Habsburg-Pop: Musical Markets and Multiculturalism in the Late Habsburg Empire

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The music produced in the Habsburg Empire and especially Vienna is mostly associated with highbrow concerts and operas, and the two Viennese schools of classical music. This is also the focus of Carl Schorske's Fin de Siècle Vienna and most of the musicological literature. By contrast, this panel deals with a wide range of popular music, which was less German, but intentionally multicultural, and thus had an emancipative and liberating dimension. This outlook also conforms to the recent Habsburg historiography by Peter Judson et alia. The papers explore the changing musical markets in the imperial capital and several regions. Contradicting the ex-post nationalization of music, the panel investigates the Bohemian and other non-Viennese roots of the Viennese Waltz, while stressing Vienna's role as a hotbed for the presumable Czech Polka. In a similar deconstructing manner, we then discuss the unclear boundaries between „Gypsy“ music and intentionally more highbrow Hungarian music, the popular military bands in the imperial periphery based on the example of Croatia, and the Viennese „Schrammel-Quartett“, wich created a genre of popular music in the late 19th century. The presentations will include music examples to convey what Habsburg-Pop sounded like, and why it was eventually liked and upgraded by members of the ruling dynasty. The Habsburgs' propensity towards popular music in the 19th century challenges the distinction between high- and lowbrow music. We will refer to the general theme of the convention by analyzing how the thriving musical market helped to overcome social boundaries and political constraints.

Sub Unit

• History: 1800-1900

Chair

• Ke-chin Hsia, Indiana U Bloomington

Papers

• Habsburg Ethnographic Material in Viennese Musical Life: Imperial Dimensions of Popular Music and Classical Style - Larry Wolff, New York U

• The Bohemian Waltz and the Viennese Polka - Philipp S Ther, U of Vienna (Austria)

• Out of the Theatre: Popular Faces of a Military Band in Croatia - Vjera Katalinić, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Croatia)

• 'The Schrammeln': A Quartet, a Music Style, and a History of Urban Popularity in Late 19th Century Vienna - Tanja Weber, U of Vienna (Austria)

Discussant

• Pieter M. Judson, European U Institute (Italy)