Introduction: Defining the New Cultural History of Music, Its Origins, Methodologies, and Lines of Inquiry

This article introduces the convergence of two different fields: cultural history and music. It begins by discussing the revival of the cultural history of music and the theoretical synthesis that occurred within these two converging disciplines. It notes that both musicologists and historians are trying to not only return to the goal of capturing the complexity and texture of experience, communication, and understanding in the past, but also to do so by using a theoretically sophisticated approach. This article notes that cultural history and music are identifying the latter as a privileged point of entry into questions about past cultures.

“The Road into the Open”: From Narrative Closure to the Endless Performance of Subjectivity in Mahler and Freud at the Turn of the Century

This article studies selected works of Gustav Mahler and Sigmund Freud as enacting the history of subjectivity as a problematic narrative of the deconstruction and construction of identity. It views Mahler and Freud's cultural productions as historically parallel examples of a certain way of imagining human subjectivity as a reflective activity. It studies their ideas on identity as a form of assimilation, and looks at how their “works” took a turn towards subjectivity. The article shows that Freud, Mahler, and their modernist contemporaries did not opt to live in their songs and selves, but instead found a new way to imagine the relations among individuals.

Gender, Performativity, and Allusion in Medieval Services for the Consecration of Virgins

This article takes a look at tenth- and eleventh-century rituals for the consecration of virgins. These rituals are described in detail in liturgical books with prayers, pontificals, chants, and rubrics for services that were presided over by a bishop or sometimes an abbot. The pontificals also contained accounts of monastic profession, church dedication, the consecration of a cemetery, the blessing of altars and other cult objects, and clerical ordination. The article notes that the services for the consecration of virgins were more erratic than comparable ones for clerical ordination. It also discusses ritual studies, which tries to explain the meaning of cultural phenomena through interpretation.

Afterword: Whose Culture? Whose History? Whose Music?

This article discusses the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a musical group composed of various musicians from Palestine and other Middle Eastern countries. They show how music is a thing of the world, through their performances of works by various composers, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The article takes a look at the double agenda of the Divan, its pedagogical transformations, and their translations, techniques, and use of melancholy.

Beethoven, Napoleon, and Political Romanticism

This article discusses the influence of Napoleon on the works of Beethoven. It begins by describing how the conflict between Napoleon and the Austrians interrupted Beethoven's career as a composer. It then examines the role Napoleon had in Beethoven's political and philosophical outlook. This is followed by a study of the Landsberg 5, one of the compositions Beethoven was working on during Napoleon's invasion. The article introduces the concept of political romanticism and shows that Napoleon's meteoric rise served as an inspiration and a threat to Beethoven's musical career.

Josquin des Prez, Renaissance Historiography, and the Cultures of Print

This article studies Josquin des Prez, a musical genius who refused to compose on request and was an individualist who represented the new spirit of humanism. It notes the lack of information sources or print for studies on Josquin. This makes him a good example of how musicologists who carry out research on the sixteenth century are often forced to go to the extremes in order to recover even the tiniest shreds of historical evidence. Nevertheless, this article focuses on information gathered by several researchers about Josquin, including his importance in Renaissance studies.

The Strange Landscape of Middles

This article explores the concept of musical middles, which exhibit some rare properties. These properties are discussed in detail, starting with the fact that some musical middles are found near the beginning of a song or composition. Musical middles are also located in funeral marches, can be slow, and can play the kind of variability that imitates human behavior. The article also studies the work of Charles Altieri, who addressed some issues of literary middles, and reveals that middles are used to place fragments, making them both hidden and obvious.

Cosmopolitan, National, and Regional Identities in Eighteenth-Century European Musical Life

This article determines how scholars have defined cosmopolitanism. It suggests how this concept can be applied to musical life, and studies how geography is played out with cultural authority. It compares how composers from various regions held concerts in Paris, Vienna, London, and Leipzig during the 1780s by referring to the texts of the concert programs. The discussion shows that concerts were relevant in opera life, and that cosmopolitanism in musical culture should be viewed as a political process.

The Eye of the Needle: Music as History after the Age of Recording

This article is concerned with the examination of music history. It first shows that the methodological and scholarly trends of the past two decades explicitly and implicitly reflect three modern cultural and political obsessions. It then shows that the shifting context and character of musical perception have influenced how people interpret what is historically significant in the history of music. The next section discusses the influence of recording in music history, as well as its parallelism in art historical scholarship.

Modalities of National Identity: Sibelius Builds a First Symphony

This article discusses Jean Sibelius, a Finn composer who emerged during the golden age of Finnish nationalist art. It first studies the gap between the elite-urban European art and Finnish-revered originary culture. Preserved literary and musical collections, the concept of strategic triangulation, and the construction of Sibelius' first symphony are discussed. The article also proposes a methodological model that is generalizable to the study of other art-music inflections of nationalism in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music.