National stereotypes and music

Music became a marker of national identity in nineteenth‐century Europe. Western art music consists of tonal systems that are universally intelligible, but certain rhythms and musical idioms have been associated with national styles. How, when, and why does a musical phrase or piece become national?...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nations and nationalism 2014-10, Vol.20 (4), p.628-645
Main Author: Lajosi, Krisztina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Classical music
Cultural practices
cultural transfer
Economic Development
Europe
European history
Hungary
Idioms
Music
nation-building
National Identity
national style
Nationalism
Political science
Stereotypes
Topography
verbunkos
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Summary:Music became a marker of national identity in nineteenth‐century Europe. Western art music consists of tonal systems that are universally intelligible, but certain rhythms and musical idioms have been associated with national styles. How, when, and why does a musical phrase or piece become national? What political and cultural circumstances contributed to the development of national styles and facilitated the emergence of resonant topographies? What was the relationship between music as cultural practice and nineteenth‐century national thought as discursive space? These questions are addressed with a particular focus on verbunkos, which came to be characteristic of Hungarian national style, and on the Rákóczy March which became famous thanks to Berlioz's Faust. This essay traces the complex process of cultural transfer through which these martial tunes of mixed ethnic origins have become emblematic of Hungarian music.
ISSN:1354-5078
1469-8129
DOI:10.1111/nana.12086