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Musical Salon Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century

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    SYSNO ASEP0510433
    Document TypeM - Monograph Chapter
    R&D Document TypeMonograph Chapter
    TitleJohanna Kinkel's Social Life in Berlin (1836-39): Reflections on Historiographical Sources
    Author(s) Bunzel, Anja (UDU-I) ORCID
    Number of authors1
    Source TitleMusical Salon Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century, Concepts and Contexts. - Woodbridge : The Boydell Press, 2019 / Bunzel Anja ; Loges Natasha - ISBN 978-1-78327-390-4
    Pagess. 13-26
    Number of pages14 s.
    Number of pages284
    Publication formPrint - P
    Languageeng - English
    CountryGB - United Kingdom
    KeywordsJohanna Kinkel ; Berlin salons ; nineteenth-century ; private musical culture ; musical historiography ; women and music
    Subject RIVAL - Art, Architecture, Cultural Heritage
    OECD categoryPerforming arts studies (Musicology, Theater science, Dramaturgy)
    Institutional supportUDU-I - RVO:68378033
    AnnotationThe opening chapter will elaborate on current issues and prospects of salon research, with particular focus on the challenges that the historical materials pose to researchers. The composer, pianist, and music pedagogue Johanna Kinkel (1810–58) will be the basis for a case study. In a letter dated 10 December 1837, Kinkel praises the diverse cultural life of Berlin and mentions that she visited approximately thirty different social gatherings during her residency in Berlin from 1836–39, ‘all of which attracted an almost entirely different circle of guests’. On 10 November 1838, Kinkel writes to the same addressee, her Bonn friend Angela Oppenhoff: 'I have consistently enforced my Rhineland humour in the prudish city of Berlin, so that I can finally do and say whatever I like without punishment. But do not think that this was as easy as it would have been in Bonn, where all attendees of social gatherings know each other, most of the circles which I visit here are the most colourful conglomerations of all social strata and nations'. Although Kinkel voiced her enthusiasm about the Berlin salon landscape several times, she provided very few details about the hosts or locations of these gatherings. This chapter pursues two objectives. Firstly, stimulated by Kaufmann’s biographical sketch of Kinkel and based on the correspondence and memoirs of Kinkel and her contemporaries, it aims to shed light on the reciprocal relationship between Kinkel’s contribution to Berlin social life, and the influence of that Berlin environment on Kinkel’s own socio-cultural standing and self-perception. Secondly, by using the case study of Kinkel as a starting point for a wider discussion of the reliability and objectivity of sources, this chapter will elaborate on such issues as (autobiographical) bias as a result of self-censorship, lack of memory, and historical euphemisms, biography as a means of historiography (Jerome Hamilton Buckley), and research gaps within the fields of biography and salon research (Beatrix Borchard, Sabine Meine, Manuela Schwartz). The chapter is accordingly divided into two sections. Firstly, I will examine who performed Kinkel’s music and whose social gatherings Kinkel visited. I will establish that not even half of the gatherings attended by Kinkel have been located to date, and that Kinkel’s claim that she visited thirty different circles seems exaggerated. In light of this, the second section of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of the reliability and objectivity of primary sources and will conclude with a consideration of the significance of primary sources as posthumous contributions to a composer’s biography. Thus, this chapter will explore the source material related to Kinkel’s time in Berlin and locate them within the wider current methodological challenges of salon research.
    WorkplaceInstitute of Art History
    ContactVeronika Jungmannová, jungmannova@udu.cas.cz, Tel.: 221 183 506 ; Markéta Kratochvílová, kratochvilova@udu.cas.cz, Tel.: 220 303 939
    Year of Publishing2020
Number of the records: 1  

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