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Music and Nationalism

'The Nordic Ingredient. European Nationalisms and Norwegian Music since 1905'

Edited by Arnulf Mattes and Michael Custodis.

The Nordic Ingredient
Photo:
waxmann

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Michael Custodis,  Arnulf Mattes (eds.) 

The Nordic Ingredient - European Nationalisms and Norwegian Music since 1905

2019,  Münsteraner Schriften zur zeitgenössischen Musik,  Band 4,  142  Seiten.Paperback,  with numerous, partly coloured illustrations,  24,90 €.ISBN 978-3-8309-3896-5

Notions of the ‘Nordic’ have always been an issue in Norway’s national identity building, both before and after it became a sovereign state in 1905. Accordingly, Norwegian music has expressed a sense of ambivalence towards being conceived as ‘Nordic’ from the outside: A strong sense of ‘Norwegianness’ (forged during the heroic age of cultural nation-building in the 19th century) was challenged by the advent of new, nationalistic currents in the 1930s, which used notions of the Nordic as a political weapon. This book shows how music expresses affirmation and ambivalence towards the ‘Nordic’ as an ingredient of Norwegian national identity across musical genres. Further, it explores the contingencies of national music and the dramatic changes in 20th-century European political history. At the same time, it sheds new light on the difference between musical nationalism and national music.

Contents

The “Nordic Ingredient” – Introduction ...................................................................................... 7

Ina Rupprecht
Manifesting the National Idea: Edvard Grieg or
How His Biographers Saw Him ................................................................................................... 11

Andreas Bußmann
Expressing “Nordic” Greatness: Wagnerism
in Norway 1905–1945 ................................................................................................................... 21

Ingrid Loe Landmark (neé Dalaker)
Ideas on National Music in Interwar Norway ........................................................................... 35

Arnulf Mattes
“Monumentalism” in Norway’s Music 1930–1945.................................................................... 55

Michael Custodis
Master or Puppet? Cultural Politics in Occupied Norway under
GW Müller, Gulbrand Lunde and Rolf Fuglesang .................................................................... 69

Friedrich Geiger
Harald Sæverud’s Kjempeviseslåtten – A Typical Resistance Composition? ......................... 81

Arvid O. Vollsnes
Rebuilding Norwegian Music
From Valevåg to Tanglewood and Darmstadt...........................................................................93

Michael Custodis
“Nordisk” – “Aryan” – “Identitär”. Music for the New Right.................................................103

Arnulf Mattes
No Escape from Politics? On Grieg’s Afterlife
in Norwegian Memory Culture ................................................................................................. 115

Boris Previšić
Resistance to Totalitarianism:
The Polyphony of Literature and Music ................................................................................... 129

Index of Names............................................................................................................................137