Song Loves the Masses: Herder on Music and Nationalism

by Johann Gottfried Herder, Philip V. Bohlman (Translator)

Distinguished ethnomusicologist Philip V. Bohlman compiles Johann Gottfried Herder’s writings on music and nationalism, from his early volumes of Volkslieder through sacred song to the essays on aesthetics late in his life, shaping them as the book on music that Herder would have written had he gathered the many strands of his musical thought into a single publication. Framed by analytical chapters and extensive introductions to each translation, this book interprets Herder’s musings on music to think through several major What meaning did religion and religious thought have for Herder? Why do the nation and nationalism acquire musical dimensions at the confluence of aesthetics and religious thought? How did his aesthetic and musical thought come to transform the way Herder understood music and nationalism and their presence in global history? Bohlman uses the mode of translation to explore Herder’s own interpretive practice as a translator of languages and cultures, providing today’s readers with an elegantly narrated and exceptionally curated collection of essays on music by two major intellectuals.

Genres: Music

336 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2004

About the author

Theory of culture and advocacy of intuition over rationality of German philosopher and writer Johann Gottfried von Herder greatly influenced Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and formed the basis of German romanticism.

The periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar classicism associate this theologian, poet, and literary critic.

In 1772, Herder published Treatise on the Origin of Language and went further in this promotion of language than his earlier injunction to "spew out the ugly slime of the Seine. Speak German, oh you German." Herder then established the foundations of comparative philology within the new currents of political outlook.