Research Catalog

Title

The search for medieval music in Africa and Germany, 1891-1961 : scholars, singers, missionaries / Anna Maria Busse Berger.

Author

Berger, Anna Maria Busse

Publication

• Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2020.
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 351 pages : illustrations, portraits, music, maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"The modern discipline of musicology has its roots in early-twentieth-century Germany and in three seemingly distinct but surprisingly connected areas of musical activity: the discovery of Medieval music and music theory through the all-consuming unearthing and decoding of documents; the tremendous growth of youth movements devoted to collective singing and music-making and the study of Medieval music; and the exportation of this music to Protestant and Catholic missions in German East Africa, where it was widely taught and performed. Underlying these activities was the belief that Medieval music, its structure and soundworld, had affinities with the music of "primitive" societies, such as those the missionaries encountered in East Africa. Rejected outright by African musicians and scholars at the time, the belief was kept alive in the European musicological community through the first half of the twentieth century. Anna Maria Busse Berger draws this all together for the first time, anchoring her writing in extensive archival research and her personal experience as the daughter of a German Lutheran missionary in East Africa. The result is a momentous re-thinking of the early history of music scholarship as well as a novel understanding of the imperial and colonial projects that shaped Germany's perception of itself at a crucial time in its history"--

Series Statement

New material histories of music

Uniform Title

New material histories of music.

Subject

• 1400-1999
• Musicology > Germany > History
• Mission music > German East Africa > History and criticism
• Missions > German East Africa > History > 20th century
• Ethnomusicology > Germany > History
• Ethnomusicology > German East Africa > History
• Musicologists > Germany
• Music > 15th century > History and criticism
• Medievalism > Germany
• Music > Social aspects > Germany
• Music and youth > Germany > History > 20th century
• Ethnomusicology
• Medievalism
• Mission music
• Missions
• Music
• Music and youth
• Music > Social aspects
• Musicologists
• Musicology
• Africa > German East Africa
• Germany

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-341) and index.

Contents

Part I : The search for the origins of music : comparative musicology. Comparative musicology and comparative linguistics ; Erich Moritz von Hornbostel ; Marius Schneider ; Georg Schünemann ; Two crossover musicologists : Jacques Handschin and Manfred Bukofzer ; Nicholas G.J. Ballanta -- Part II : Bringing Medieval music to life : Jugendmusik- and Singbewegung. The first performances of medieval music and the historians behind them ; The Jugendmusik- and Singbewegung : Ideology, leaders, and publishers -- Part III : Music in the German mission stations in East Africa : some case studies. A history of the missions ; The Moravians ; The Leipzig Mission ; The Bethel Mission ; The Catholic Missionsbenediktiner St. Ottilien -- Conclusions.

Call Number

Sc E 21-129

ISBN

• 9780226740348
• 022674034X

LCCN

2020013472

OCLC

1143650211

Author

Berger, Anna Maria Busse, author.

Title

The search for medieval music in Africa and Germany, 1891-1961 : scholars, singers, missionaries / Anna Maria Busse Berger.

Publisher

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2020.

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

New material histories of music

New material histories of music.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-341) and index.

Chronological Term

1400-1999

Research Call Number

Sc E 21-129