Nationalism, Chauvinism and Racism as Reflected in European Musical Thought and in Compositions from the Interwar Period

This book concerns the ways in which many different types of nationalism, chauvinism and racism penetrated into musical thought in the interwar period, and how the leading artistic personalities of that period reacted to these ideologies. The concept of "nationalism" is understood broadly in this book and covers the entire spectrum of its positive and negative aspects. The topics listed in the book’s title have been discussed on the example of selected four countries, significant with respect to population and territory and representing different social-political systems: Germany (mostly after 1933), Italy, Poland (after 1926) and Great Britain. This selection is also representative of the main ethnic groups in Europe: Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Latin-Romance and Slavic. Cover 1 Copyright information 6 Contents 7 Introduction 11 I. The National and Universal Dimensions of Music in the Aesthetic Thought of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Karol Szymanowski21 23 II. The Racist Foundations of the National-Socialist Thought on Music101 53 1 “Was ist Deutsch in Deutscher Musik?”: Concerning the Germanic and Nordic Racial Features in German Music 62 2 ‘Judentum in Musik’ – Around the Musical Activity of the ‘Anti-Race’ 69 2.1 Organic Harmonic-Tonal Unity 76 2.2 The Organic Unity of Formal Structures 77 2.3 The Organic Aesthetic-Social Unity 79 III. Das Volk, die Volksgemeinschaft, der Volkskomponist: The Concept of the “Community of Blood” and the Debate Concerning National-Socialist Normative Musical Aesthetics 85 IV. Between Thought and Action: Nazi Racial Doctrines and the Consequences of Their Implementation in the Context of the Reactions of Europe’s Music Circles in the 1930s 105 1 Journalism and the Music Environment in Interwar Poland: “...Far-Reaching Caution Is Recommended” 106 2 Protecting Elitism: Szymanowski, the Grand Polish ‘Aristocratic’ Traditions and the ‘Jewish Question’ 115 3 The Polish “Rassenkunde”: Józef Reiss and His Research on “The Jewish Spirit in Music” 118 4 Zofia Lissa: The Problem of Race in Music 125 5 Chopin and the Question of ‘Racial Purity’ 129 6 The Reactions of British Music Critics, the Appeasement and the British-German Policy for the Musical Cooperation of “Germanic Sister Nations” 135 7 The Ideological Counter-Offensive of British Great War Generation Artists – Pacifism against Racism and Chauvinism 149 8 1938 – The Breakthrough Year: Benjamin Britten’s and Michael Tippett’s Politically Involved Works in Relation to Events in the Third Reich 151 V. The Italian “National Awakening” and Historical-Imperial Nationalism. Art in the Context of the Fascist Myth of Romanità 163 1 Modern Art or Degenerate Art? Modernism and Its National Aspects in Fascist and Nazi Ideologies 167 2 The Musical Apologies of Rome in the Service of Fascist Imperial-Historical Nationalism 174 2.1 “Salve Roma divina!”: Hymn to Rome by Giacomo Puccini 176 2.2 “Tutto che al mondo è civile, grande, augusto, egli è romano ancora!” Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Trilogy and the Nationalist Musical Aesthetics of the Fascist Era 180 2.3 From Rimsky-Korsakov to Giannotto Bastianelli: Transformations in Respighi’s Aesthetic Stance on His Way to the “National Revival” 184 2.4 Prophetic Aspects: The Roman Trilogy in the National and International Context 188 VI. From the Myth of Romanità to Fascist Racism: Italian Musical Thought in the Face of Political-Ideological Changes in the late 1930s 195 VII. The “New Rome” Clashes with the “Third Greek Civilisation” – The Decline of the Myth of Romanità 211 VIII. Postscript: The Decline of Racism and Chauvinism, “Crypto-Nationalism” and the Demythologisation of Nationalist Concepts of Tradition after World War II 217 1 “Crypto-Nationalism” and “National Musicologies” 220 2 From Nationalism to Universalism 223 Conclusion 231 Bibliography 235 Index 251 This book concerns the ways in which nationalism, chauvinism and racism penetrated into musical thought in the interwar period. The impact of these ideologies on the reflection on music has been discussed on the example of four countries of various social-political systems and ethnic backgroud: Germany, Italy, Poland and Great Britain. This is an open access book available on www.peterlang.com and www.oapen.org. All content published can be shared under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0).