Classical Music in Weimar Germany: Culture and Politics before the Third Reich

From Hitler’s notorious fondness for Wagner’s operas to classical music’s role in fuelling German chauvinism in the era of the world wars, many observers have pointed to a distinct relationship between German culture and reactionary politics. In Classical Music in Weimar Germany, Brendan Fay challenges this paradigm by reassessing the relationship between conservative musical culture and German politics. Drawing upon a range of archival sources, concert reviews and satirical cartoons, Fay maps the complex path of classical music culture from Weimar to Nazi Germany—a trajectory that was more crooked, uneven, or broken than straight. Through an examination of topics as varied as radio and race to nationalism, this book demonstrates the diversity of competing aesthetic, philosophical and political ideals held by German music critics that were a hallmark of Weimar Germany. Rather than seeing the cultural conservatism of this period as a natural prelude for the violence and destruction later unleashed by Nazism, this fascinating book sheds new light on traditional culture and its relationship to the rise of Nazism in 20th-century Germany.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: German Music and the Nazi Past 1. (Re)Composing the Nation: Music, War, and the German Inflation, 1918-1924 2. Radios and Records: Image and Reality in Weimar Technology 3. Internationalism, Nationalism and the Case of Hans Joachim Moser 4. Wagner under Weimar 5. Judging Performance, Performing Judgments: Race and Performance in Weimar Germany Epilogue: Rethinking Tradition Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Brendan Fay is Assistant Professor in the School of Library & Information Management at Emporia State University, USA. He has been published in Current Musicology and Cultural History.

Review :
Fay has uncovered a wealth of fascinating material, not only enriching our preconceptions of musical life during the Weimar Republic, but also demonstrating both connections and significant divergences after the Nazis came to power. The book’s major strength lies in this reexamination of an implied assumption of continuity between Weimar conservative music critics and the practices and ideologies of Nazism. In this thoughtful, intelligent account, Brendan Fay forcefully challenges the notion that Weimar-era conservative critics were always the intellectual outriders for Nazism that they have often been painted as being. He reminds us of the open, varied and contested nature of conservative thought in the 1920s. In doing so he invites us to re-examine the relationship between Weimar-era politics and culture in fresh and provocative ways. Classical Music in Weimar Germany provides an important corrective to our tendency to regard tradition and modernism as simple opposites. Fay uncovers the free-wheeling exchange of opinion and activism among conservatives and progressives in the years between the end of the First World War and the Nazi seizure of power. This is a revelatory and eloquent work of interpretation, illuminating a crucial period of German musical development.