Talk by Dr Anna Sanda
Enlightened Representation on the Sacred Stage. Music and Power at the Bonn Electoral Court, 1774-94
Dr Anna Sanda, who recently joined the team of the ERC-Project „Opera and the Politics of Empire in Habsburg Europe, 1815-1914”, will speak about the role of sacred music in the political representation of the Bonn Electoral Court at the end of the 18th century. Her talk forms part of the colloquia at the Chair of Modern Cultural and Intellectual History and the Chair of 19th to 21st Century History.
Based on my dissertation at the University of Vienna, this talk explores the role of sacred music in the political representation of the Bonn Electoral Court during the last two decades of its existence (1774-94).
I will examine how the performance of liturgical music turned the court chapel into a stage for political rituals in which power, innovation and enlightened thought were negotiated. Musical examples will show that the repertoire, with its multiple, centuries-old references to dynastic traditions, was not at odds with the challenges of epochal change around 1800. Instead, it formed part of a political strategy to make this transitional period comprehensible and communicable.