The sounds of music and the German language have played a significant
role in the developing symbolism of the German nation. In light of the
historical division of Germany into many disparate political entities
and regional groups, German artists and intellectuals of the 19th and
early 20th centuries conceived of musical and linguistic dispositions as
the nation's most palpable common ground. According to this view, the
peculiar sounds of German music and of the German language provided a
direct conduit to national identity, to the deepest recesses of the
German soul. So strong is this legacy of sound is still prevalent in
modern German culture that philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, in a recent
essay, did not even hesitate to describe post-wall Germany as an
"acoustical body."
This volume gathers the work of scholars from the US, Germany, and the
United Kingdom to explore the role of sound in modern and postmodern
German cultural production. Working across established disciplines and
methodological divides, the essays of Sound Matters investigate the
ways in which texts, artists, and performers in all kinds of media have
utilized sonic materials in order to enforce or complicate dominant
notions of German cultural and national identity.