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Beyond Heritage: Classical Music in the GDR
Edited by Kyle Frackman and Larson Powell
 
This edited collection will consider the varied roles of classical music in the German Democratic Republic.  Traditionally, classical music was used as an ideological support or cultural legitimization for the GDR state, in the form of the so-called “bourgeois humanist inheritance” (bürgerlich-humanistisches Erbe).  The large numbers of professional orchestras in the GDR were touted as a proof of the country’s Kultur.  Classical music could be seen as the polar opposite of Americanizing pop culture  and also of musical modernism, decried as formalist.  Despite these pressures, however, there were still musical modernists in the GDR, and classical music traditions were not only a prop of the state.  This anthology would like to uncover these nonconformist tendencies and thereby question the assumption that classical music in the GDR meant nothing but respectability.  Leon Botstein’s concerts with the American Symphony in 2009 (“Music of the Other Germany”) and recent German scholarship point to a growing interest in this field.  This volume aims to offer a broad examination from other perspectives within cultural studies, the humanities, and social sciences.  While the volume will focus primarily on classical music, essays that consider popular music in relation to classical music will also be considered. 
 
Possible topics include but are not limited to
·      Music and film, representations or uses of classical music in film, films about music and/or composers
·      Music and literature
·      Status of musical modernism in the GDR
·      Comparison/contrast of GDR music scene with other Eastern European countries
·      Musical performance and its representative functions
·      Music as part of German cultural heritage
·      Politicized classical music
·      Music and “humanism”
·      Music education in the GDR
·      Politicized scholarship/musicology
 
Please contact the co-editors with any questions about potential contributions.  Send 250-word abstracts in English or German and brief biographical statements (not complete CVs) to both Kyle Frackman ([log in to unmask]) and Larson Powell ([log in to unmask]) by December 15, 2012.  We aim to notify contributors about accepted proposals by January 15, 2013.  Completed essays will be due (tentatively) by July 1, 2013. 

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Dr. Kyle Frackman
Assistant Professor of Germanic Studies
Undergraduate Advisor for Scandinavian
Dept. of Central, Eastern, & Northern European Studies
Buchanan Tower 203
The University of British Columbia
1873 East Mall | Vancouver, BC  Canada  V6T 1Z1
Phone (604) 822-5118 | Fax (604) 822-9344
[log in to unmask]
http://about.me/Kyle_Frackman
http://www.cenes.ubc.ca