Political Music

Luigi Nono's Voci destroying muros for female voices and small orchestra was performed for the first and only time at the Holland Festival in 1970. A setting of texts by female prisoners and factory workers, it marks a sharp stylistic departure from Nono's political music of the 1960s by virtue of its audible quotations of revolutionary songs, its readily intelligible text setting, and especially its retention of the diatonic structure of the song on which the piece is based, the communist “Internationale.” Nono's decision, following the premiere, to withdraw the work from his catalogue suggests that he came to regard it as transgressing an important boundary in his engagement with “current reality.” I examine the work and its withdrawal in the context of discourses within the Italian left in the 1960s that accused the intellectuals of the Partito Comunista Italiano of unhelpfully mediating the class struggle. Nono's contentious reading of Antonio Gramsci, offered as justification for his avant-garde compositional style, certainly provided fuel for this critique. But Voci destroying muros suggests receptivity on the part of the composer—albeit only momentary—to achieving a more direct representation of the voices of the dispossessed.

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On the Foundations of Dahlhaus’s Foundations

Journal of Musicology ◽

10.1525/jm.2021.38.2.209 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

pp. 209-229

Author(s):

Tobias Robert Klein

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

English Translation ◽

Music History ◽

Political Music ◽

Political Implications ◽

Structural History ◽

History Of ◽

Theoretical Reflection

In the foreword to his Grundlagen der Musikgeschichte (1977), translated into English as Foundations of Music History (1983), Carl Dahlhaus names three reasons for writing the book: the lack of theoretical reflection in his own field; the problem of mediation between methodological maxims and their political implications; and the difficulties he encountered while preparing his history of nineteenth-century music. Each of the three reasons can now be understood more precisely and historically contextualized in light of recently uncovered letters and notes. Dahlhaus’s methodological critiques of political music as conceptually distinct from aesthetically autonomous works—contrary to a popular claim by Anne Shreffler (2003)—were directed mainly at the “Western left.” Moreover, in the 1980s this controversy became intertwined with historiographical questions regarding the concept of “event” that was reinforced in publications by the “Gruppe Poetik und Hermeneutik.” A postscript discusses the English translation of the book and the concept of “structural history” in late Dahlhaus.

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Political Music and the Politics of Music

Music and Ideology ◽

10.4324/9781315090979-23 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 557-570

Author(s):

Lydia Goehr

Keyword(s):

Political Music

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Lyrics of Protest

Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts - Music as a Platform for Political Communication ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1986-7.ch014 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 257-273 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nancy Gakahu

Keyword(s):

Freedom Of Speech ◽

Country Music ◽

The Political ◽

Social Rights ◽

Political Music ◽

Long Time ◽

Alternative Means ◽

History Of ◽

The Masses ◽

Political Songs

The history of Kenya is loaded with continuous moments when music played a key role in expressing various issues in the country. Music is one of the most important modes through which ordinary Kenyans express their wishes, identity, frustrations and aspirations. For a long time, freedom of speech in Kenya, especially on issues touching political injustice had been curtailed. However, musicians in Kenya offered an alternative means of challenging the political status quo in the country by use of musical lyrics which address injustices directly or metaphorically. What is the place of music in Kenya's political landscape? Has political music in Kenya made a difference in governance and in educating the masses on their political and social rights? Have political songs helped change the political and social climate in Kenya? These issues are examined in this chapter.

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Political Music from Bel Air

The Haiti Reader ◽

10.2307/j.ctv1220qc0.120 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 462-467

Author(s):

Rara M No Limit ◽

Bèlè Masif ◽

Blaze One

Keyword(s):

Political Music

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Introduction

Hail Columbia! ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190930615.003.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Laura Lohman

Keyword(s):

Early Republic ◽

Revolutionary War ◽

Political Expression ◽

Political Music ◽

Wide Range ◽

Musical Genres

The introduction outlines why Americans turned to music for political expression in the early republic and how music shaped Americans’ visions of the nation through performance, imagination, and print. It situates Americans’ use of music for political expression in long-established and transatlantic practices, including those used in Britain and before and during the Revolutionary War. It introduces the wide range of Americans who created, circulated, interpreted, and performed political music in the early nation. The introduction surveys the types of sources that circulated this music and the musical genres that were commonly used. Chapter summaries and the challenges of studying this music are included.

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