Strumbl, Melanie (2021). “Show and Tell: Displaying Music Historiography at the International Exhibition of Music and Drama, Vienna 1892”. (Thesis). Universität Bern, Bern

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Abstract

My dissertation focuses on the visualization and display of music historiography at the International Exhibition of Music and Drama, Vienna 1892 against the backdrop of nineteenth-century exhibition and visual culture. First, I examine the “visual narratives” that were created to display music history. As part of this analysis, I scrutinize the collections and artifacts that were used to create these narratives as well as the key themes and topics that structured the musico-historical section. Second, I compare these “visual narratives” with written works of music history and general historiographical conventions and models in the nineteenth century. The founder of musicology––Guido Adler¬¬––had a pivotal curating function and was ordained to design specific sections of the exhibition. Thus, I look in particular at Adler’s exhibitionary concept in relation to his historiographical model(s) that he later outlined in his seminal works on music history. In addition, my thesis also investigates the role that the Viennese exhibition played in facilitating the institutionalization of musicology later in 1898. The chapters of my dissertation are structured and organized according to theoretical concepts from different fields and disciplines, e.g. spatiality, visuality, and narrativity. In doing so, I established a way of embedding the exhibition in its larger historical and cultural context. The Austrian National library in Vienna holds most of the source materials such as guides, catalogues, and newspaper articles that not only disclose how the exhibition was organized, but also reveal how the visitors were instructed and led through the exhibition. The central aspects under investigation are perception, aesthetic experience, and practices of looking. In particular, I look at the descriptions of aura and atmosphere and the role these notions play in the spatial perception of exhibiting music history.

Item Type:	Thesis
Dissertation Type:	Single
Date of Defense:	2 March 2021
Subjects:	700 Arts > 780 Music
Institute / Center:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Musicology
Depositing User:	Hammer Igor
Date Deposited:	27 Mar 2023 10:51
Last Modified:	28 Mar 2023 13:28
URI:	https://boristheses.unibe.ch/id/eprint/4192

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