Dresden's Musical Ruins
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11498613 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martha Sprigge (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 144 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 83-121 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the Royal Musical Association (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0269-0403 • E-ISSN: 1471-6933 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02690403.2019.1575590 |
| OpenAlex | W2929918621 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
In studies of memory politics in post-war Germany, the role that music played in responding to the Allied bombing of Dresden on 13–14 February 1945 has been overlooked. This article examines one of the first musical reactions to this traumatic event: Rudolf Mauersberger's mourning motet Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst ( How Deserted Lies the City , 1945). I argue that Mauersberger, who served as cantor of the world-famous Kreuzchor from 1930 until his death in 1971, used allegory rather than testimony to formulate a response to the firebombing that resonated with historical customs familiar to the city's residents. When premièred in the bombed-out Kreuzkirche, Mauersberger's music provided a communal setting to confront the effects of the air war, transforming a space of destruction into one of contemplation and mourning. Both his compositional process and the performance transformed rubble (the material aftermath of the attack) into a ruin (an aesthetic object)
Allegory · Art · Art history · Contemplation · First world war · Humanities · Musical · Political science · Politics · Theology · Visual arts · Arts, Culture, and Music Studies · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Law · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |