Music and War: Imperial Propaganda and German Patriotism in Wartime Secular Vocal Works of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber

Music has always been influenced by politics. Political ideas become especially prominent in musical compositions during periods of turmoil, particularly in times of war. Around 1800, Central Europe suffered from extensive warfare, most importantly the Austro-Turkish War (1788–91) and the prolonged wars between Austria and revolutionary and imperial France (1792–1815), and these conflicts also produced large amounts of political music. These wars are sometimes viewed as the incentive for the emergence of modern political music and important political ideologies, especially nationalism. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Carl Maria von Weber created secular vocal works that reflect political events and ideologies of the time. The first chapter investigates how the Austrian Emperor Joseph II is depicted in Mozart’s vocal works “Ich möchte wohl der Kaiser sein” (“I would like to be the Emperor”), K. 539, and “Lied beim Auszug in das Feld” (“Song at the Departure for the Field”), K. 552. The second chapter analyzes Beethoven’s cantata Der glorreiche Augenblick (“The glorious Moment”), written for the Congress of Vienna in 1814, that incorporates ideas regarding the concept of unity, the figure of Emperor Francis, and God. The third chapter explores how Carl Maria von Weber’s cantata Kampf und Sieg (“Battle and Victory”) differs from Mozart’s and Beethoven’s works by incorporating pro-German elements. The fourth chapter shows how the pro-German patriotism in Weber’s work was perceived after its premiere and in the time before the unification of Germany in 1871