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Symphony Orchestras and Artist-Prophets: Cultural Isomorphism and the Allocation of Power In Music Published in Leonardo Music Journal (Vol. 9, 1999) M.I.T. Press by William Osborne
The Gender and Ethnic Ideologies of the Vienna Philharmonic The Appropriation of the Vienna Philharmonic as a National Socialist Propaganda Instrument Cultural Isomorphism and the Symphony Orchestra The Ideological Appropriation of the Image of the Artist-Prophet The Demise of the Artist-Prophet in the Post-Modern World
Abstract The Vienna
Philharmonic is the paradigm of the symphony orchestra. No other orchestra in
the world has been so intimately involved with the composers and cultural
developments that have defined the genre. In spite of recent protests against
the Vienna Philharmonic, it still excludes women and visible members of
racial minorities, based on its belief that gender and ethnic uniformity give
it aesthetic superiority. The Vienna Philharmonic thus provides an
interesting case study for the allocation of power in western art music. In
this article the author documents the orchestra's ideologies, and relates
them to a general theory that the allocation of power in artistic expression
is often culturally isomorphic with the larger values of the society in
which that expression occurs. He then discusses how cultural isomorphism affects
concepts of power allocation in the Modernist and Post-Modernist mind sets. The Gender and Ethnic Ideologies of the Vienna Philharmonic There
is only one woman among the Vienna Philharmonic's 150 members: their second
harpist, Anna Lelkes. After having performed with them unofficially
for 26 years, she was given membership in 1997, in order to stem
international protest against the orchestra's sexism. Since then, no other
women have been allowed into the ensemble. As part of their exclusion of
women, they recently prevented a In an interview
with the West German State Radio, Helmut Zehetner--a 2nd violinist in the
the
Vienna Philharmonic--noted that the orchestra has a special "emotional unity" as an
all-male ensemble that lends its music superior qualities. [Complete Interview.]
He was asked about the possible entry of women into the orchestra: "No, truthfully said, I
wouldn't be indifferent. I would have an uneasy feeling in the situation. And
that is because we would be gambling with the emotional unity that this
organism currently has. My worry is that it would be a step that could never
be taken back."[2] And
concerning Ms. Lelkes, he added: "We have a male harpist, and two
ladies.[3] If you ask how noticeable the gender is with these colleagues, my
personal experience is that this instrument is so far at the edge of the
orchestra that it doesn't disturb our emotional unity, the unity I would
strongly feel, for example, when the orchestra starts really cooking with a
Mahler symphony. There, I sense very strongly and simply that only men sit
around me. And as I said, I would not want to gamble with this unity." This view was confirmed by Dieter
Flury, the orchestra's solo-flutist, who added that ethnic uniformity is also
essential: "From the beginning we have spoken
of the special Viennese qualities, of the way music is made here. The way we
make music here is not only a technical ability, but also something that has
a lot to do with the soul. The soul does not let itself be separated from the
cultural roots that we have here in central Europe. And it also doesn't allow
itself to be separated from gender. So if one thinks that the world should
function by quota regulations, then it is naturally irritating that we are a
group of white skinned male musicians, that perform exclusively the music of
white skinned male composers. It is a racist and sexist irritation. I believe
one must put it that way. If one establishes superficial egalitarianism, one
will lose something very significant. Therefore, I am convinced that it is
worthwhile to accept this racist and sexist irritation, because something
produced by a superficial understanding of human rights would not have the
same standards."[4] In
addition to the presumed aesthetic purity produced by ethnic and gender
uniformity, the Philharmonic excludes people who are visibly members of
racial minorities, because they feel such individuals would damage the orchestra's
image as an authentic representative of Austrian culture. This view,
which is shared by some other Austrian orchestras, has been documented by Dr.
Elena Ostleitner, of the Institute for Music Sociology at the
Wiener Musik Hochschule. She recorded the following statement by an Asian
woman: "I auditioned for an orchestra,
and I led in the point tabulations as long as I played behind a screen. Due
to my name it was not apparent that I am an Asian. But when the screen was
removed, I was rejected without comment. Friends in the orchestra confirmed
my assumption. They do not take foreigners, and if they do, then only those
in which [foreign appearance] is not visible."[5] Another
Viennese sociologist, Prof. Roland Girtler, of the University of Vienna, has
made the same observations: "What I have noticed that is
interesting, is that the Vienna Philharmonic would also never take a Japanese
or such. If they took one, this also would somehow by appearances put in question
the noble character of Viennese culture. But this is not racist!"[6] It
is therefore not musical performance, but the racial physiognomy of Asians
that is the critical issue--although Girtler does not view this as racist. Similar
views were reported in a radio broadcast of the Austria National Broadcasting
Corporation. A public school teacher who had taken his class to a rehearsal
of the Vienna Philharmonic reported that a girl in the class asked why only
men were in the orchestra. Werner Resel, the orchestra's chairman at the
time, answered that the "Vienna Philharmonic is an orchestra of white
men playing music by white men for white people".[7] A
Strategy for Analysis Among the symphony orchestras of central Europe, the Vienna Philharmonic is not alone in its exclusion of women. Within a 300 mile radius of Vienna, there are seven major orchestras with a 0 to 7% representation of women, as noted in the table below:[8]
[Editorial
note 2005. For the latest representation of women, click
here. Progress has been made in some orchestras, but most of the new women employs
remain in the tutti strings. Few have achieved solo positions.]
