practice on the violin and viola da gamba, and for providing me with so many wonderful musical opportunities during my time in graduate school. I could not have completed the dissertation without the help of the music librarians at UNC, including Carrie Monette, Diane Steinhaus, and Phil Vandermeer, who always gave cheerful encouragement and helped procure interlibrary loan materials for me. I am also deeply vi fortunate to have received a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the UNC Graduate School for 2015–2016, which enabled me to focus exclusively on the manuscript for an entire academic year. A travel award from the Graduate and Professional Student Federation of UNC-Chapel Hill helped to offset the costs of presenting my dissertation research at the annual AMS meeting in Louisville, Kentucky in 2015. The American Musicological Society supported my project with its conferral of the Ora Frishberg Saloman Award, and gave me the opportunity to present aspects of my work at the annual national conference (2015) and at a chapter meeting (2013). My comrades in the graduate program in musicology during my years at UNC not only discussed my work with me and provided helpful suggestions on early drafts, but also became dear friends and colleagues with whom I have shared countless memories, both musicological and otherwise. Outside of the graduate program, old and new friends both far and near who have lent moral support and kept me going in the most difficult periods are too numerous to name. I am particularly indebted to my roommate for the last three years of graduate school, Laurie Medford, whose quiet presence and reassurance I have come to cherish, and to Aaron Rapaport, a friend for life. My years of dissertation research and writing have been quite literally blessed by my church community at University Baptist Church. I am deeply thankful for the kindness of Craig and Robin McCoy, who have become my “second family” in Chapel Hill, and for the spiritual leadership of Mitch and Betty Simpson. Finally, I cannot express adequate gratitude for the love of my parents and my brother Morgan. My parents read every word of the dissertation with a careful and critical eye, and I could never have finished this project without their constant support—or without the companionship of Ginger, Georgie, and Herschel. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 Setting the Stage ..................................................................................................................9 Historiography ...................................................................................................................16 Sources and Approach .......................................................................................................26 Organization .......................................................................................................................38 Chapter I. AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC IDEALISM, c. 1815–1860: FLOWERINGS AND FLOUNDERINGS ..................................................................43 From Idealism to Disillusionment ...............................................................................45 Musical Concerns .........................................................................................................65 II. AN APPEAL TO THE SPIRITUAL IN MUSIC: AMERICAN KUNSTRELIGION AND DEMOCRACY ............................................87 An Emerging Environment for American Kunstreligion .............................................90 John Sullivan Dwight, Transcendentalism, and the Spiritual Force of Music .............98 Pervasive Ideals .........................................................................................................112 III. “MUSIC FOR THE MILLION”: THE PARTICULARITY AND UNIVERSALITY OF THE “GERMAN ELEMENT” ..............................................134 German Immigration and Assimilation at Mid-Century ............................................140 German Romantic Philosophy and Musical Nationalism in the Antebellum United States ..........................................................................................151 German Musical Culture in the United States and the American Response ..............161 Ramifications .............................................................................................................177 viii IV. THE PEOPLE’S BEETHOVEN ................................................................................179 American Mythologies ...............................................................................................187 The Broader Reception of Beethoven’s Music in the Antebellum United States ......192 The Challenge of Abstraction ....................................................................................197 Beethoven the American Prophet ..............................................................................201 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................203