Triangle

 

About the project

In the 19th century a series of transformative technological leaps connected people more than ever before, broadening the reach of transnational networks through which ideas and cultures travelled. This project traces the transnational history of one of Europe’s most politicized cultural exports: the symphony. It demonstrates that travel, transnational exchange, and dissemination through networks, shaped the development of the symphony in ways not previously understood.

Historical narratives of the symphony have long been organized around units of nations. However, musicians, conductors, and symphonies crossed geopolitical boundaries, as often as they reinforced them. Symphonies on the Move unravels how meanings (both aesthetic and political), performance practices, and compositional styles changed as a result of travel and cultural exchange. This transnational approach opens up new meanings and roles for the genre, whether as entertainment within popular promenade concerts in Paris, a vehicle for cultural diplomacy in German-American foreign policy, a treasure trove of themes for hymn tunes in England, or even a demonstration of a nation-state’s cultural arrival on the international stage.

The project explores symphonic travels through a number of means. Firstly, a database enables users to trace where and when symphonies travelled through performances given by major European and North American orchestras in the 19th century. The Symphony Reimagined app enables the user to listen to and manipulate arrangements of symphonies made in the nineteenth century for performance in the theatre and in church. It also allows users to make their own arrangements. Thirdly, the project takes a detailed exploration of how travel shaped the symphony through a number of publications.