Why
does the symphony orchestra have such strong gender coding? Why is it often
associated with strong cultural nationalism? How did these cultural values
evolve? Why are they still maintained? To
answer these questions, we must look at the Vienna Philharmonic’s
activities during and after the Second World War, and then analyze them from
a broader historical perspective. This
will illustrate that their current policies of exclusion derive from
long-term historical and cultural trends. The
Appropriation of the Vienna Philharmonic as a National Socialist Propaganda
Instrument Due
to its long history of racial and ethnic ideology, the Vienna Philharmonic was easily appropriated and transformed into one of the most active
orchestras for the support of National Socialism (Nazism). In 1938, Austria was made
part of Germany through the Anschluss, which was
euphorically greeted by a wide spectrum of Austrian society. A program was
set in motion to "Aryanize" Austrian culture. As a result, Wilhelm
Jerger--a contrabassist in the orchestra and a Lieutenant in the Schutzstaffel
(SS)--became the chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic. Forty-seven
percent of the Vienna Philharmonic's members were National Socialists, and
many belonged to the party well before 1938 when it was still illegal in
Austria.[9] Six Jewish members of the
orchestra died in the concentration camps, and another eleven were able to
save their lives by timely migration. Nine additional members were found to
be of "mixed race" or "contaminated by kinship" ("Versippte") and reduced to
secondary status within the orchestra.[10] With
47% of the members belonging to the National Socialist Party and 26 "non-Aryans"
either murdered, exiled or reduced in status
by the Nazi regime, the orchestra clearly exhibited its strong fascist tendencies.
In his memoirs,
published in 1970, Otto Strasser, a fromer chairman of the Vienna
Philharmonic describes the problems blind auditions caused: “I hold it for incorrect that today the applicants
play behind a screen; an arrangement that was brought in after the Second
World War in order to assure objective judgments. I continuously fought
against it, especially after I became Chairman of the Philharmonic, because I
am convinced that to the artist also belongs the person, that one must not
only hear, but also see, in order to judge him in his entire personality.
[...] Even a grotesque situation that played itself out after my retirement,
was not able to change the situation. An applicant qualified himself as the
best, and as the screen was raised, there stood a Japanese before the stunned
jury. He was, however, not engaged, because his face did not fit with the
‘Pizzicato-Polka’ of the New Year’s Concert.”
The
orchestra's many activities in the service of National Socialism began only
days after the Anschluss with a trip to Berlin to perform a concert especially for
Hitler
under the direction of Wilhelm Furtwaengler . The Anschluss euphoria
continued with performances of the "Meistersinger von Nürnberg",
again with Furtwaengler, at the Nürnberg Party Days in 1938. Hitler was so
pleased with the orchestra's performance and show of devotion, he promised
them his personal protection and concern, and made them a yearly fixture at
the Nürnberg party rallies.[11] They also made many tours of the occupied
areas where it was considered essential to "Germanize" the
conquered peoples, including cities such as Krakow, Copenhagen, Den Haag,
Amsterdam, Paris, and Dijon. In these capacities and many others, they became
one of the most important propaganda instruments of the Party. The
Vienna Philharmonic's centennial in 1942 and was commemorated with a book by Wilhelm
Jerger (pictured right) entitled Erbe und Sendung (Inheritance and Mission). The book documents how ideally
suited the orchestras ideologies were to appropriation by National Socialism. It includes the
genealogies of several prominent father-to-son generations that formed a
historical continuum within the
ranks of the Philharmonic, and every "non-Aryan" listed in the tables
is indicated with a special asterisk by his name. Jerger explains that the Aryan stock of these
Philharmonic families was so "tough" that the purity of their
"blood" was never notably damaged by what racists refer to as "dysgenic
influences": "And here it is demonstrated, that
in spite of manifold influences of blood from elsewhere, this Mind [Geist]
continues to implant itself with great toughness through the ancestral
lineage, and that it is often very sharply imprinted. It is understandable,
that such an inheritance must beget outstanding musicians, who in their
stylistic education and in their experience of orchestral playing are already
extraordinarily schooled. This is Mind from Old Mind, which helps tradition
and inheritance, a dominant trait [überkommene Anlage] to a special
development and fulfillment."[12] Schooling
is acknowledged as important, but only in the context of a special
"blood" inheritance that transmits "Mind". This follows
National Socialism’s ideology of Ahnenerbe, which asserts that
cultural traits are genetically inherited. And it seems uncomfortably close
to the orchestra's recent comments about the special qualities of the
"central European soul”, their attitude toward Asians and notions about
music-making
revolving around white males. Jerger
also presents a racist portrayal of Gustav Mahler, who became the General
Music Director of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1898, replacing Hans Richter, who
had led the orchestra for the previous 23 years. (The Vienna Philharmonic
refers to the Richter years as its "golden age.") Mahler's tenure was troubled in
