Folk Music in the German Democratic Republic: Exploring Lived Musical Experience and Post-War German Folk Music Discourses Felix Morgenstern Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology Irish World Academy of Music and Dance University of Limerick Student ID Number: 12161268 Supervisor: Dr. Colin Quigley Submitted to the University of Limerick, August 2017 Author’s Declaration I, __________________________________, hereby declare that this project is entirely my own work, in my own words, and that all sources used in researching it are fully acknowledged and all quotations properly identified. It has not been submitted, in whole or in part, by me or another person, for the purpose of obtaining any other credit/grade. I understand the ethical implications of my research, and this work meets the requirements of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee. Signed: ______________________________ i Abstract Folk Music in the German Democratic Republic: Exploring Lived Musical Experience and Post-War German Folk Music Discourses Felix Morgenstern Following the drastic co-option of German folk music in the ideological service of the Nazi regime during the Third Reich (1933-1945), the genre’s performative practice was left highly marginalised. Confronted with this fragility, revival activists in both German post-war states initially recast German folk music in a nostalgic recourse to the soundscape and song themes of Irish and Scottish music, before reconnecting with a 19th century oppositional German- language folk song repertoire. In the GDR, songs of the 1848 Revolution were curated as part of the state’s ‘democratic’ cultural heritage and could not be readily censored. This complexity allowed artists to perform folk songs of the past to metaphorically pass comment on social, cultural and political circumstances existing in the present. Employing Rice’s (2003) model of subject-centred musical ethnography and drawing on fieldwork conducted among former members of the Leipzig-based GDR folk music scene, this thesis examines the lived musical experience of folk musicians in East Germany, nuancing their encounters in comparison to established post-war German folk music discourses. Based on archival research and musicological analysis, I further identify, how these individuals conceptualised their musicking and how this translates into concrete textual and sonic form. I conclude, that existing discursive portrayals of the relationship between folk musicians and state authorities, based on the oversimplification that GDR artists unconditionally sacrificed their creative expression to state censorship, require further nuancing. Crucially, interviewees characterise the politically-oppositional potential of their songs in multifaceted ways, ranging from critique to intermittent conformity, as they had to uncover pathways for communicating their oppositional attitudes to listeners, while availing of state sponsorship to maintain a performance platform. On a musical level, affective capacities of sonic references and symbolic lyrics amplify subversive messages in the listening experience of audiences, while allowing artists to creatively and intellectually articulate their being-in-the-world of socialism. ii Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to acknowledge the people that have contributed to the completion of this thesis. I am especially grateful to my course director in ethnomusicology and supervisor, Dr. Colin Quigley, for his guidance and encouragement throughout my research project. My thanks go to Colin and to Dr. Aileen Dillane for their ongoing support of my future endeavours and to Prof. Mel Mercier for broadening my horizons as a scholar and a practitioner. I would also like to express my gratitude to the other staff members at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, ethnomusicologists, ethnochoreologists, ritual scholars and Irish music and dance specialists, who have equipped me with the necessary methodological and theoretical skill set to venture into the field. In particular, thanks to Dr. Catherine Foley, Dr. Niall Keegan, Dr. Sandra Joyce, Dr. Orfhlaith Ní Bhríain, Dr. Mats Melin and Prof. Helen Phelan. Dr. David Robb at Queen’s University Belfast deserves a special mention for directing me towards potential interviewees and for clarifying the mechanisms of folk musicking in the GDR as an expert in this field. At this point, I would like to appreciate the vital contributions of my research consultants to this project. My thanks go to Jürgen B. Wolff, Reinhardt “Pfeffi” Ständer, Gert Steinert and Wolfgang Leyn for taking the time to talk to me for opening their musical worlds. Compiling some of the chapters in this paper would not have been possible without the vital help of staff members at the archives of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, who accommodated me and provided access to primary source material upon short notice in April this year. Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. David Verbuč and Dr. Zuzana Jurková, ethnomusicologists at the Faculty of Humanities housed at Charles University, Prague, where I spent time during a stimulating summer school this year. Dr. Verbuč and Dr. Jurková have sharpened my understanding of music’s pathways in socialism and post-socialism in a broader European framework and have led me to comprehend the place of my own research in this contextual web. Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to thank my family, the Morgensterns, Klaus and Irmlinde Kiupel, Konstanze, Wilfried, and Patric Beiersdorf, for their ongoing support throughout my time at the University of Limerick. I dedicate this work to my parents, Felicitas and Tomas, who have always encouraged me and who helped me make sense of this complex German Other with which they grew up and which is the focus of my research. iii List of Figures Figure Title Page No. Fig.1 Lose Skiffle Gemeinschaft 28 Leipzig-Mitte: “Rapid Musical Cheerfulness” with Gert Steinert on guitar (back row, third from right) Fig.2 Wolfgang Steinitz’ 39 democratic folk song collection (Steinitz 1954) Fig.3 Agitprobe 73’, FDJ song 41 book published for the X. Weltfestspiele in 1973 (Andert et al. 1973) Fig.4 “Auswandererlied” 56 (Folkländer 1982), transl. F. Morgenstern Fig.5 “Auswandererlied” - 59 Contrapuntal interplay between Waldzither and mandolin Fig.6 Voice leading in the fifth 61 verse of “Auswandererlied” Fig.7 “Auswandererlied”- 64 Interlude adapted from E. Burdon’s “San Franciscan Nights” (1967) Fig.8 “Sag mir, wo du stehst!” 67 (Oktoberklub 1967), transl. F. Morgenstern Fig.9 Chorus in “Sag mir, wo du 68 stehst!” iv Table of Contents Author’s Declaration ................................................................................................................... i Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. iii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... v Chapter One: “Encounters with a German Other in Leipzig” ........................................... 1 1.1 Introduction: ‘You Call That Fieldwork?’ ........................................................................... 2 1.1.2 Notes on my Ethnographic Field Research ....................................................................... 5 1.1.3 Strategies of Musical Representation................................................................................ 9 1.1.4 Archival Research in Berlin ............................................................................................ 10 1.2 Literature Review............................................................................................................... 11 1.2.1 German Folk Music Studies: Pre-World War II Romantic-Nationalistic Frameworks .. 11 1.2.2 Post-War Folk Music Revival, Irish-Inspired Soundscape and Nostalgia ...................... 12 1.2.3 GDR Studies: ‘Democratic’ German Folk Songs in East Germany ............................... 13 1.2.4 Nuances in Politically-Oppositional Intent ..................................................................... 15 1.2.5 Musical Manifestations and Peircean Semiotics............................................................. 16 1.3 Outline of Thesis Structure ................................................................................................ 18 Chapter Two: “The Romantic-Nationalistic German Folk Song Concept, Post-War Revival, and the Nostalgic Facets of an Irish Ersatz Genre” ............................................. 19 2.1 A Problematic Romantic-Nationalistic Legacy of German Folk Songs ............................ 21 2.2 Post-War Escapism, Volkstümliche Musik, and BRD’s Burg Waldeck-Scene .................. 24 2.3 Hootenanny Klubs and the GDR’s Singebewegung........................................................... 26 2.4 Ersatz Nostalgia and the Reception of an Irish Soundscape.............................................. 29 2.5 Thematic and Restorative Ersatz Capacities of Irish Folk Songs ...................................... 34 Chapter Three: “The Revival of a 19th Century Democratic German Folk Song Erbe and its Subversive