Cosmopolitanism and Transatlantic Circles in Music and Literature traces the transatlantic networks that were constructed between a select group of composers, including Edvard Grieg, Edward MacDowell, and Percy Grainger, and the writers with whom they shared cosmopolitan affinities, including Arne Garborg, Hamlin Garland, Madison Grant, and Lathrop Stoddard. Each overlapping case study surveys the diachronic transmission of cosmopolitanism as well as the synchronic practices that animated these modernist ideas. Instead of taking a strictly chronological approach to organization, each chapter offers an examination of the different layers of identity that expanded and contracted in relation to a mutual interest in Nordic culture. From the burgeoning universal ambitions around 1900 to the darker racialized discourse of the 1920s, this study offers a critical analysis of both the idea and practice of cosmopolitanism in order to expose its common foundations as well as the limits of its application.

Intersects with a wide range of fields including literary studies, musicology, medical humanities, political science, and cultural studies Argues that cosmopolitanism and nationalism are not disparate forces in society Contributes to timely debates about international relations and globalization

Autorentext

Ryan R. Weber is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Misericordia University, USA, where he also serves on the faculty of the Medical and Health Humanities Program. His research has appeared in the journals Ars Lyrica, Musicology Australia, Journal of Musicological Research, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, and others.

Klappentext

Cosmopolitanism and Transatlantic Circles in Music and Literature traces the transatlantic networks that were constructed between a select group of composers, including Edvard Grieg, Edward MacDowell, and Percy Grainger, and the writers with whom they shared cosmopolitan affinities, including Arne Garborg, Hamlin Garland, Madison Grant, and Lathrop Stoddard. Each overlapping case study surveys the diachronic transmission of cosmopolitanism as well as the synchronic practices that animated these modernist ideas. Instead of taking a strictly chronological approach to organization, each chapter offers an examination of the different layers of identity that expanded and contracted in relation to a mutual interest in Nordic culture. From the burgeoning "universal" ambitions around 1900 to the darker racialized discourse of the 1920s, this study offers a critical analysis of both the idea and practice of cosmopolitanism in order to expose its common foundations as well as the limits of its application.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Traversing Time, Place, and Space.- 2. Local Debates, International Partnerships: Garborg, Benzon, and Grieg's Idea of Cosmopolitanism.- 3. From Songs to Psalms: Grieg's Cosmopolitan Aesthetic.- 4. Cosmopolitan Practices: Grieg, Grainger, and the Search for a Musical Analogue.- 5. Cosmopolitan Ideas: Grieg, MacDowell, and a Tale of Weary Men .- 6. In Search of Hybridity: MacDowell, Grainger, and the End of Anachronisms.- 7. The Grainger Paradox: Manufacturing Hybridity, Circulating Exclusivity.- 8. Conclusion.