Until now, popular music during National Socialism and Austrofascism has been surrounded by the paradox that "Schlager", operettas, revues and music films were perceived on the one hand as particularly prone to populist and propagandistic infiltration, but on the other as strongly market and audience orientated. Since the 1920s, these musical genres have also contributed greatly to the internationalisation of the music world, which has been expressed in the cosmopolitan exploitation of songs and film music through the distribution of sheet music, vinyl recordings and the radio. The project also investigates how theatre, dance and jazz songs, together with other forms of popular music, developed and changed as a result of dictatorial cultural policy: how did the songs position themselves with regard to social issues (ethnicity or class related, sexual, gender) and stylistic guidelines and did they address their political restrictions? And, which role did international references to North American swing, South American dance styles or Afro-Caribbean popular music play in songs and musical theatre pieces that were performed in Germany and Austria from the 1930s to the 1950s?
A central starting point for musicological source research and analysis are printed and published sources, which can today be found in publishers' or state archives as well as in composers' estates that were inaccessible for a long time. Large collections of sheet music and adjoining archives provide insights into the repertoire, marketing and target group strategies as well as the media networks in which popular music was produced, received, consumed and distributed - between performances on musical theatre and concert stages, in printed sheet music, in music films and on recordings. Even the covers of the individual prints of popular songs such as Lili Marleen or Dein ist mein ganzes Herz and potpourris of "Schlager", sound films or tea dance melodies such as Das Wunschkonzert are interesting. These display a large and diversely intertwined variability in the staging of individual performers and text content between international colouring, simplicity, offensive image programmes and film aesthetics.
The project consists of five sub-projects that deal with the music publishing industry, music film production, song production, musical theatre and the staging of the body. An international conference and two workshops supplement the internal research discourse with the perspectives of internationally renowned specialists.
Starting in April 2024, the team of just under ten members will spend three years researching historical sources from the fields of music publishing, musical theatre, music films and musical interpretation. The focus is on indexing archive holdings and estates that have not yet been viewed, including the archives of the AKM (Copyright Protection Society ”Authors, Composers, Music Publishers”), at e.g. the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz, in the archives of the Dreiklang-Dreimasken publishing house of Universal Music in Berlin and in the musical theatre collection of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Archives in Schwerin.
Further information
http://popprints.eu
The photo is available on request from pressestelleuni-greifswaldde and can be used for free for editorial purposes in combination with this media release. In the event of publication, the name of the photographer must be mentioned.
Contacts
Prof. Dr. Nils Grosch
Department of Art History, Musicology and Dance Studies
University of Salzburg
Erzabt-Klotz-Straße 1, 5020 SALZBURG, AUSTRIA
nils.groschplus.acat
https://www.plus.ac.at/art-history-musicology-and-dance-studies/department-of-musicology-and-dance-studies/the-department-2/faculty/core-faculty/univ-prof-dr-nils-grosch/?lang=en
Prof. Dr. Caroline Stahrenberg
Musicology
Institute of Theory and History
ANTON BRUCKNER PRIVATE UNIVERSITY for Music, Acting and Dance
Alice-Harnoncourt-Platz 1, 4040 LINZ, AUSTRIA
carolin.stahrenbergbruckneruniat
www.bruckneruni.ac.at
Prof. Dr. Gesa zur Nieden
Department of Sacred Music and Musicology
Bahnhofstraße 48/49, 17489 Greifswald
Tel: +49 3834 420 3521
gesa.zurniedenuni-greifswaldde
https://musik.uni-greifswald.de/personen-ensembles/personen/zurnieden/ [de]
With the friendly support of:
Austrian Science Fund
German Research Foundation