2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Nov 21, 2024

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

MUSC 219 - From Wagnerism to Nazism: the grandeur and catastrophe of German music

This seminar addresses the rise and catastrophic fall of music in the context of German culture and politics from the late nineteenth century to 1945, with a focus on those strains of Germanic musical culture that contributed, directly and indirectly, to the rise of Nazism. The seminar will start by surveying the complicated roles played by music, especially Wagner and Wagnerism, in German culture in the later nineteenth century, before critically examining musical life in the Third Reich, fascist aesthetics, the exploitation of music in Nazi culture, the persecution of Jewish musicians-as well as resistance and creative responses, and finally reflecting on issues related to the lingering impacts of these developments. We will engage with the conceptual as well as musical and historical dimensions of these topics, which include important issues of mass aesthetics and media theory.

Prerequisites: Any MUSC course, MCA 101, HIST 165 or 175, or permission of the instructor

Course Designation/Attribute: HP

Anticipated Terms Offered: biannually