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Article: Brahms and the German Spirit.(Book review)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- March 22, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Brahms and the German Spirit. By Daniel Beller-McKenna. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. Pp. xi, 243. $49.95.)
For sixty years since the end of World War II, the music of nineteenth-century German composer Johannes Brahms has not been associated with nationalism or patriotism, as has the music of compatriot Richard Wagner. Instead, Brahms has been regarded as a composer who, unlike his modernist contemporary Wagner, remained loyal to the Classical legacy he inherited, writing absolute instrumental music devoid of an overtly programmatic reference and thus resistant to interpretations of a nationalistic political agenda or worldview. Likewise, ...