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Re: How Patriotic?
Here we go, I made a mistake it is 'Das' not 'Die'. i am grateful to len Mullender at Musicweb.uk.net for the following:-
The mentioned quote is the title of a book published at first in 1904 (the last edition took place in Munich 1915) by a scholar whose complete name was Oskar Adolf Hermann Schmitz. A lot of the opinions that were published in concoctions like the above mentioned were already obsolete by the time of their publication, and you are right to suspect that his "works" were mainly read (by some patriotic, music-academic circles too) out of reasons that have their origin in an overall jingoism, poisoning the most parts of Europe during this era. In fact the basic impulse to publish this kind of books in Germany (this is only one example among many others) was a chauvinistic one, and not a scientific one.
The true origin of this quote, however, lies much earlier, in 1866 - the year of Arthur Sullivan`s "Irish" - when this obstinate legend was at first expressed, and was at that time also well believed by the British themselves - with good reason.
Schmitz`s basis for his musical prejudices in comprehensively surveying British culture is another notorious German, Carl Engel, a "music scholar" residing in England at that time. To give you an impression of the language he preferred to use here is a quote out of his book "An Introduction to the Study of National Music", London 1866: "Although the rural population of England appear to sing less than those of most other European countries, it may nevertheless be supposed that they also, especially in districts somewhat remote from any large towns, must still preserve songs and dance tunes of their own inherited from their forefathers".
Translation of Scmitz's actual comments.
I have long tried to understand what kind of lack it is that manifests itself in so many English representations which have such a deadening effect. I have asked myself what is missing from theis nation. Kindness, love of people, humour or aesthetic sense? No, one can find all these attributes in england , some of them more noticeably than among ourselves. Finally I have found something which distinguishes English people from all other cultures to quite an aastonishing degree, a lack which everybody acknowledges therefore nothing new but has not been emphasised enough. The English are the only cultured nation without its own music (except street music). This does not mean that they have less sensitive ears but that their life overall is much poorer for it. To be immeersed in music, even ever so little, means being able to loose yourself. To tolerate even dis-harmonies, even to spend time with such sounds since they can be resolved in beautiful harmony, music provides wings and makes everything beautiful and fantastical seem natural
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