ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part examines the conjoining of discourses on masculinity with discourses about the German national ideal in the reception of the music of Johannes Brahms. It explores the gendered language used to describe Brahms's music, noting that his advocates, such as Eduard Hanslick, frequently figured his music as 'manly' while his detractors commonly figured his music as 'feminine' or 'impotent'. The part focuses on the question of musical succession after Beethoven, framing this question as a concern about both masculinity and nationality, and considering it an issue with which Brahms himself, alongside his critics, engaged in his symphonic writing. It analyses the impact of hegemonic discourses around manliness and masculinity on imaginations of male creativity and shows how discourses about creativity in German-speaking territories were also marked by a tendency to think of it in terms of androgyny in the early twentieth century.
