Overview

Approaches the topic of classical music in the GDR from an interdisciplinary perspective, questioning the assumption that classical music functioned purely as an ideological support for the state. Classical music in the German Democratic Republic is commonly viewed as having functioned as an ideological support or cultural legitimization for the state, in the form of the so-called ""bourgeois humanist inheritance."" The largenumbers of professional orchestras in the GDR were touted as a proof of the country's culture. Classical music could be seen as the polar opposite of Americanizing pop culture and also of musical modernism, which was decried as formalist. Nevertheless, there were still musical modernists in the GDR, and classical music traditions were not only a prop of the state. This collection of new essays approaches the topic of classical music in the GDR from an interdisciplinary perspective, presenting the work of scholars in a number of complementary disciplines, including German Studies, Musicology, Aesthetics, and Film Studies. Contributors to this volume offer a broad examination of classical music in the GDR, while also uncovering nonconformist tendencies and questioning the assumption that classical music in the GDR meant nothing but (socialist) respectability. Contributors: Tatjana Boehme-Mehner, Martin Brady, Lars Fischer, Kyle Frackman, Golan Gur, Peter Kupfer, Albrecht von Massow, Carola Nielinger-Vakil, Jessica Payette, Larson Powell, Juliane Schicker, Martha Sprigge, Matthias Tischer, Jonathan L. Yaeger, Johanna Frances Yunker Kyle Frackman is Assistant Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of British Columbia. Larson Powell is Professor of German at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kyle Frackman (Customer) ,  Professor Larson Powell (Customer)
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   Camden House Inc
Volume:   v. 163
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.554kg
ISBN:  

9781571139160

ISBN 10:   1571139168
Pages:   274
Publication Date:   30 June 2015
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"Introduction: Music and Heritage in the German Democratic Republic Provincialism, Modernity, and the Classical Heritage: The Administrative Structure of the GDR and the Situation of Music Production Classicism as Anti-Fascist Heritage: Realism and Myth in Ernst Hermann Meyer's Mansfelder Oratorium (1950) Positioning Georg Knepler in the Musicological Discourse of the GDR Ehrt euren Deutschen Meister: Reproducing Wagner in the GDR The Embodiment of Collective Memory in Neue Odyssee Marxism and Feminism in Ruth Berghaus's Staging of Don Giovanni Beyond the Gewandhaus: Mahler and the GDR Hanns Eisler's Funeral and Cultures of Commemoration in the GDR Exile-Remigration-Socialist Realism: The Role of Classical Music in the Works of Paul Dessau ""What a Satisfying Task for a Composer!"": Paul Dessau's Music for The German Story (.Du und mancher Kamerad) Friedrich Schenker and the Third Way A Prism of East German Music: Lothar Voigtländer Notes on the Contributors Index"

Reviews

The 12 contributions to this volume are wide-ranging and . . . stimulate discussion and interest on many fronts. . . . This volume opens some very interesting doors for future research into classical music in the GDR and its diverse responses to the topic certainly achieve (its) aims . . . . JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES (I)lluminating. . . . (P)resents, in a mosaic-like fashion, experts' insights into aspects of the GDR's classical music scene. . . . As a first body of research that revisits the GDR's classical music scene through a cultural-studies inspired lens, the volume presents powerful readings of specific expressions of musical culture. WOMEN IN GERMAN NEWSLETTER (Bettina Matthias)

In offering such a rich conversation about the intersections between East German art music, political engagement, and identity construction, this volume has much to offer, not only to music scholars, but also to scholars of aesthetics, Germanists, and historians. * GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW * The 12 contributions to this volume are wide-ranging and . . . stimulate discussion and interest on many fronts. . . . This volume opens some very interesting doors for future research into classical music in the GDR and its diverse responses to the topic certainly achieve [its] aims . . . . * JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES * [I]lluminating. . . . [P]resents, in a mosaic-like fashion, experts' insights into aspects of the GDR's classical music scene. . . . As a first body of research that revisits the GDR's classical music scene through a cultural-studies inspired lens, the volume presents powerful readings of specific expressions of musical culture. -- Bettina Matthias * WOMEN IN GERMAN NEWSLETTER *

Author Information

KYLE FRACKMAN is Associate Professor of German & Scandinavian Studies at the University of British Columbia. Larson Powell is Curator's Professor of Film Studies at University of Missouri, Kansas City.

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