Celia Applegate, “Music and Work 02, Working as Work: The Musical Profession in the Long Nineteenth Century”
Tuesday, 6 December 2022, 16:00 IDT
Maiersdorf Faculty Club and Conference Center
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mount Scopus
Jerusalem 9190501
ISRAEL
Chaired by Steven E. Aschheim
Sponsored by:
George L. Mosse Program in History
Hebrew University Department of History
Koebner-Minerva Center for German History
Lecture Overview: This lecture will survey the development of the musical profession over the course of the long nineteenth century. Cyril Ehrlich (1925-2004) began his examination of the music profession in Britain by asking, “how should we attempt to count and describe a profession which embraced extremes of fame and obscurity, genius and mediocrity, mobility and quiescence?” In German Europe, one must add the sheer difficulty of finding all the people who made their living by music, some in full view on lists of ensembles, some tucked away in obscure corners of a highly-differentiated political landscape. Beyond composers, instrumental players, and singers, this lecture will consider less well-known professional musicians as piano teachers, music journalists, and impresarios.
Celia Applegate studies the culture, society, and politics of modern Germany, with particular interest in the history of music, nationalism, and national identity. She is the author of A Nation of Provincials: The German Idea of Heimat (Berkeley, 1990), the co-editor (with musicologist Pamela Potter) of Music and German National Identity (Chicago, 2000), the author of Bach in Berlin: Nation and Culture in Mendelssohn’s Revival of the St. Matthew Passion (Cornell, 2005), winner of the DAAD/GSA Book Prize, and of The Necessity of Music: Variations on a German Theme (Toronto, 2017). She is currently working on comprehensive interpretation of musical life in Germany from the seventeenth century to the present, titled “Music and the Germans: A History.” She is Past President of the German Studies Association, Past President of the Central European History Society, and incoming chair of the AHA’s Modern European section. Professor Applegate teaches courses on modern European politics, society, and culture; the history of the Holocaust; and the history of European nationalism and ethnic conflicts.
This series of Jerusalem Mosse Lectures was originally scheduled for December 2020 but was postponed two years due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
