Lesung mit David Brodbeck aus seinem 2025 erschienenen Buch »Brahms Patriotic and Political«. Die Veranstaltung findet in englischer Sprache ohne Übersetzungsmöglichkeiten statt.

Johannes Brahms rarely composed music that engaged the national-political issues of the day. Three of his works, though, do precisely this: the Fünf Lieder für Männerchor; the Triumphlied for eight-part chorus and orchestra; and the Fest- und Gedenksprüche for eight-part chorus a cappella. In Brahms Patriotic and Political, David Brodbeck challenges notions that Brahms’s political music evinces embarrassing anticipations of later Prussian militarism and German chauvinism. Instead, he provides a thick historical context in which to read these works and offers a more nuanced understanding of the intersections of Brahms’s music and questions of German patriotism, liberalism, and nationalism than has been customary in the field of historical musicology.

David Brodbeck is Professor of Music, History, and European Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Philosophical Society. He is a past president of the American Brahms Society.