The Rhine as Musical Metaphor: Cultural Identity in German Romantic Music

In her study of nearly 400 Rheinlieder published during the 1840s – including the works of Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Wagner – Cecelia Hopkins Porter shows how the French threat to take the Rhine transformed the river into a metaphor for the German nationalistic spirit. Combining incisive musical analysis with broader historical and cultural perspectives, she discusses a variety of related Rhine images, the musical style of the Rheinlieder, and public musical life of the period, illuminating the deep relationship of this body of music to social changes that occurred during the German Romantic period.