THE CONCERT OF NATIONS: MUSIC, POLITICAL THOUGHT AND DIPLOMACY IN EUROPE, 1600s-1800s A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Damien Gérard Mahiet August 2011 © 2011 Damien Gérard Mahiet THE CONCERT OF NATIONS: MUSIC, POLITICAL THOUGHT AND DIPLOMACY IN EUROPE, 1600s-1800s Damien Gérard Mahiet, Ph. D. Cornell University 2011 Musical category, political concept, and political myth, the Concert of nations emerged within 16th- and 17th-century court culture. While the phrase may not have entered the political vocabulary before the end of the 18th century, the representation of nations in sonorous and visual ensembles is contemporary to the institution of the modern state and the first developments of the international system. As a musical category, the Concert of nations encompasses various genres— ballet, dance suite, opera, and symphony. It engages musicians in making commonplaces, converting ad hoc representations into shared realities, and uses multivalent forms that imply, rather than articulate political meaning. The Nutcracker, the ballet by Tchaikovsky, Vsevolozhsky, Petipa and Ivanov, illustrates the playful re- composition of semiotic systems and political thought within a work; the music of the battle scene (Act I) sets into question the equating of harmony with peace, even while the ballet des nations (Act II) culminates in a conventional choreography of international concord (Chapter I). Chapter II similarly demonstrates how composers and librettists directly contributed to the conceptual elaboration of the Concert of nations. Two works, composed near the close of the War of Polish Succession (1733-38), illustrate opposite constructions of national character and conflict resolution: Schleicht, spielende Wellen, und murmelt gelinde (BWV 206) by Johann Sebastian Bach (librettist unknown), and Les Sauvages by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Louis Fuzelier. These construct competing definitions of the political concept vis-à-vis hegemony, morality, and reality The Concert of nations has hence long constituted a symbolic resource for political action. At the Congress of Vienna (1814-15), music and dance contributed to a high society of pleasures that modeled peaceful difference and competition in international relations. The Austrian court, and in particular its foreign minister, Klemens von Metternich, consistently resorted to the Concert of nations as a vector of soft power. Current uses of music in international relations only partially replicate these practices. As illustrated by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, musicians can still represent the Concert of nations, but the experience remains limited to professionals, and the values their performances embody do not necessarily offer desirable political models (Chapter III). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Damien Mahiet, born 1983, studied government and political thought at Sciences Po Paris (M.A., 2005). Under the supervision of Jean-Marie Donegani, he completed his master’s thesis, a reflection on the meaning of La Jeune France, a group of composers formed in 1936. With Jean-Michel Bardez, Jean-Marie Donegani, and Bruno Moysan, he organized in 2008 a study day sponsored by the Association française de science politique (AFSP); from this event resulted a collection of articles published as L’Institution musicale (Sampzon, France: Delatour, 2011). His articles have also appeared in Prétentaine (no. 20/21, 2007) and two conference reports. In 2005, Damien Mahiet was admitted to Cornell University in the Department of Music; he pursued a degree in musicology under the guidance of Annette Richards (MA, 2008, and PhD, 2011), studied piano with Xak Bjerken and Malcolm Bilson, and conducting with Chris Youghoon Kim and Scott Tucker. In 2010, he was selected as the recipient of a one-semester graduate fellowship by the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace Studies. In 2010-2011, he was director of orchestra and assistant professor at Denison Univeristy (Granville, Ohio). Damien Mahiet began his undergraduate studies at the Lycée Claude Monet and the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (DEUG, history and philosophy, 2003). He received basic musical training as a singer at the Maîtrise de Radio-France (1992- 95) and as a pianist at the Conservatoire Paul Dukas (Paris) and the Conservatoire Hector Berlioz (Paris), completing a Diplôme de fin d’études in 1998 (Éliane Gernez, solfège) and a Premier Prix avec félicitations in 1999 (Véronique Barry-Roux, piano). He received further musical instruction at the École de musique de Ville d’Avray (Jean-Marie Cottet, piano) and at St. Mary’s College of Maryland (Eliza Garth, piano, and Brian Ganz, chamber music). iii To Angela Early, in thanks and love Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day. (...) Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. ~ H. W. Longfellow, A Psalm of Life iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the past, I have described the music department as a family, with all the passion and conflicts that might entail, but also with the sincere warmth and trust one might expect from those with whom you share a significant part of your life. Wonderful care and support I have found indeed in times of sadness and joy. To Ithaca, where I have grown roots in a foreign land, I return with the same pleasure as to the places of my childhood and youth. Many members of the faculty contributed to my growth in the past six years. I have spent wonderful hours studying piano with Malcolm Bilson and Xak Bjerken, both passionate thinkers at the piano. Chris Kim and Scott Tucker gave me an opportunity to start conducting with the Cornell Chamber Orchestra, sending me well equipped on a long journey of self-discovery, musical performance, and intellectual inquiry. Martin Hatch generously introduced me to Arab music, and Steven Pond to ethnomusicology. I am particularly grateful to have been able to observe the collaborative work of Steven Pond, Katherine Reagan, and Bonna Boettcher on a writing course that mobilized Cornell’s recently acquired hip hop collection. In the French studies program, Mitchell Greenberg gave me significant help and mentoring in the course of my graduate studies. I am especially thankful for the opportunity to attend the School of Criticism and Theory in 2006. Laurent Ferri has been a supportive friend and intellectual companion with a felicitous influence on my decision to pursue further my musicianship. I have been particularly lucky and v honored to collaborate musically with the Lafayette exhibit at the Kroch Library in 2007. The Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies kindly allowed me to present material from Chapters 2 and 3 at the lunchtime seminar; I thank Professors Kirshner, Reppy and Evangelista for their questions and comments. Outside Cornell University, Daniel Boico has always made time in his busy schedule to teach me conducting; his thoughtful and good-humored support made all the difference. Michael Tolaydo, Professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, has long been an inspiring and generous mentor. I am particular proud of the performance of The Soldier’s Tale which he agreed to prepare and perform in collaboration with the talented choreographer and dancer Caroline Copeland in 2010. Several fellow graduate students have provided constant companionship throughout the past six years. I want to thank in particular Marin Küster, Mike Lee, Ellen Lockhart, Stefania Neonato, Norbert Palej, and Sezi Seskir. Shane Levesque, Stuart Paul Duncan, and Mark Ferraguto made teaching music theory an intellectually stimulating endeavor; I doubt anyone can teach with more elegance, ease, and depth as Shane Levesque. To Mark Ferraguto, this most patient confidant and friend, I am grateful for his good-humored tolerance of my Parisian addiction to venting against all and everything. I feel a particular sense of kinship after these years in which we have not only shared moments of happiness, but also similar trials. Mark has read and critiqued many seminar papers and most of this dissertation, to the extent that he can present my ideas with better clarity than myself; I am, needless to say, indebted to him as a writer and scholar. vi Rebecca Harris-Warrick was particularly kind and generous in the Fall of 2008, making it possible for me to spend some time with my mother in the days before she passed away. She has also informed my study of Les Sauvages, giving me the opportunity to present some research material in her graduate seminar on Rameau, and offering detailed comments on an early draft of the second chapter. David Yearsley has had a significant impact on my scholarship through two truly inspiring graduate seminars (on J.S. Bach’s secular cantatas and Charles Burney) and a wonderful introduction to the harpsichord. The questions and material taught in the seminars have remained with me since then, and the second chapter is certainly indebted to his teaching. Of course, he would probably deny it; but here: it is written. In Professors Isaac Kramnick, Richard Leppert, and James Webster, I have found the attentive and demanding readers any graduate student might desire in a dissertation committee. More to the point, I have met inspiring and generous scholars. In their seminars, Professors Webster and Kramnick combined a well-known breath of knowledge with an untarnished passion for their discipline. Through their critique and support, they have partially shaped the content and form of this dissertation, not least by their rare capacity to consider opinions sometimes at odds with their own. To Richard Leppert, who teaches at the University of Minnesota, I am first and foremost indebted to his groundbreaking work, like anyone who studies the multiple articulations of music and politics. But I must express particular thanks for his desire to meet and converse with his advisees, giving me the opportunity to discover not only the banks of Lake Superior, but also a truly caring and generous man.