Sound Diplomacy: Music and Emotions in Transatlantic Relations, 1850-1920

Overview

Between 1850 and 1910, the United States was a rising star in the international arena, and several European nations sought to strengthen their ties to the republic through cultural means. France capitalized on its art, Britain on its social ties and literature, and Germany promoted classical music. Sound Diplomacy retraces these efforts to export culture as an instrument of nongovernmental diplomacy, paying particular attention to the role of conductors.

Delving into a treasure trove of archives that document cross-cultural interactions between America and Germany, Jessica Gienow-Hecht uncovers the remarkable history of the musician as a cultural symbol of German cosmopolitanism. Seen as sexually attractive and emotionally expressive, German players and conductors acted as an army of informal ambassadors for their home country, and Gienow-Hecht argues that their popularity in the United States paved the way for an emotional elective affinity that survived broken treaties and several wars and continues to the present.

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Author Information

Bio of Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht

Jessica Gienow-Hecht is a Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Council teaching at the University of Frankfurt and the author of Transmission Impossible: American Journalism as Cultural Diplomacy in Postwar Germany, 1945-1955.

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Additional Info

Imprint

University of Chicago Press

Filesize

7.54 MB

Number of Pages

352

eBook ISBN

9780226292175