Der "alte Traum von alten Deutschland"

Musikfeste im 19. Jahrhundert als Nationalfeste

Abstract

Similar to national feasts - e.g. the Wartburg Fest 1817 - German music festivals could be understood as symbolic politics: the masses of interpreters and listeners representing the German 'nation', the works, especially symhonies and oratorios, representing the 'greatness' of German culture (shown in texts by Wolfgang Robert Griepenkerl, Eduard Krüger, Robert Schumann). Mendelssohn's <Lobgesang>, first performed at the Leipzig Gutenberg Fest 1841, then one year later at the Düsseldorf music festival, is discussed as music for national feasts (with its references to the national 'heroes' Gutenberg, Luther, and Beethoven).