Bach in Berlin

Celia Applegate

Description

Bach's St. Matthew Passion is universally acknowledged to be one of the world's supreme musical masterpieces, yet in the years after Bach's death it was forgotten by all but a small number of his pupils and admirers. The public rediscovered it in 1829, when Felix Mendelssohn conducted the work before a glittering audience of Berlin artists and intellectuals, Prussian royals, and civic notables. The concert soon became the stuff of legend, sparking a revival of interest in and performance of Bach that has continued to this day.Mendelssohn's performance gave rise to the notion that recovering and performing Bach's music was somehow "national work." In 1865 Wagner would claim that Bach embodied "the history of the German spirit's inmost life." That the man most responsible for the revival of a masterwork of German Protestant culture was himself a converted Jew struck contemporaries as less remarkable than it does us today-a statement that embraces both the great achievements and the disasters of 150 years of German history.In this book, Celia Applegate asks why this particular performance crystallized the hitherto inchoate notion that music was central to Germans' collective identity. She begins with a wonderfully readable reconstruction of the performance itself and then moves back in time to pull apart the various cultural strands that would come together that afternoon in the Singakademie. The author investigates the role played by intellectuals, journalists, and amateur musicians (she is one herself) in developing the notion that Germans were "the people of music." Applegate assesses the impact on music's cultural place of the renewal of German Protestantism, historicism, the mania for collecting and restoring, and romanticism. In her conclusion, she looks at the subsequent careers of her protagonists and the lasting reverberations of the 1829 performance itself.

Sujets

• Art music
• History of Europe
• Germany
• Musique savante

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 31 octobre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801455827
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Bach in Berlin

Mendelssohn’s instrumentation (music for the first violin) of the 1829 performance of the St. Matthew Passion: Evangelist’s recitative, “Und siehe da, der Vorhang im Tempel zerriss in zwei Stück” [And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two]. From200 Jahre Sing- Akademie zu Berlin: “Ein Kunstverein für die heilige Musik,”by Gottfried Eberle (Berlin, 1991), by permission of the Preussische Kulturbesitz.

Bach in Berlin

Nation and Culture in Mendelssohn’s Revival of the St. Matthew Passion

C E L I A A P P L E G AT E

C O R N E L L U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

I T H AC A A N D L O N D O N

Copyright © 2005 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2005 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2014

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Applegate, Celia. Bach in Berlin : nation and culture in Mendelssohn’s revival of the St. Matthew Passion / Celia Applegate. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN13: 9780801443893 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN10: 080144389X (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN13: 9780801479724 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685–1750. Matthäuspassion. 2. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685–1750—Appreciation. 3. MendelssohnBartholdy, Felix, 1809–1847. 4. Music—Social aspects—Germany. 5. Music—Germany—19th century— History and criticism. I. Title. ML410.B13A7 2005 780'.943'09034—dc22 2005013205

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Coverart: Eduard Gaertner (18011877), “Unter den Linden, Berlin.” 1852. Oil on canvas, 75 x 155 cm. Inv. A II 880. Photo: Joerg P. Anders. Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Photo credit: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/ Art Resource, N.Y.

To my mother

C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments i x List of Abbreviations xi

Introduction 1 Chapter One: Great Expectations: Mendelssohn and the St. Matthew Passion10 Chapter Two: Toward a Music Aesthetics of the Nation 45 Chapter Three: Music Journalism and the Formation of Judgment 8 0 Chapter Four: Musical Amateurism and the Exercise of Taste 125 Chapter Five: TheSt. Matthew Passionin Concert: Protestantism, Historicism, and Sacred Music 173 Chapter Six: Beyond 1829: Musical Culture, National Culture 234

Bibliography Index 281

2 65

A C K N OW L E D G M E N T S

This book has taken shape over a number of years, in the course of which I have benefited beyond measure from the generosity of music historians in opening up their field to such an outsider as myself. My greatest debts are to Ralph Locke and Pamela Potter, who must be counted two of the finest ambassadors of musicology. Their work has exemplified for me the interdis- ciplinary study of music; their friendship has fed and sustained my enthusi- asm for this field of research. Colleagues in both musicology and German studies have provided encouragement and opportunities for me to cross these music-historical disciplinary borders; I would like particularly to thank Michael Beckerman, James Retallack, Michael Kater, Albrecht Riethmüller, Geoff Eley, Jan Palmowski, Philippe Ther, Kerala Snyder, Peter Hohendahl, David Barclay, Jonathan Sperber, and David Blackbourn. My graduate adviser, Paul Robinson, showed me many years ago how music might be made part of our study of European history. I have been following his example ever since. Support, in the form of fellowships, leaves, and publication subsidies, from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Stanford Humanities Center, the Office of the Dean at the

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