part by a continual pattern of anti-Semitic harassment and he left the
orchestra after three years. Using his own words and quoting those of Max
Kalbeck, Jerger draws a comparison of Richter and Mahler that reveals the
anti-Semitic attitudes Mahler confronted: "A completely different type of
personality entered with Mahler, 'as there' -- to speak with Max Kalbeck's
vivid words -- 'instead of the tall blond bearded Hun, who placed himself
wide and calm before the orchestra like an unshakable, solidly walled tower,
there was a gifted shape [begabte Gestalt] balancing over the podium,
thin, nervous, and with extraordinarily gangly limbs.' In fact, a greater
contrast was really not possible. There the patriarchal Hans Richter in his
stolidity and goodness, and his extremely hearty and collegial solidarity
with the orchestra, and here Gustav Mahler, oriented to the new objectivity [neue
Sachlichkeit] --nervous, hasty, scatty, intellectualish [sic]-the
music a pure matter of his overbred intellect."[13] Unfortunately
there is not enough space here to analyze the language ("intellectualish,"
"overbred," "new objectivity," "gangly limbs,"
"scatty" vs. "blond," "tall,"
"stolid," "wide," "calm," and
"patriarchal" representing "solidarity") and how it expresses the hallucinogenic ideologies
of anti-Semitism and National Socialist aesthetics. The transparent sub text
is one of chauvinistic masculinity and genetic superiority. Jerger’s book vividly illustrates how
national cultural identity in western art music can be intertwined with
sexism, racism, and chauvinistic ethnocentricity. The
post-War de-Nazification of the Vienna Philharmonic was conducted in a
disinterested, half-hearted and careless manner. The orchestra argued with
singular logic that it had lost so much through "Aryanization" that
it could not afford to lose anymore quality through
"de-Nazification." The government offered its "complete
agreement" for the position, noting: "…the current condition would be
bearable, since it was the view that in the interest of the cultural mission
of Austria, artists in general, and especially the Vienna Philharmonic, would
be subject to a different evaluation than other professional
groups."[14] This
lax de-Nazification affected orchestral policy. In 1947, when
asked to conduct, Arturo Toscanini refused to work with the orchestra because
of the Nazis who remained there, saying he would only change his mind if certain fascists were
removed from the ensemble. The Vienna Philharmonic refused.[15]
In
1953 the orchestra caused international concern when it elected a former SS
Sergeant and member of the Sicherheitsdienst (the "Security
Service" that included the Gestapo)
as its executive manager.[17] These actions made it difficult for the Vienna
Philharmonic to leave behind its reputation as a "Nazi Orchestra"
in spite of its fine music-making. Though
the Vienna Philharmonic maintains gender and ethnic uniformity among its
members, they allow for outside influence through guest conductors and
soloists. They have found it beneficial to consciously use these guests to
rehabilitate the orchestra's public image, while at the same time quietly
denying rank and file membership to women and "visible" racial
minorities. This has been an effective public relations device for resisting
change, and fits with sociological models that suggest that isocratic groups
form controlled relationships with outsiders to mutually enhance their image
and status. A
study of the Vienna Philharmonic shows that its ideologies allowed it to
concentrate and institutionalize beliefs that were common in Germany and
Austria decades before the Anschluss, and that this made the Philharmonic an
easy and willing target for National Socialist appropriation. What are these
"racist and sexist irritations" that are an essential part of
"the noble character of Viennese culture" and why do they ask us to
tolerate them? Why is it important that "white men perform music by
white composers for white people?" Why would the Vienna Philharmonic be
damaged if some members were visibly of other races such as Asians? What do
they mean by the "Soul" and why is it affected by race and not just
education? And why are these values
reflected in other symphony orchestras, even if less overtly? Cultural
Isomorphism and the Symphony Orchestra We
can answer these by examining the orchestra from a larger
historical and cultural perspective.
Such analysis suggests that that the symphony orchestra is culturally
isomorphic with the values of the European societies in which it
developed. By cultural isomorphism, I mean the processes by which artistic
expression tends to reflect the general cultural and sociopolitical beliefs
of its environment. In recent years, sociologists have created numerous
models of institution-environment isomorphism that could be very useful for
exactly this kind of historical analysis.[18] It
is relatively apparent, for example, that a legacy of feudalism influenced
European culture well into ninteenth century, and that it still informs the
patrician, autocratic, and hierarchical social structures of today's symphony
orchestra.[19] Concert dress serves as a simple illustration. In the 18th
century, aristocrats employed orchestra musicians in a status similar to
household servants, and to this day, male musicians still wear tails for
concert clothing, because it was the typical dress of the butlers with whom
they were once categorized. It is also apparent
that aristocrats controlled cultural patronage, and that the art they
supported reflected their concepts of status, power, and patrician identity.
