Composing the Canon: Narratives of Romanticism in the German Democratic Republic

政治学家约翰·基恩（John Keane）指出，“危机是生者为死者的心灵、思想和灵魂而战的时刻”（基恩，1988），这一观察与冷战时期德国对正典的接受有关。在20世纪50年代，音乐经典成为泛日耳曼紧张局势的焦点，德国杰出音乐人物的纪念日在联邦共和国和德意志民主共和国都被作为国家建设和宣传的机会。德意志民主共和国正典的构建反映了集体社会主义的理想，并强化了政府作为德国启蒙运动遗产真正继承者的官方叙事。相比之下，到了20世纪70年代，由于承诺的社会主义乌托邦未能实现，教义成为德意志民主共和国不满者表达幻灭和批评国家的工具。艺术家们不再认同贝多芬和舒曼等革命英雄的形象；更相关的是对他们与19世纪社会的隔离和疏离的解释。该项目着眼于浪漫主义的接受和更广泛的19世纪音乐遗产，探索了德意志民主共和国佳能的结构。我研究官方和学术叙事，并分析对浪漫主义传统的一系列创造性反应，包括作曲、歌剧制作和电影。该项目的核心是将教堂作为当代政治、社会和文化话语的场所。我感兴趣的是确定诸如重大政治危机点等外部因素如何塑造经典接受，并反过来探索这种接受可以作为探索国家音乐文化异质性的镜头的程度。我的项目旨在挑战当前关于民主德国音乐的文献，这些文献坚定地坚持在其他学科中受到严格审查的独裁范式。最近对正典接受的研究只关注政府对正典的挪用。他们把国家描绘成一个整体自上而下的政权，把东德音乐家简单地描绘成党的延伸（Thacker, 2007; Janik, 2005; Potter, 2003; Klingberg, 1997）。我的研究旨在使音乐学超越这些意识形态和方法上的限制，以便在德意志民主共和国构建更准确的音乐文化图景。该项目基于对国家档案馆、歌剧档案馆和德国科学院档案馆的广泛研究。这项工作还通过对在该州出版的关于19世纪音乐的报纸、期刊和专著的研究，以及对乐谱和视听材料的分析来补充。这种多样化的音乐来源使得人们对德意志民主共和国的音乐实践有了更细致入微的了解。我对流行的观念提出了质疑，即单一的官方经典结构渗透到音乐生活的各个方面，并探讨了对浪漫主义的各种反应如何不仅揭示了艺术家和政治家之间关系的复杂性，而且还揭示了存在于权力和审查话语中的创造力空间。最终，这引发了对德意志民主共和国艺术遗产的质疑，并削弱了当前否认德国艺术作品合法性的趋势。

The political scientist John Keane notes that 'crises are times during which the living do battle for the hearts, minds and souls of the dead' (Keane, 1988), an observation that is pertinent to the reception of the canon in Cold War Germany. In the 1950s the musical canon emerged as a focal point for pan-Germanic tensions, and anniversaries of Germany's illustrious musical figures were seized upon in both the Federal Republic and the GDR as nation-building and propaganda opportunities. Constructs of the canon in the GDR reflected the ideals of collective socialism and reinforced official narratives of the state as the true successor to the heritage of the German Enlightenment. By the 1970s in contrast, as the promised socialist utopia failed to materialise, the canon emerged as a vehicle for the GDR's discontented to express their disillusionment and to criticize the state. Artists no longer identified with portrayals of figures such as Beethoven and Schumann as revolutionary heroes; far more relevant were interpretations that focused on their isolation and alienation from nineteenth-century society. Focusing on the reception of romanticism and the wider nineteenth-century musical heritage, this project explores constructs of the canon in the GDR. I examine official and academic narratives and analyse a range of creative responses to the romantic tradition, including compositions, opera productions, and films. At the heart of the project is the premise that canons serve as a site for contemporary political, social, and cultural discourse. I am interested in determining how external factors such as major political crisis points shaped canonic reception, and in turn explore the extent to which this reception can serve as a lens through which to explore the heterogeneity of musical culture in the state. My project aims to challenge the current literature on music in the GDR, which adheres firmly to paradigms of dictatorship that have come under harsh scrutiny in other disciplines. Recent studies of canonic reception focus solely on government appropriation of the canon. They portray the state as a monolithic top-down regime and East German musicians simply as an extension of the party (Thacker, 2007; Janik, 2005; Potter, 2003; Klingberg, 1997). My research seeks to move musicology beyond these ideological and methodological constraints in order to construct a more accurate picture of musical culture in the GDR. The project is based on extensive research in state archives, opera archives and in the archive of the Akademie der Künste. This work is complemented by studies of newspapers, journals and monographs on nineteenth-century music that were published in the state, and by analyses of musical scores and audio-visual materials. This diverse range of sources allows for a much more nuanced picture of musical practices in the GDR to emerge. I contest the prevailing notion that a single official construct of the canon permeated all aspects of musical life, and explore how the various responses to romanticism reveal not only the complexity of the relationships between artists and politicians, but also the spaces for creativity that existed in discourses of power and censorship. Ultimately this raises questions about the artistic legacy of the GDR, and undermines current tendencies to deny the legitimacy of art produced in the state.