In Their Own Words

Music Makes the Nation is an intellectual and cultural history of one of the most striking phenomena in all of 19th-century culture--namely, the interaction of nationalism and music. The nation-building movements that swept across Europe in that century nearly all found some of their most influential and lasting expressions through the art of nationalist composers who took an active part in those movements. Centering on the careers of Richard Wagner in Germany, Bedrich Smetana in the Czech lands, and Edvard Grieg in Norway, the book tells the political, intellectual, and artistic story of how some of the greatest musical works of the time helped create national cultures.