[ Cultural Studies ]

Das IFK Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften in Wien lädt für den 29. Mai 2006 (18.00 Uhr c.t.) zum Vortrag von Jason S. Heilman über "Militärmusik" and Cultural Identity in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Abstract:
The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is often blamed on the Monarchy's failure to forge a state identity uniting its ethnically diverse subjects. During the last decades of the nineteenth century, however, one cultural phenomenon was drawing support from all segments of the Imperial population: the concerts by the military bands of the Imperial and Royal Joint Army, whose repertoire remains heavily associated with Austrian identity even to this day. But how can the waning years of the fragmented Monarchy, already suffering under its many nationalist independence movements, also be its zenith for patriotic music? And how could this music have related to all of the Monarchy's variegated peoples? This lecture examines the phenomenon of Austro-Hungarian 'Militärmusik' and its attempt to evoke a single, multi-national Austrian identity against the social context of its time. The self-legitimization process for nineteenth-century western empires included an intense promulgation of patriotic repertoires, and through a process similar to the canonization of Western art music, specialized patriotic canons formed during this time, many of which remain intact today. Austria-Hungary was no exception, and a reexamination of the "golden age" of Austrian 'Militärmusik' in this light should reveal much about the complex nature of Austrian identity.

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