(1) Mieke Bai, Kulturanalyse. Herausgegeben und mit einem Nachwort versehen von Thomas Fechner-Smarsly und Sonja Neef, Frankfurt am Main 2002, 26.
(2) Das jeweils aktuelle Lehrangebot des transdisziplinären Studienschwerpunkts Kulturwissenschaft und Cultural Studies findet sich im Web: www.univie.ac.at/culturalstudies.
Using a range of sources, including letters, reports, biographies and musical compositions, the author analyses changing musical and cultural structures within their sociological context. In addition, the article demonstrates how musical production constitutes an ambiguous kind of cultural practice, which involves the composition, interpretation and adoption of musical forms by different social actors. Their actions are influenced both by communication with one another and by societal circumstances. Mozart's piano concert KV 271 provides an example of the socio-cultural changes taking place in the late 18th century, above all the increasing permeability of social classes. In the early 19th century, the waltz became a new cultural trope, with conservative commentators viewing it as sexually permissive and a danger to the social order. The emergence of expressionism in music in the early 20th century represented a much more radical kind of change. The twelve-tone composers of the »Second Viennese School« (Schönberg, Berg et al.) set themselves free from the traditional rules of harmony, rhythm, and cadences, Iinking their new compositional techniques directly to the feelings they wanted to express. The vociferous protests by large sections of the general public indicated that this did indeed constitute a revolution in musical practice.
[Top]Much as was the case in Europe, the 1920s and 1930s in the USA and Latin America were also characterised by collectivist political concepts, which stretched beyond the bounds of ideology. The most extreme forms of collectivist ideology were of course to be found in totalitarian political systems, but there did in fact exist a whole variety of collectivist ways of thinking. Many of these ideas greatly influenced everyday life, even if they never transmuted into political power. A good example of this phenomenon is provided by the many composers whose work was guided by the notion of musical populism. As this article demonstrates, the relationship between the phenomena of political collectivism and musical populism took a variety of forms. It was particularly transparent in the case of works composed from specific motives, such as those embodied by the totalitarian state. For example, Respighi's Pini di Roma made explicit reference to the symbolism of Mussolini's Fascism. Alternatively, composers could aim directly for popularity through the subject matter and form of their work, as is shown by Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. Further examples include the role played by Villa-Lobos in Brazil and Kodaly's Psalmus Hungaricus, which brought decisive and lasting success for the composer, who had previously been the subject of official suspicion. In the USA, where the ideology of the >New Deal< likewise proclaimed a collectivist ethos, Copland searched for a new and more popular way of communicating with the public. The relationship between political collectivism and musical populism thus provides another entry point into the interpretation of musical modernity, helping us to understand better the differences between the various lines along which that modernity developed.
[Top]This article looks at the function of spiritual songs as a means for Protestants to articulate their religious identity. Two periods of Austrian history are examined: the 16th and early 17th centuries, and the 1930s, when the vicinity of Hitler's Third Reich placed Austria's national identity in a position of great uncertainty. Right from the beginnings of their movement in the 16th century, Protestants used German church songs in order to disseminate their ideas as rapidly as possible. Songs of this kind were also sung in Austria, where the Catholic Church initially showed a measure of tolerance towards them, as a number of publications demonstrate. Indeed, Catholics and Protestants often exchanged songs and sometimes even shared the same churches and cathedrals. In subsequent decades, however, differences emerged and conflicts grew, as it transpired that there was no chance of reuniting the two confessions. Eventually, nearly all Protestants were forced to leave the country, since when being a Protestant in Austria meant either forming part of a tiny, barely tolerated minority or going underground. In the 1930s, a Protestant clergyman picked up on this historical image when he described himself as being without a homeland in the so-called »Corporate State« (Ständestaat) established by the Catholic-authoritarian dictatorship. This clergyman longed to joining the National Socialist Third Reich, and expressed his sentiments in many Protestant songs. He also organised a series of large choral events aimed at young people, in order to spread his ideas of a strong German nation.
[Top]Through an examination of artistic production from the foundation of the Austrian Empire in 1804 down to the end of the First World War in 1918, the author argues that there was no uniform and definite idea of Austrian identity. Instead, there were a number of variable concepts in circulation, reflecting the complex ethnic and legal structure of the Hapsburg monarchy. Forms of Austrian identity were not only created between the people and the dynasty (an excellent example being the iconography associated with Emperor Francis II [I]), but also in the representational spheres occupied by the church and the nobility, who both expressed their claims to authority through the arts. The construction of the famous Votive Church (Votivkirche) in Vienna constituted a significant innovation, in that members of the Hapsburg family defined the church as a form of dynastic monument. In this way, two previously different artistic types - church and monument - were amalgamated into a new kind of »church monument", whose function was to demonstrate the unity of dynasty and Roman Catholic Church as a distinctive feature of Austrian identity.
[Top]26.4.2018 Gedenkfeier für die Opfer des KZ Dachau mit Lesung von Gottfried Gansinger in Ried im Innkreis (A) …weiterlesen