David Brodbeck

Picture of David Brodbeck
Professor of Music, Music
Claire Trevor School of the Arts
Professor, Affiliate, History
School of Humanities
Professor, Affiliate, European Languages and Studies
School of Humanities
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1984, Musicology
Phone: (949) 824-1054
Email: david.brodbeck@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
3045 Contemporary Arts Center
Mail Code: 2775
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Central European Music, Long Nineteenth Century, Rock Music
Short Biography
David Brodbeck’s research and teaching has focused on both Central European music and musical culture in the long nineteenth century and rock music.

He has published on topics ranging from the dances of Schubert and the sacred vocal music of Mendelssohn to various aspects of Brahms’s music and on to intertextuality in recordings by the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Much of his earlier work on Brahms explores connections between biography and musical analysis. His book on Brahms’s First Symphony, for example, addresses issues of genesis, extra-compositional allusion, and autobiographical content, concerns that are central, too, to his published essays on Brahms’s youthful studies in counterpoint and later large-scale chamber works. His work of the last several years has turned to broader social questions. Among his recent publications are “Goldmark’s ‘Thoughts about Form and Style’ . . . and the Wagnerians’ Antisemitism” (Nineteenth-Century Studies); “‘You Don’t Just Stick It Together’; or, Things Paul (and John) Pinched from Brian” (Rock Music Studies, 2021); “Carl Goldmark and Cosmopolitan Patriotism” (Music History and Cosmopolitanism, 2019), “Heimat is Where the Heart Is; or, How Hungarian Was Goldmark” (Austrian History Yearbook, 2017), and the monograph Defining Deutschtum: Political Ideology, German Identity, and Music-Critical Discourse in Liberal Vienna (Oxford University Press, 2014), winner of both the Virgil Thomson Award, given by the ASCAP Foundation for the Outstanding Book in the Field of Music Criticism, and the Award for Excellence for a Book on Jewish Studies and Music, American Musicological Society. He is currently working on a book concerned with Brahms and German national sentiment.

He is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Philosophical Society, and is a past President of the American Brahms Society.

Prior to joining the faculty at UC Irvine, he taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Southern California.
Publications
Publications

Books:

Defining Deutschtum: Political Ideology, German Identity, and Music-Critical Discourse in Liberal Vienna. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Award for Excellence, Study Group for Jewish Studies and Music, American Musicological Society, 2016

Virgil Thomson Award, ASCAP Foundation, for Outstanding Book in the Field of Music Criticism, 2015

Selected by Choice as an outstanding academic title for 2015

Reviewed in Notes, German History, Musical Times, H-und-Kult (Humanities–Sozial und Kulturgeschichte), Times Literary Supplement, Choice, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, Common Knowledge, Central European History, Musica Judaica Online

Chinese translation, ???????:??????????????,????????-????, Chongqing Southwest China Normal University Press, in press.

Brahms: Symphony No. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Portuguese translation, Brahms: Sinfonia N. 1. Translated by Alberto Cunha. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paolo, 2017.

Brahms Studies. Edited by David Brodbeck. 3 vols. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995–2001.

Critical Editions:

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Hymne, op. 96. Edited by David Brodbeck. Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag, 1998.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Psalmen, op. 78. Edited by David Brodbeck. Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag, 1998.

Articles in refereed books and journals:

“Goldmark’s ‘Thoughts on Form and Style’ . . . and the Wagnerians’ Antisemitism,” 19th-Century Studies 33 (2022): in press.

“Settling for Second Best: Brahms’s Männerchöre in Historical Context.” In Rethinking Brahms, edited by Nicole Grimes and Reuben Philipps. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in press (expected 2022).

“‘You Don’t Just Stick It Together’; or, Things Paul (and John) Pinched from Brian,” Rock Music Studies 8 (May 2021): in press.

“Carl Goldmark and Cosmopolitan Patriotism.” In Music History and Cosmopolitanism, edited by Anastasia Belina-Johnson, Kaarina Kilpiö, and Derek B. Scott, pp. 47–58 Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2019.

“Heimat is Where the Heart Is; or, How Hungarian was Goldmark?” Austrian History Yearbook 47 (2017): 235–54.

“Two Brothers and a Queen: Behind the Scenes of Goldmark’s First Opera.” Musical Quarterly 97 (2014): 499–541.

“‘Poison-flaming Flowers from the Orient and Nightingales from Bayreuth’: On Hanslick’s Reception of the Music of Goldmark.” In Rethinking Hanslick: Music, Formalism, and Expression, edited by Nicole Grimes, Siobhán Donovan, and Wolfgang Marx, pp. 132–59. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2013.

“Ausgleichs-Abende: The First Viennese Performances of Smetana’s Bartered Bride.” Austrian Studies 17 (2009): 43–61.

“Hanslick’s Smetana and Hanslick’s Prague.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 134 (2009): 1–36 (awarded the H. Colin Slim Award by the American Musicological Society).

“Dvorák’s Reception in Liberal Vienna: Language Ordinances, National Property, and the Rhetoric of Deutschtum.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 60 (2007): 71–131.

“On Some Enigmas Surrounding a Riddle Canon by Brahms.” Journal of Musicology 20 (2003): 73–103.

“Eine kleine Kirchenmusik: A New Canon, a Revised Cadence, and an Obscure ‘Coda’ by Mendelssohn.” Journal of Musicology 12 (1994): 179–205.

“Primo Schubert, Secondo Schumann: Brahms’s Four-Hand Waltzes, Op. 39.” Journal of Musicology 7 (1989): 58–80.

“Dissociation and Integration: The First Movement of Beethoven’s Opus 130” (with John Platoff). 19th-Century Music 7 (1983/84): 149–62.



Invited contributions to books:

“‘Wollen wir doch nie vergessen, daß wir arme deutsche Komponisten sind’: Zu Goldmarks Selbstverteidigung.” In Carl Goldmark: Leben, Werk, Reception, edited by Peter Stachel. Vienna: Hollitzer, in press.

“Korngold Father and Son in Vienna’s Pre-War Public Eye.” In Erich Wolfgang Korngold and His World, edited by Daniel Goldmark and Kevin Karnes, pp. 1–32. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019.

“Politics and Religion.” In Brahms in Context, edited by Natasha Loges and Katy Hamilton, pp. 259–68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

“Music and the Marketplace: On the Backstory of Carlos Chávez’s Violin Concerto.” In Carlos Chávez and His World, edited by Leonora Saavedra, pp. 178–202. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015. Spanish translation, “La música y el mercado: La historia detrás del Concierto para violin de Carlos Chávez. In Carlos Chávez y su mundo, edited by Leonora Saavedra, presentation by Mario Lavista, pp. 255–89. Translated by Alejandro Pérez Sáez. Mexico City: El Colegio Nacional, 2018.

“The Symphony after Beethoven after Dahlhaus.” In The Cambridge Handbook to the Symphony, edited by Julian Horton, pp. 61–95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

“Brahms, the Third Symphony, and the New German School.” In Brahms and His World, rev. ed., edited by Walter Frisch and Kevin Karnes, pp. 95–116. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

“Medium and Meaning: New Aspects of the Chamber Music.” In The Cambridge Companion to Brahms, edited by Michael Musgrave, pp. 98–132. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

“Brahms’s Mendelssohn.” In Brahms Studies, vol. 2, edited by David Brodbeck, pp. 209–31. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

“Brahms.” In The Nineteenth-Century Symphony, edited by D. Kern Holomon, pp. 224–72. New York: Schirmer Books, 1996.

“The Brahms-Joachim Counterpoint Exchange; or, Robert, Clara, and ‘the Best Harmony between Jos. and Joh..’” In Brahms Studies, vol. 1, edited by David Brodbeck, pp. 30–80. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

“A Winter of Discontent: Mendelssohn and the Berliner Domchor.” In Mendelssohn Studies, edited by R. Larry Todd, pp. 1–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

“Some Notes on an Anthem by Mendelssohn.” In Mendelssohn and His World, edited by R. Larry Todd, pp. 43–64. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

“Brahms’s Edition of Twenty Schubert Ländler: An Essay in Criticism.” In Brahms Studies: Analytical and Historical Perspectives, edited by George S. Bozarth, pp. 229–50. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

“Compatibility, Coherence, and Closure in Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes.” In Explorations in Music, the Arts, and Ideas: Essays in Honor of Leonard B. Meyer, edited by Eugene Narmour and Ruth A. Solie, pp. 411–37. Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 1988.

