Molly Barnes, Ph.D. 2016 

Advisor: Mark Evan Bonds

Dissertation Title: “The Rhetoric of Democracy in American Musical Discourse, 1842‒1861”

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Dissertation Abstract:

In the United States, art music has long operated in an uneasy cultural space, divided between aspirations to elitism and egalitarianism. This tension became especially acute between 1848 and 1861. Increasing social and culturalstratifications prompted many commentators to voice anxieties about the growing distance between musical repertories “for the masses” and those for the elite. Even today these concerns influence perceptions of the place of art music in American culture. My dissertation examines the public discourse around classical music and the powerful rhetoric that promoted this music as a means of achieving social egalitarianism during the “long” 1850s. 

The project addresses two central historical currents relevant to this discourse. First, the spiritual aspect of art music—the tradition of Kunstreligion inherited from early-eighteenth-century central Europe—figured prominently for many writers. They posited that art music could serve as a means of personal and social improvement, a quasi-religion by which listeners might better themselves morally and spiritually. Notable in this regard were the Transcendentalists, who attempted to reconcile elite and mass musical taste by championing the alleged spiritual power of music. Second, the political and national implications of art music—given the fact that so much of this repertory was of German origin—constituted a major concern for writers in the public sphere. They asked: to what extent should Americans follow Europe’s lead in music and other cultural domains? Above all, claims about German musical superiority conflicted with the American ideal of an independent, dynamic musical democracy. On the other hand, Americans admired both the precedents set by German composers of art music and the German practice of music making in large social settings. 

The later part of the century, deprecatingly termed the “Gilded Age,” has been commonly described as an era of conspicuous consumption of both tangible and intangible goods, along with a growing divide between the elite and the masses. My dissertation seeks to uncover the historical conversation about art music before the caricature of the Gilded Age conquered the modern imagination. Indeed, before the Civil War, Americans engaged in intense negotiations—both overt and covert—regarding the sort of music they chose to champion and patronize. These negotiations reflected a larger national dialogue about the meaning of equality, not just in terms of the accessibility of musical culture but also in the sense of what American democracy and citizenship actually meant in practice. Who were the prime movers behind the ideal of egalitarianism and the forces of cultural hierarchy in public discourse about music? What was the nature of critics’ and other writers’ aesthetic positions, and how did they defend them? How were aesthetic attributes of music and the images cultivated by musical performers rhetorically connected to listeners’ class status? These and related questions constitute the core of my inquiry. 

Dr. Barnes is currently a Teaching Fellow in historical musicology at Durham University in England. Her research focuses on the relationships between musical taste and the formation of cultural hierarchies in the West during the nineteenth century. She is currently at work on a book project that derives from her dissertation work.