The Question of National Identity in the Multiethnical Sopron Through the Activity of the Dalfüzér/Liederkranz (1847–1867) Cover Image

The Question of National Identity in the Multiethnical Sopron Through the Activity of the Dalfüzér/Liederkranz (1847–1867)
The Question of National Identity in the Multiethnical Sopron Through the Activity of the Dalfüzér/Liederkranz (1847–1867)

Author(s): Rudolf Gusztin
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore, Music, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Sociology of Art, History of Art
Published by: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci
Keywords: Hungarian choral movement; Sopron; Oedenburg; Soproni Dalfüzér; Oedenburger Liederkranz; nationalism; national identity; multiethnicity; Christian Altdörfer; Kornél Ábrányi; Hungarian language;

Summary/Abstract: Richard Taruskin describes the German choral movement as the hotbed of German nationalist unification, the musical precursor of a new nation-building ideology. However, the Liedertafel movement did not stop in Germany, but spread to the whole of Europe, practically without exception the founding of choirs had a national–political dimension, including Hungary. It is interesting to examine how nationalism overtones could take hold in the multiethnical Hungary, especially in the German-dominated cities. Sopron is an excellent case study, since this town, which lies in the western corner of the country, bordering Austria, had a large part of German population, and as a consequence had a German theatre and German speaking press. Christian Altdörfer, the choirmaster of the Lutheran church and founder of the Dalfüzér/Liederkranz, came from Württemberg to set up a singing group in the 1840s that sang in both German and Hungarian. This situation gives us an opportunity to examine how the association saw itself and how others saw it, and in doing so to highlight what national identity meant in mid-19th-century Hungary.

  • Issue Year: 35/2023
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 44-61
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English
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