The Political Instrumentalization of Music of the Past in 20th Century Germany: The Example of George Frideric Handel

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Hirschmann
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 251798161

As research project which deals with the question of how music of the past had been instrumentalized in Germany in the 20th century, this study is part of the extensive topical context of the relation between music and politics. This question will be made concrete by examining the attitudes towards the work of George Frideric Handel as composer and one of the central figures of musical heritage, who was understood as political composer already during his lifetime, and accordingly since then had been used as such. This became extremely obvious during the times of both dictatorships in Germany during the 20th century. The project intentionally refers to a wider period of time - the whole 20th century - to not only be able to address extreme manifestations of politicized music, but also to present, describe, analyze and compare the widest possible range of forms of politically used music in various forms of government and different social systems and societies.As far as the political perception of Handel in the 20th century is concerned, the following different areas will be examined:- theories of political instrumentalization of music- Handel images and particularly political interpretations of Handel- the politicization of institutions engaged in Handel cultivation- Handel anniversaries as main focusing points in history as far as the relation between music and politics is concerned; Handel's compositions in the center of celebrational acts and celebrations- politically intended remakes, presentations and interpretations of Handel's compositions.The methodical basis of the research project is a bi-comparative approach: On the one hand it compares dimensions, techniques and functions of the political exploitation of music during the two German dictatorships of the 20th century, on the other hand it examines the differences in the political usage music between the German dictatorial and non-dictatorial forms of government. Besides, the project uses an interdisciplinary approach and will imply a variety of research methods, embracing both results of related historical disciplines and approaches like the social history of ideas, discourse analysis and history of mentalities. The main focus lies on the critical evaluation of sources and on reception history. The project can resort to extensive groundwork in the exploitation and archiving of source material. The results of the research project are meant to be presented and discussed at an interdisciplinary conference and finally will be published in a monograph.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants