Habermas' Conception of the Bourgeois Public Sphere and Publicness in Musical Culture of the Viennese Enlightenment

Abstract

During the second half of the 18(superscript th) century, conditions of musical life in major European centers underwent a fundamental transformation in which there arose new bourgeois, public audiences for performances of music. This paper explores the rise of the musical public from the perspective of the comprehensive theoretical formulation of the notion of public presented in Jurgen Habermas' Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962). It applies this formulation to the complex case of Austria (and in particular to Vienna), a nation avoided by Habermas who preferred to use Germany, France, and England to illustrate his arguments. His conception of a new educated class engaging in literate debate offers a valuable model for understanding the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and tolerance. However, this model fits uncomfortably with late 18(superscript th) century Vienna, one of the locales most closely associated with the Enlightenment during its later phases. Both the correspondences with Habermas' characterization of public and the divergences from it underscore the need to formulate careful definitions of ”public” and of related notions such as ”public concert” with respect to musical life in Vienna. In particular, the continuing strong influence of the Church and the aristocracy and the absence of a developed humanistic tradition resulted in a peculiarly Austrian Enlightenment, one marked by greater ambivalence than is suggested by Habermas' model. Taking into account aspects of performance practice, audiences, and criticism, this paper investigates the ”public” character of a musical culture sometimes regarded as exemplifying the new publicness of the late 18(superscript th) century.