European art thus tended to signify a culturally isomorphic ideology of
transcendentally justified autocracy.
From the crown of Charlemagne to the Versailles Palace of the Sun King to the literature glorifying British colonialism, the purpose of
European art was often to celebrate and strengthen the power and authority of
people who thought themselves the recipients of a God-given superiority. In
the 19th century, these concepts of genetic, aristocratic
superiority were appropriated by the bourgeoisie and transformed into
theories of racial supremacy and cultural nationalism.[20] These views, both
aristocratic and nationalistic, formulate the heritage of a highly
traditional orchestra such as the Vienna Philharmonic, and illustrate why its
chairman openly referred to the orchestra as "white men performing white male composers
for a white public" --especially in a very conservative, mono-cultural
country like post-Empire Austria.[21]
One of the more
significant ideologists of Germanic racial supremacy was Houston Stewart
Chamberlain whose book Die Grundlagen des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts
(1899) outlined “Aryan” greatness.
His Rasse und Persönlichkeit (1925) directly influenced
Hitler. He was an admirer of Wagner
and wrote Notes sur Lohengrin in 1892. A biography of the composer followed in 1895. In 1907 he settled in Bayreuth and married
Wagner’s only daughter Eva.
The
rise of 19th century cultural nationalism had a profound affect on the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, which began to dissolve as separate national consciousnesses
evolved within its peoples, including cultural revivals among Slavs,
Italians, and Germans. The writings of Emanuel Kant and his followers
(such as Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietsche) imbued this nationalism with a transcendental
idealism that emphasized the primacy of the spiritual and intuitive
over the material and empirical.[22] These
ideas strongly influenced the music of the day and led to a cultural conception that might be
referred to as the artist-prophet, a transcendentally inspired
hero-artist, who spoke as the voice of "his" nation. Composers
such as Wagner, Dvorak, and Verdi, fulfilled such a role, and helped emerging
European countries assert their ethnic identity and aspirations to national
existence. The ultimate expression of
this aesthetic was probably "Bayreuth," which can be likened to a temple for
the quasi-religious celebration of national myths and rituals. The
Vienna Philharmonic was founded in 1842, specifically as an ensemble to present this new genre of symphonic works. From the very beginning, its
ideologies were influenced by the storm of national and patriarchal ethnicity
that surrounded it. Transcendentally justified nationalistic mono-culturalism
began to inform orchestral ideologies of ethnic uniformity. This 19th century
legacy is still revealed today, when the Vienna Philharmonic speaks of its
ethnic purity, and the transcendental qualities of its “central European”
“soul.”[23]
In The World as Will and
Idea (1819), and other influential works that followed, Arthur Schopenhauer
created a philosophy which advocated turning away from spirit and reason to
the powers of intuition, creativity, and the irrational. This view deeply influenced Nietsche, who
in The Birth of Tradgedy (1872) proclaimed that art and
literature must harness Dionysian elements of the irrational. This view
created the radical will of Nietsche’s “Superman” in Also Sprach
Zarathustra. Schopenhauer and
Nietsche profoundly influenced the German cultural realm, ranging from Wagner
and Pfitzner to Wedekind and Freud.
Misappropriated notions of radical will became part of Fascism’s cult
of the hero and contributed to the formulation of radical evil.
Conductorial Autocracy and the Objectification of the Musician Not an Emperor, and not a King, but stand there like one and conduct. --Richard Wagner
The
rise of nationalism in the symphony orchestra developed in tandem with the
growing autocracy of the conductor, which was culturally isomorphic with the counter-revolutionary
authoritarianism that evolved after the suppression of the 1848 revolts in
central Europe. Like the composer,
the conductor began to be viewed as an artist-prophet while the orchestra musician became increasingly
objectified. Musicians became highly responsive
machines, musical constructs, fantasies of the conductor's mind. One
of the first great autocratic conductors, Carl Maria von Weber, emerged at
this time. Wagner advised him on the patriarchal art of conducting, as shown
by the quote at the beginning of this section.[24] This concept of
the Emperor-Conductor remains to this day, and they are still often
attributed transcendental, revelatory powers, correlated with their
masculinity.[25] In 1992, the program
magazine of the Munich Philharmonic contained the following description of
its General Music Director: "Sergiu Celibidache is an extraordinary European, so impressive, because he projects an unobstructed, incorruptible masculine aura. And the world is in great need of this, because we live in a fatherless society, a world without standards in this regard. And there he is, such a man, who does not allow himself to be corrupted and who quite openly expresses--especially during concerts--what is happening inside him, which is, naturally, a deeply moving vision. Listeners and performers can still experience music with him as a revelation."[26]
This is the legacy of the artist-prophet, music as the "revelation" of an "unobstructed masculine aura" in a "fatherless society".[27]
The Appropriation of the Orchestra As a Simulacrum of Totalitarian Cultural Nationalism
At
the close of the 19th century, the symphony orchestra had thus become
culturally isomorphic with the nationalistic and industrial views of the
time.[28] The orchestra grew in size, using ever larger groups of musicians to perform orchestral
scores that inflamed ethnically determined nationalistic ideologies under conductors
who possessed a form of dictatorial power that the music-world had never seen before.[29] In
post-revolutionary Germany and Austria, the values of autocracy, and
chauvinistic nationalism were dangerously apparent--and via the processes
of cultural isomorphism--became increasingly represented in the symphony
orchestra as well. It thus seems likely that on a subconscious and
metaphorical level, the symbolic rituals of the 19th century symphony
orchestra represented one more cultural factor that helped fuel the downward spiral
on which the European psyche slid toward National Socialism. This
might explain why in the 1930s, not only the Vienna Philharmonic, but
numerous other ensembles (such as the Berlin and Munich Philharmonics) became
important propaganda instruments used to reaffirm National Socialism's world
view.[30] The symphony orchestra's transcendentally justified authority,
human objectification, and cultural nationalism, made it a useful cultural
symbol that served as a simulacrum of National Socialist ideology. As Hitler
remarked: "Art is an exalted mission
requiring fanaticism. He who is chosen by providence to reveal the soul of a
people around him, to let it sound in tones or speak in stone, suffers under
the power of the Almighty as a force ruling him, and will speak his language,
even if the people do not understand or do not want to understand. And he
would prefer to take every affliction upon himself than even once be untrue to
the star that guides him internally."[31]
The
above suggests that National Socialism was not just the result of
transient historical forces, or merely external social circumstances, but also an isomorphic manifestation of long standing
Western cultural
values. A society whose art venerates ethno-centricity, cultural nationalism,
human objectification, and transcendentally justified autocracy, might use
them constructively in a symphony orchestra, but it must also acknowledge
that the same cultural values can contribute to forms of totalitarianism. A
close look at Adolf Hitler reveals that a 19th century aesthetic
of Radical Will, ultimately accompanied a 20th century morality of
Radical Evil.[32] The
Ideological Appropriation of the Image of the
Artist-Prophet To
a considerable degree, the twentieth century modernists continued to
model themselves on the image of the nineteenth century artist-prophets
they claimed to oppose. Generally
speaking, they distinguished
themselves from the Romantics by bringing a tone of rationalist objectivity
to their work, which was culturally isomorphic with the predominantly
scientific and technological spirit of the twentieth century. This
complex bifurcation between the romantic and objective spirits of modernism
formulated some of its most profound artistic expression. One thinks of T.S.
Elliot's detached, objective language expressing a world view that ranged
from Dante's medieval spirituality to Anglican devotion, or Schönberg and
Berg's rigorous theoretical structures enveloping expressionistic emotion, or
George Crumb's post-Webern influenced cell-theory capturing the spirit of
Lorcian animism, or Pederecki's harshly dissonant early style gradually
returning to romantic forms. Perhaps
the clearest representation of romantic transcendentalism manifesting itself
in the modernist artist-prophet is Karlheinz Stockhausen, who not only played
a notable role in the technological development of electronic music, but who
also believes that his highly mystical cycle of seven long operas is being
completed from a higher plane of consciousness.
This
was culturally isomorphic with the modernist continuation of the 19th
century concept of the artist-prophet who was viewed as a source of truth and
justice, and who was to be followed through a cycle of destruction and
rebirth. In the land of Bayreuth, Hitler's success depended to a large degree
on his ability to blur the borders between the artist-prophet and the
absolutist dictator. With his dictatorial melomania, he envisioned the Third
Reich as a large work of music theater to an astoundingly literal
degree.[34] Fortunately, his Götterdämmerung was more complete than
the revolution that he hoped would lead to a new world order of scientifically
bred but romantically transcendent supermen. The
larger design of Hitler’s ideology as an artist-prophet included the
recreation of humanity according to a new aesthetic. From this perspective, the Holocaust was a
work of art, a “purification” of culture, a “sculpting” of the human race. The
concept of the artist-prophet brought new creativity to artistic expression,
but toward the close of the 19th century it had already developed
a tendency toward ideological division and orthodoxy. (This can be seen, for
example, in the nationalistic concepts of opera represented by Wagner and
Verdi.) The artist-prophet systemized belief by conceptualizing aesthetic
ideology, and this became culturally isomorphic with the 20th century's
systemic forms of social and economic organization. We saw, for example, a
culturally isomorphic essentialisation of art in the "Gleichschaltung"[35]
of the Third Reich, in the Social Realism of the East Block, in the
comercialization of culture in America, and in the “Cultural Revolution” of
Moaist China. Like
the political divisions of the 20th century, these aesthetic orthodoxies
reduced human expression to systemic concepts that tended toward the
formulaic and reductionist, and were often developed by modernist
artists in the role of aesthetic prophets who served a more or less
transcendentally justified patriarchal function within their societies. These
aesthetic systems tended to be culturally isomorphic with the political and
economic structures in which they existed, and frequently allowed
the artist-prophet or his image to be appropriated by totalitarian social
structures. The Demise of the Artist-Prophet
in the Post-Modern World The
modernists embraced the 20th century's presumed rationalism, but due to their
complex and sometimes destructive relationship with the romantic legacy of
the preceding century, they and their cultures often seemed spiritually
dispossessed. After the horrors of the Second World War, composers were left searching for new forms of authority in musical expression, and
this allowed America to enter the world stage of music for the first time in
history. The
most influential of these composers was John Cage, who established that all
sound could serve as the material of music, which could be presented in
aleatoric forms independent of the artist’s will. Due to the historical context, this had a profound effect. War
ravaged Europeans knew that the Third Reich was, in part, a manifestation of
their cultural values, and this former student of Schönberg offered a new
world, an emancipation of sound freed from a genocidal past. But
as the Cold War ended, the world's political divisions were softened, as were the ideological divisions in art reflected by modernist
artist-prophets, even those such as Cage. As Post-Modernists pressed ever more
deeply into the nature of human perception, the authority of knowledge itself
was thrown into doubt. They revealed not only its arbitrary forms, but also
its confusion, it irresolution, and its subjectivity. This was culturally
isomorphic with the complex phenomenological world of post-Newtonian science,
which was forced to confront its own tendencies toward rationalist reductionism
and pretensions to objective certainty. The Western paradigm of
subject-object dichotomies was replaced with an understanding that reality is
a complex phenomenological Gestalt, a mutually inter-dependent and
ever deepening marriage of Mind and Nature that evokes not only new
concepts of truth, but also new forms of beauty. This marriage is bringing a new
humanism to both science and art. If
the theory of cultural isomorphism is correct, new artistic genres will
evolve in the Global Village, that differ from those created by artist-prophets
representing the feudalistic, nationalistic, and monolithic political
ideologies of European history. Connective technological developments--such
as collaborative music composition via the Web and the ability to quickly
disseminate and retrieve information worldwide--will generate new concepts of
community. Notions of stylistic
orthodoxy will be diminished, and disenfranchised groups such as women and
minorities, will have greater access to the avenues of power provided by new
forms of large scale networking. Advancements
such as these will weaken the patriarchal cultural concept of the
artist-prophet, and replace the authoritarian, hierarchical social structures
of the symphony orchestra that was his instrument. The desire of orchestras
such as the Vienna Philharmonic to maintain a historical image of gender and
racial purity will represent a dark chapter of the past, a remnant of
authoritarian, transcendentally justified, cultural nationalism that
ultimately synthezised political and aesthetic ideology into forces of
terrifying power. The new social currents that are developing will help
western culture avoid the catastrophic fanaticism and zealotry that led the
20th century to brutality, war and genocide. Endnotes [1]
Jan Herman, "For Violist, the Rules Never Seem to Change," The
Los Angeles Times (February 27, 1998). [2]
The interview material was transcribed and translated by the author from:
"Musikalische Misogynie," broadcast by the West German State Radio,
February 13, 1996. See also: William Osborne, "Art Is Just An Excuse:
Gender Bias in International Orchestras", Journal of the
International Alliance for Women in Music, Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 6 (October
1996) [3]The
second “lady” is Adelheid Miller who does not play in the Vienna
Philharmonic. She works in the Vienna
State Opera Orchestra. The members of
the State Opera Orchestra run the Vienna Philharmonic as a private enterprise
on the side, but Miller was excluded from the Philharmonic due to personal
