Musik som statskonst och dess roll i svensk inrikespolitik c.1550–c.1950

Abstract

Music as Statesmanship and its Role in Swedish Domestic Affairs c.1550–c.1950

Music and musical matters have played a considerable role in the dealings of internal affairs for Swedish rulers, statesmen and political elites ever since the early modern period. This study proposes three types of musical interactions and policies, drawing on a number of case studies in a longue durée perspective: 1. ”music as statesmanship”; 2. ”statesmanship as a reaction to musical currents”; and 3. ”statesmanship for specific musical aims”. The main cases drawn upon cover Gustav I (Vasa) in the sixteenth century, Gustav III in the late eighteenth-century and the musically active prime ministers and ministers for foreign affairs Erik Marks von Würtemberg and Rickard Sandler in the first half of the twentieth century. The proposed typology sheds new light on the interactions between the political and musical domains, but also makes possible a new understanding of Swedish domestic affairs and policies on a wider scale. It is argued that music has an important role of bestowing honour and to legitimize rulers, and that its possibilities to influence a larger majority for political aims and purposes are limited and curtailed by the musical interpretation and reception from a societal majority. It is furthermore argued that the latter holds true both in the Swedish early modern absolute monarchy and in its later parliamentary democracy, which suggests a continuity connected to music and musical matters.