Simon Schama's on the telly talking about Romanticism. Says nationalism's power derives from music, so a piece on C18th Scotland is naturally introduced by an Irish air, proving to my satisfaction, at least, that it's largely artifice.
You want to talk about German nationalism? Let's start with a map of the Holy Roman Empire. That won't confuse anyone. Napoleon? An affront to German nationalism, not a catalyst. Herder? The David Goodhart of his day.
Arminius (Herman the German) & the Teutoberger Wald finally make an appearance. This episode is largely a rehash of Schama's 'Landscape and Memory'.
Kiefer and Gorecki's 3rd symphony now. Only 10 minutes left and he's lurched back to Chopin. Genuinely curious to see how he wraps this up.
Lol. He ends at the proms where the crowd sings Jerusalem. The closing moral is that you can be proud of your tribe & yet also of humanity (or perhaps even the EU), which is ironic given recent events on the culture war's musical front.
Despite the heartwarming tale of Chopin (humanity triumphs over the tribe), the lesson of history is that an emotional tune travels & we can vicariously enjoy another nation's chauvinism. National identity, like nostalgia, is an exportable commodity.
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