Proletarian Voices

In what sense is music political and to what extent can music shape political consciousness? This question has been debated by musicologists and sociologist of music for a long time now, yet we are still far from having a definite understanding of the whole range of factors that furnishes music with its social and political impact. The project addresses this problem while focusing on the history of the Workers Music Movement in Austria with special attention to the period of Red Vienna. Shaped by the ideas and initiatives of musicians and politicians, this musical-political movement presents a particularly intriguing case study for the relations between music, society, and political activism. The composer Josef Scheu (1841-1904) and other politically-engaged Austrian musicians wrote compositions and arrangements for workerss choirs. Furthermore, through the efforts of political activists such as David Josef Bach (1874-1947), classic and modern music made its way to musical performance by and for the working class. Performances of workers choral societies were an occasion for political gatherings but also an activity aimed at forming and sustaining a sense of shared identity and values. The educational objectives of the Movement were rooted in the assumption that learning and practicing music would inspire members of the proletariat towards sophisticated aesthetic taste and higher moral ideals. In spite of this lofty intention, the leaders of the Movement were divided on the question of the most appropriate kind of music for this goal. It was in this context that the question arises, whether there is (or could be) a unique proletariat or socialist form of music and culture, a dispute that has continued to reverberate throughout the twentieth century. Concentrating on this set of issues, the project aims at a firmer historical and theoretical understanding of the myriad of forces at work expressive, contextual, and discursive in shaping the symbolic power of music in relation to political activism.

In what sense is music political and to what extent can music shape political consciousness? This question has been debated by music scholars for a long time now, yet we are still far from having a definite understanding of the whole range of aesthetic and contextual factors that furnishes music with its political impact. Proletarian Voices addresses this problem while focusing on the history of the Workers' Music Movement in Austria from 1890s to the early twentieth century. Shaped by the ideas and initiatives of musicians and politicians, this musical-political movement presents a particularly intriguing case study for the relations between music and politics. The project looks at the creation of musical institutions for the proletariat, as well as the extensive literary activity that accompanied their work. It examines the movement's particular approach to the reception of classical and romantic music and to questions of the political meaning of music, which shaped concert programs and music-historical interpretations. Proletarian Voices shows that the appropriation of the Austro-German musical tradition by the Austrian labour movement involved a fundamental revision of bourgeois concepts of autonomy and universality in order to make the case for an understanding of music as a revolutionary force capable of advancing social transformation.