One World, Many Voices? Musicians as Protagonists of Internationalism(s)

About the Lecture

It is something of a cliché to describe music as a ‘universal language’ – especially when bearing in mind that specific national and cultural contexts often shaped the production and reception of music. This lecture – which also serves as the closing keynote for the History MA 'Histories of Internationalism' Conference at LMJU – argues that the conceptual lens of internationalism provides us with a fruitful way of analysing the ways in which music and musicians have crossed various borders.

The term ‘internationalism’ is an umbrella term for different ambitions and practices that aim at international cooperation, without abandoning the national lens altogether. The lecture argues that we can see musicians as protagonists of internationalism in the twentieth century.

At one level, this included the role of some musicians in espousing and promoting particular internationalist visions – including communist and Pan-African ones – as well as their participation in international solidarity campaigns.

At a second level, the paper explores how we might consider concerts and festivals as particular manifestations of internationalism. And at a third level, the paper considered some of the particular notions and structures associated with ‘world music’. Internationalism often fell short of the global aspirations that it proclaimed – a point that the musical examples clearly demonstrate.

About Prof. Daniel Laqua

Daniel is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History. His research deals with movements and organisations whose activities transcended national boundaries, covering the causes promoted by socialists, anarchists, pacifists, humanitarians, student activists and anti-racist campaigners.

Daniel has led a variety of projects (with funding from the AHRC, ESRC, the British Educational Research Association, the Society for Educational Studies and various international councils), maintaining collaborations with historians in Belgium, Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the US. He is the editor-in-chief of History: The Journal of the Historical Association.

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