Stellvertreterkriege. Politik mit Musik des deutschen und englischen Bürgertums im frühen 19. Jahrhundert

Abstract

Proxy Wars. The Politics of Music of the German and English Middle-class in Early 19th Century

The European middle-classes used opera houses and concert halls as public arenas to establish their own identity. In these spheres they could celebrate their cultural and political ideals and thereby mark the differences with the aristocracy. The article focuses on the middle-class discourses about music and on the behaviour of audiences. The middle-classes used their allegedly superior musical understanding to deprecate the nobility. Especially in England, but to some extent in Germany as well, the love for Italian opera was regarded as a distinctly aristocratic fashion, while in both countries the middle-class believed in the superiority of instrumental music. This phenomenon raises the question how and why images of «true» and «superficial» artists were created and how seemingly non-political assessments became political issues.