Veranstaltungen von Natasha Loges

Music is always political, but sometimes even more than usual. In the mid-twentieth century, governments discovered the power of musical performers in shaping national public image. Classical music, jazz, and folk were each recruited to project power, forge alliances, and challenge colonial hierarchies, not only in the contest between the USA and USSR, but across a newly decolonising world. Including figures from Miriam Makeba to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Glenn Gould, this seminar explores how musicians bear national identity. As nationalism returns to the centre of global politics today, these issues have once again become urgent. This course introduces the principles of cultural diplomacy and explores a series of case studies ranging from the State Department Jazz Tours to the anti-apartheid concert stage.

The admiration and understanding of music has long been inseparable from the biographical portraits of its composers. As we approach the bicentenary of Beethoven’s death in 2027, this seminar explores the art, craft and ideologies of music biography. How do biographers navigate gaps in the historical record? How are myths constructed and sustained? This lecture series explores how the conventions of music biography are rooted in the assumptions of their own historical moments, and how those assumptions continue to shape our ideas about musical greatness and the canon. In a time when artificial intelligence threatens to amplify the errors and prejudices of the past at unprecedented scale, we explore how biography might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

This class is aimed at doctoral and Masters students who wish to survey and discuss latest developments in scholarship and to develop a strong research basis for their PhD work. The course content includes:

1. Exploring recent music scholarship in various formats, from a wide range of perspectives including künstlerische Forschung / practice research
2. Undertaking a thorough review of literature, including in non-verbal formats
3. Devising innovative and open-minded research methodologies
4. Practising scholarly writing by sharing our work-in-progress, with a focus on developing confidence and clarity
5. Sharing constructive feedback with each other
6. Writing conference abstracts and giving a conference paper
7. Developing strategies on how to plan work and organise time effectively

Languages of instruction are English and German.