Myths and Monuments of the Nation. 'Early Music' in Italy between Unità and fascismo (2020–2024)

Postdoctoral project (Max Weber Foundation, German Historical Institute in Rome)

To what extent was the concept of 'old Italian music' shaped as a national reference in Italy between political unity and the end of the Fascist regime? How did repertoires and representations of the Italian musical tradition change in the process? Based on these questions, the focus of the research project is on the idea of 'early music' and the practical handling of it in the period from 1861 to 1943.

The hypothesis of this research project, which was launched in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, is that the concept of 'early music' (or musica antica) is a complex of meanings that oscillates in different contexts and is linked to the idea of the Italian nation. Accordingly, 'early music' in Italy during the period under investigation should not be treated as a given, consistently unchanging category, but rather as a phenomenon to be viewed from different angles. It went hand in hand with the national identity-building process in Italy and could therefore be consciously shaped in different contexts and also used for cultural-political purposes. Against this background, the term 'early music' should be understood here as a myth that has been repeatedly reinterpreted and filled with musical content from Palestrina or Marenzio to Tartini, Boccherini and beyond, as well as conveyed historiographically, for example to emphasize the monumentality and continuity of the Italian musical tradition.
The handling of musica antica within Italy is analyzed in the research project on four levels, which complement each other in terms of material and method: music-historical monographs; editions of 'early music'; composing with 'early music' and journalistic discourses on 'early music' under Fascism. Based on the source material analyzed from various Italian archives, the above-mentioned emphases combine cultural memory research with theories of tradition and canon formation. At the same time, this ties in with research contributions on partial aspects of the outlined topic in the field of musicology (see Nicolodi 1991, Garratt 2002, Ellis 2005, Celestini 2007, Vitzthum 2007, Bertola 2014).
The cognitive interest of the perspective on 'early music', which has been kept dynamic from the outset, is to capture the complexity of specific practices related to it within the political borders of Italy. Accordingly, the project also aims to comprehensively locate music and its representation in the field of tension between historicism, musical modernism and national cultural policy. On this basis, the treatment of different repertoires will be reflected in a differentiated way using selected case studies, which have been subsumed under the term 'early music' and placed in the context of the nation. In this way, desiderata in cultural and music-historical research on nationalism in the 19th century and on the role of music in fascism can be closed.

Further information: Essay and interview on the ongoing research project

Project Leader: Carolin Krahn