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Crossroads of Cultural Conflict: Religion and Country in the Stabat maters of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger

Nissen, Rhianna V

Abstract Details

2017, M.M., University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music: Music History.
In the three years between 1869 and 1871, two seismic events created a seemingly irreconcilable cultural conflict in South Germany. 1869 saw Pope Pius’s decree of papal infallibility, reasserting papal supremacy over the power of secular rulers. 1871 saw Bismarck’s triumph over the French in the Franco-Prussian War, and the long-awaited political unification of much of German-speaking central Europe. Munich, the cosmopolitan heart of Catholic Bavaria, acutely experienced these changes, and the conflicts inherent in growing dogmatism on both secular and religious fronts. The pull between German nationalism and Catholic identity— always a complicated relationship—grew increasingly polarized, exacerbated by Bismarck’s anti-Catholic Kulturkampf, the Do¨llinger affair, and the schism between “old” and “new” Catholics in South Germany. Musically, these conflicting identities are apparent in the works of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. A Lichtenstein-born composer living and working in Munich, Rheinberger consciously sought to align himself with the great pantheon of German composers extolled in the German musical press, while at the same time responsive to the demands of his various sacred music positions, his own relationship to the Catholic faith, and the musical dogmatism of the Caeciliens at Regensburg. This thesis compares Rheinberger’s two settings of the Catholic Stabat mater poem, Opp. 16 and 138, in evaluating the comparative pull of German and Catholic musical traditions in late nineteenth-century Munich. Written twenty years apart (1864 and 1884, respectively) the two works are musical snapshots of distinctive periods in Munich and Rheinberger’s histories, existing at the crossroads of German and Catholic identity, and revealing the cultural conflicts and compromises inherent therein.
Jonathan Kregor, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Stephen Meyer, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Matthew Peattie, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
101 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Nissen, R. V. (2017). Crossroads of Cultural Conflict: Religion and Country in the Stabat maters of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1505124548567195

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Nissen, Rhianna. Crossroads of Cultural Conflict: Religion and Country in the Stabat maters of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. 2017. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1505124548567195.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Nissen, Rhianna. "Crossroads of Cultural Conflict: Religion and Country in the Stabat maters of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1505124548567195

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)