disputes she had with them. She
recently retired from the State Opera and has been replaced with another
woman harpist, Julie Palloc, who after a three year tenure in the Opera, will
qualify for membership in the private Vienna Philharmonic. The Vienna State Opera/Vienna Philharmonic
has presented the employment of Palloc as progress, even though they have
always used women harpists. [4] Ibid. [5] Elena Ostleitner, Liebe, Lust, Last und Lied
(Wien, Bundesministerium fuer Unterricht und Kunst, 1995) p. 6. [6]
"Musikalische Misogynie," broadcast by the West German State Radio,
February 13, 1996. See also: Roland Girtler, "Mitgliedsaufnahme in
den Noblen Bund der Wiener Philharmoniker Als Mannbarkeitsritual", Sociologia
Internationalis, Beiheft 1 (1992). [7]
"Von Tag zu Tag", broadcast by Austrian National Radio and
Television, December 11, 1996, 4:05-4:45pm. The school teacher who witnessed
the remark spoke in this program and quoted Resel’s statement. The transcription and translation are by
the author. [8]
The statistics for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra come from: Elena Ostleitner,
Liebe, Lust, Last und Leid, unpublished report (Austrian
Bundesministerium fuer Unterricht und Kunst, 1995) p. 62. The statistics for
the East German orchestras come from: Jutta Allmendinger, "Staatskultur
und Marktkultur: Ostdeutsche Orchester im Vergleich", unpublished
working paper (Report No. 2, Cross-National Study of Symphony Orchestras,
Harvard University Business School, 1991) table 1. The statistics for the
Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics were collected by the author. In Berlin there were four additional women
in a trial year. These statistics come from as early as 1991. There has been improvement since then, but
the representation of women in these orchestras is still quite low, generally
below 10%. Almost all of the women
play in the tutti strings. [9] Clemens Hellsberg, Demokratie der Koenige: Die
Geschichte der Wiener Philharmoniker (Zurich: Schweizer Verlagshaus:
Wien: Kremayr & Scheriau; Mainz: Musikverlag Schott, 1992) p. 464. Hellsberg is the Chairman of
the Vienna Philharmonic. His book is relatively open in discussing the
orchestra's collaboration with National Socialism, but his remarks often have
a rationalizing tone. [10]
Ibid. p. 505. [11]
Ibid. p. 464. [12] Wilhelm Jerger, Erbe und Sendung (Wien:
Wiener Verlag Ernst Sopper & Karl Bauer, 1942) p. 87. Copies of this book are
rare. Thanks to Manuela Schreibmaier for finding and making a copy available
to me. [13]
Ibid. p. 57. [14]
Ibid. p. 510. [15] Ibid. p. 518. [16] Erwin Kroll, "Der Warthegau huldigt Pfitzner.
Allgemeine Musikzeitung, Leipzig (LXIX/10, September 18, 1942;
as quoted in: Prieberg, Fred K., Musik im NS-Staat (Frankfurt am Main:
Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1982) p. 224.
See
also: Hellsberg, 549-551. Hellsberg
lists the support for Pfitzner as a humane act and as a "milestone"
in the orchestra's history. [17]
Hellsberg, p. 514. [18]
These models could also define how institutions stand in opposition to their
environment, or how they can become frozen at a certain point in time. To my
knowledge, the term cultural isomorphism is my own invention. I
derived it from sociological models of institution-environment relations. For
a study using institution-environment models applied to the contemporary symphony
orchestras of former East Germany see: Jutta Allmendinger and J. Richard
Hackman, "Organizations in Changing Environments: The Case of East
German Symphony Orchestras", Administrative Science Quarterly,
No. 41, pp. 337-369, Cornell University (1996). See also: Arthur L.
Stinchcombe, "Social structure and organizations" in James G. March
(ed.), Handbook of Organizations (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965) pp.
142-149. And: Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell, "The iron cage
revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in
organizational fields", American Sociological Review, No. 48, pp.
147-160 (1983). The theory could also
be related to the sociology of knowledge as developed by writers ranging from
Marx to Habermas. A specific relationship
exists to the early writings of Adorno which emphasize aesthetic development
as important to historical evolution and the search for “truth”. [19] Feudalism was a political and
economic system of Europe from the 9th to about the 15th
century, characterized by vassalage.
The term is also commonly used to refer to a political, economic, or
social order resembling this medieval system. In this article, I refer to feudalism’s cultural legacy which
shaped Europe well into the 19th century. [20]
One of the more significant
ideologists of Germanic racial supremacy was Houston Stewart Chamberlain
whose book Die Grundlagen des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (1899) outlined
“Aryan” greatness. His Rasse und
Persönlichkeit (1925) directly influenced Hitler. He was an admirer of Wagner and wrote Notes
sur Lohengrin in 1892. A
biography of the composer followed in 1895.
In 1907 he settled in Bayreuth and married Wagner’s only daughter Eva. [21]
Similar views inform the reception of classical music well beyond Austria.
The musicologist Pamela M. Potter suggests that this might be attributed to
vestigial, unconscious attitudes of Germanic cultural supremacy. See Pamela
M. Potter, Most German of the Arts (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1998) p. 260. [22]
For a useful discussion of these authors see: Peter Pulzer, Germany,
1870-1945: Politics, State Formation, and War (Oxford, Oxford University
Press, 1997). [23] In reality, the orchestra consciously
excludes people from many central European countries, particularly those that
are non-German speaking. [24] "Nicht Kaiser und nicht Koenig, aber so
dastehen und dirigieren." Carl Dalhaus has described the conductor
as half Field Marshall and half magician: "In der imperialen Geste
des Kapellmeisters, steckt die Gebaerde des Feldherrn, der ueber seine
Truppen gebietet, und zugleich die des Zauberers, der ein Wunderreich, E.T.A.
