Speaking German Musically: Poetic Recitation in Central Europe, 1760-1820

Shows how poetic recitation and the interweaving of music and poetry contributed to the advent of a German identity in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe. The art of reciting a text out loud, known as Vortragskunst , be it in a private circle or in a concert hall, originated in German-speaking countries in the 1760s, and by the nineteenth century had become a well-established practice subjected to an artistic blossoming unparalleled in the rest of Europe. In this book Jacquelin