
Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic
Narratives of Nineteenth-Century Music
Elaine Kelly(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 23. October 2014
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-19-999809-8 (ISBN)
Description
When the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded in 1949, its leaders did not position it as a new state. Instead, they represented East German socialism as the culmination of all that was positive in Germany's past. The GDR was heralded as the second German Enlightenment, a society in which the rational ideals of progress, Bildung, and revolution that had first come to fruition with Goethe and Beethoven would finally achieve their apotheosis. Central to this founding myth was the Germanic musical heritage. Just as the canon had defined the idea of the German nation in the nineteenth-century, so in the GDR it contributed to the act of imagining the collective socialist state.
Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic uses the reception of the Germanic musical heritage to chart the changing landscape of musical culture in the German Democratic Republic. Author Elaine Kelly demonstrates the nuances of musical thought in the state, revealing a model of societal ascent and decline that has implications that reach far beyond studies of the GDR itself. The first book-length study in English devoted to music in the GDR, Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic is a seminal text for scholars of music in the Cold War and in Germany more widely.
Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic uses the reception of the Germanic musical heritage to chart the changing landscape of musical culture in the German Democratic Republic. Author Elaine Kelly demonstrates the nuances of musical thought in the state, revealing a model of societal ascent and decline that has implications that reach far beyond studies of the GDR itself. The first book-length study in English devoted to music in the GDR, Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic is a seminal text for scholars of music in the Cold War and in Germany more widely.
Reviews / Votes
This book is a significant study. * Classical Net * Elaine Kellys admirable book impresses immediately * Mark Berry, Music and Letters *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
6 music examples, 2 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
564 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-999809-8 (9780199998098)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Elaine Kelly
Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic
Narratives of Nineteenth-Century Music
E-Book
09/2014
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€21.99
Available for download

Elaine Kelly
Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic
Narratives of Nineteenth-Century Music
E-Book
09/2014
1st Edition
OUP USA
€28.49
Available for download
Person
Elaine Kelly is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Edinburgh. She is co-editor, together with Amy Wlodarski, of Art outside the Lines: New Perspectives on GDR Art Culture (2013). Her research has been published in journals such as 19th-Century Music, Music & Letters, and Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History.
Content
Table of Contents ; Acknowledgements ; List of Abbreviations ; Introduction: Bourgeois Pasts and Socialist Futures ; Part 1: Constructing the Canon ; Chapter 1: Writing the Nation ; Chapter 2: A Case of Wagner ; Part 2: Critiquing the Canon ; Chapter 3: Late Beethoven and Late Socialism ; Chapter 4: The Romantic Revival and the Search for Utopia ; Chapter 5: Staging Late Socialism: Ruth Berghaus and the German Opera Tradition ; Epilogue: Art After Socialism ; Bibliography