ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 explores overt and hidden political meanings in music, how music can be used for political aims, and how music may represent national identity. We begin by comparing and contrasting “The Star-Spangled Banner” with “La Marseilles.” Then we examine the power of political campaign music. Next, we study how music solidified national agendas in 19th-century Europe and Communist agendas in 20th-century China and Bulgaria. From there we step further back in time and study how Beethoven envisioned ideas of brotherhood in his Symphony No. 9 in D minor, as well as how others appropriated the work for their own political causes. We close the chapter by looking at music in the Zapatista revolutionary movement in Chiapas, Mexico.