Hoffmanns Dschinnistan, beshwoert." [25]
Regarding conductors in US schools of music, Christina McElroy found that at
the end of the 1984-1994 period of her study: 97.7% of all professors were
male; 95.5% of all associate professors were male; 91.3% of all assistant
professors were male. See: Christina McElroy, "The Status of Women Orchestra
and Band Conductors in North American Colleges and Universities:
1984-1996" (#9717189, UMI). [26] Joerg Eggebrecht, "Reise ins Herz," Philharmonische
Blaetter, 91/92 Jahrgang 7, Heft 6, p. 14 (February/March 1992). [27]
Juliet Flower MacCannell argues that fascism is not patriarchal or related to
the father, but has to do with phantasmic fraternalism. See: Juilet Flower
MacCannell, The Regime of the Brother: After the Patriarchy (London
and New York: Routledge, 1991). In his book, Klaus Theweleit, Männerphantasien, Band
2: Männerkörper. Zur Psychoanalyse des weißen
Terrors
(München, 1995) examines the role Germany’s Männerbündelei (men’s groups)
played in the development of fascism.
The Holocaust scholar, Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996) p. 248, describes how a group of soldiers
in a Wehrmacht Police Battalion that regularly committed acts of genocide,
suddenly felt moral conflicts about their actions when the wife of one of the
officers was present. [28]
In his book, Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music
(Manchester University Press, 1985) argues that music has consistently
foreshadowed the economic developments of society. For a highly readable and
fascinating account of late 19th century Europe's progress toward the First
World War see: Barbara Tuchman, The Proud Tower (New York and London:
The Macmillan Company, 1966). [29]
There were additional reasons the size of the orchestra was expanded, such as
the creation of sonic environments reflecting the expansiveness of nature,
but these portrayals often also contained nationalistic overtones, such as in
Strauss’s “Alpine Symphony”. [30]
Information about the NS use of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bruckner
Orchestra can be found in: Fred K. Prieberg, Musik im NS-Staat
(Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1982). The Munich
Philharmonic was known as "The Orchestra of the Capital City of the
Fascist Movement" and stamped all of its music with those words
circumscribing an eagle holding a Swastika in its talons. In 1991 I had to
write two letters to the Munich Cultural Ministry in order to have the
Swastikas removed from the orchestra's old music which was still in regular
use. [31] "Kulturrede beim Reichsparteitag 1933 in
Nürnberg," Baustein zum National-theater I/3 (December 1933) p.
67. [32]
Thomas Mann was one of the first to note that Hitler presented himself to the
German people as a myth-making artist.
As cited in Gordon Craig, The Germans (New York: Meridian
Books, 1982) p. 67. [33]
In The World as Will and Idea (1819), and other influential works that
followed, Arthur Schopenhauer created a philosophy which advocated turning
away from spirit and reason to the powers of intuition, creativity, and the
irrational. This view deeply
influenced Nietsche, who in The Birth of Tradgedy (1872) proclaimed
that art and literature must harness Dionysian elements of the irrational in
order to exist. This view led to the radical will of Nietsche’s “superman” in
Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Schopenhauer and Nietsche profoundly influenced the German cultural
realm, ranging from Wagner and Pfitzner to Wedekind and Freud. Misappropriated notions of radical will became
part of Fascism’s cult of the hero and formulated actions describable as
radical evil. For perspectives on the concept and history of radical evil see
the anthology: Joan Copjec, ed., Radical Evil (London and New York:
Verso, 1996). [34]
In his book, John Toland, Adof Hitler (New York: Doubleday, 1976) p.
22 documents an eye witness account of how even as a young man Hitler went
into a political trance upon his first hearing of Rienzi and spoke of
the mission he had before him. On pages 35 and 36 he documents that Hitler
spent several weeks working on an opera libretto based on Wieland the
Smith after he learned that an outline of a music drama based on it had
been found in Wagner's posthumous papers. In his Introduction to his
translation of Mein Kampf, Ralph Manheim notes that the main source of
Hitler's pet phrases was the theater and the opera. Hitler was a regular
presence at Bayreuth, and a personal apartment was built for him on the
grounds. It is still there.
[35] Gleichschaltung was the policy of forcing all cultural, intellectual, and social activity in the Third Reich into conformity with the ideologies of National Socialism.
|
In
1949, the Philharmonic voted to take a pay cut in order to finance an
apartment, pension, and chauffeur for the composer Hans Pfitzner (pictured
right,) even though he was one
of the most active anti-Semitic spokesmen in the music-world of the Third
Reich.[16]
Symphonic
music was considered the most German of arts, and people had long been
conditioned to believe that its artist-prophets "suffered under the
power of the Almighty", and that they rose above the mundane world in an
"exalted mission" to "reveal the soul of a people"--a
mission culturally isomorphic with that of their Führer's. And through the phenomena
of the conductor and composer as artist-prophets, they could see that
transcendental élan and passion could justify and enforce the subjugation of
others, while at the same time symbolizing cultural superiority--behavior
that also characterized Hitler. At the height of its influence, the power of
the symphony orchestra as a culturally isomorphic social metaphor was clearly
observable. As Oscar Wilde has said, "Life imitates art far more than art
imitates life." 
Patriarchal
transcendentalism is inherently self-destructive, because its raises Mind
over Nature, or the spiritual over the material. In