With at least 174 performances in 2017, it is fair to say that Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion enjoys unusual popularity in the Netherlands. Many scholars have wondered why, but without...Show moreWith at least 174 performances in 2017, it is fair to say that Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion enjoys unusual popularity in the Netherlands. Many scholars have wondered why, but without looking at the formative years of the Dutch Passion tradition: the interwar period between 1919 and 1939, when, as a result of economic distress, fear for moral breakdown and social fragmentation, the Dutch rediscovered an inward sense of nationality. First of all, this thesis shows that the tradition of yearly Passion performances, established by the conductor Willem Mengelberg, became a ritual through which citizens could profess this nationality. Subsequently, it analyses how a diverse group of intellectuals imbued Bach’s masterpiece with sublime properties. Finally, it turns its attention to peripheral regions, where locals took the initiative to organize their own Passion performances, enabling large swathes of the population to share and participate in a national musical culture. This thesis thus moves beyond musical, textual and dramaturgical aspects and integrates Dutch interwar Passion performance within its historical, social and cultural context. It regards Passion performances as civic rituals fostering emotional identification among both the active and passive participants. This approach aims to do justice to the ideological, religious and socio-economical heterogeneity of Dutch interwar society, as reflected in the vast array of primary sources under scrutiny. By investigating the origins of the Dutch passion for the Passion, this thesis seeks to elucidate the relations between music and national identity.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
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The Jarves Collection, the first collection of early Italian art in the United States, was created by James Jackson Jarves (1818-1888) in Florence in the 1850s, and brought to the USA in 1860...Show moreThe Jarves Collection, the first collection of early Italian art in the United States, was created by James Jackson Jarves (1818-1888) in Florence in the 1850s, and brought to the USA in 1860 hoping to create a “Free Gallery of Art.” Jarves presents medieval and Renaissance Florence as a democratic and religious model for the United States to emulate. The collection thus performed an educational function, literally carrying civilization – in the form of early Italian paintings – to the United States. Considering Jarves’s role within the history of American collecting and reception of Italian art, publications have focused on placing Jarves within the American history of collecting, while giving little thought to underlying structures in Jarves’s motivations and actions in assembling and promoting his collection. As Jarves presents history as a didactic and emancipatory model for the United States, this thesis asks what his stake was in presenting early Italian art as the model of civilization. Limited to the period from the early 1850s, when Jarves starts collecting, until 1871, when the collection was sold to Yale University, this thesis focuses on Jarves’s motivations, placed within contemporary trends. It is split into three parts: the first looks at the underlying structures that influenced the make-up of the collection; the second looks at Jarves's ideas as expressed through his writings, and at their connection to his collection. The final part looks at the Jarves's main aim for his collection: the creation of a national gallery of art for the education of the American public.Show less
