Xenophilia in British Musical History

Abstract

This chapter addresses the ‘Land ohne Musik’ idea. In an age of growing musical nationalism, only the English played down the value of their own music. The British arrived late in the arena of musical nationalism, perhaps because they had felt unchallenged in most other contests. The change of terminology came with the rise of English or British nationalism in the late Victorian era. This had little to do with music, but was motivated by the emergence of Germany, and to some extent the United States, as economic, political and potentially military rivals. Some writers have tried to connect unmusicality with phlegm, which is the humour most often associated with the British. The situation is parallel to the case of women’s music, or women’s achievements in other fields. Middle-class music-lovers were under great pressure to adopt the preference of their betters: for Italian opera, French ballet and so on.

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