“Dance Music as High Art: Schubert’s Twelve Ländler, Op. 171 (D. 790).” In Schubert: Critical and Analytical Studies, edited by Walter Frisch, pp. 30–47. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.



Book Reviews:

Review of Robert Schumann and the Study of Orchestral Composition: The Genesis of the First Symphony, Op. 38, by Jon W. Finson. 19th-Century Music 15 (1991/92): 69–75.

Review of Brahms-Kongress, Wien 1983, edited by Susanne Antonicek and Otto Biba; Brahms 2: Biographical, Documentary, and Analytical Studies, edited by Michael Musgrave; Johannes Brahms, by Ivor Keys; and Brahms, by Malcolm MacDonald. Notes 38 (1991/92): 86–90.

Review of Johannes Brahms Thematisch-Bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, by Margit L. McCorkle. Journal of the American Musicological Society 52 (1989): 417–30.

Review of The Music of Brahms, by Michael Musgrave. Journal of Musicology 7, (1989): 403–14.

Review of Harmony and Voice Leading, by Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter. Perspectives of New Music 21 (1982/83): 425–30.



Shorter articles, liner notes, and program notes:

“Carl Goldmark.” Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2021.

“Teachers, Admirers, Influences.” Program notes for the Bard Music Festival, “Erich Wolfgang Korngold and His World,” August 2019.

“Notes from the Lives of Two Viennese Composers.” The American Brahms Society Newsletter 32/1 (2014): 1–5.

“A Master, a Protégé, and an Epigone.” Program notes for the concert “What Makes A Masterpiece,” American Symphony Orchestra, January 25, 2013.

“Wagner Pro and Contra.” Program notes for the Bard Music Festival, “Wagner and His World,” August 2009.

Liner Notes for Bach-Schumann: Sonatas and Partitas, performed by Haroutune Bedelian, violin; and Lorna Griffitt, piano. Centaur Recordings, 2007.

“No Nature Reserve: Introduction to Brahms’s Chamber Music.” Program note in the 2005 season program booklet for the Aspen Music Festival and School, 2005.

Liner Notes for Johannes Brahms, Piano Quintet in F Minor, op. 34, performed by the Russian-American String Quartet. Quindecim Recordings, 2000.

Liner Notes for Johannes Brahms, Clarinet Quintet, op. 115, and String Quartet No. 3, op. 67, performed by the Russian-American String Quartet (with Luis Humberto Ramos). Quindecim Recordings, 2000.

Liner Notes for Johannes Brahms, Sonatas Op. 120, No. 1 and No. 2, Two Songs for Alto, Viola, and Piano, Op. 91, performed by Yuri Bashmet, Mikhail Muntian, and Larissa Diadkova. BMG Classics, 1998.

Essays on Brahms’s Waltzes, Op. 39 and Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52. In The Compleat Brahms, edited by Leon Botstein, pp. 203–205 and 323–25 (respectively). New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Essay on Brahms’s orchestration of pieces from the Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 52, and Neue Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 65, in Dialogues and Extensions, Program booklet of the American Symphony Orchestra, 1997.

“Brahms’s Mendelssohn.” The American Brahms Society Newsletter 15/2 (1997): 1–4.

“Brahms’s Schubert.” The American Brahms Society Newsletter 14/1 (1997): 1–4; earlier version in A Celebration of Titans: Franz Schubert & Johannes Brahms. Program booklet of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (1997): 3–4.

Liner Notes for Brahms, Piano Pieces. Erato Disques, 1996.

“Mahler’s Brahms.” The American Brahms Society Newsletter 10/2 (1992): 1–5.

Liner Notes for Johannes Brahms, Sonatas Op. 120, No. 1 and No. 2, Scherzo in c minor, performed by Barbara Westphal and Ursula Oppens. Bridge Records, 1990.

“The Waltzes of Brahms.” The American Brahms Society Newsletter, IV/2 (1986): 1–3.
Grants
See above under Short Biography.
Professional Societies
American Musicological Society
Society for American Music
American Brahms Society
German Studies Association
International Musicological Society
Other Experience
Professor of Music
University of Pittsburgh 1999—2005
Associate Professor of Music
University of Pittsburgh 1993—1999
Assistant Professor of Music
University of Pittsburgh 1987—1993
Assistant Professor of Music
University Southern California 1984—1987
Graduate Programs
History and Theory of Music
Last updated
09/06/2021