{"id":{"repo_id":"cambridge","oai_identifier":"oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/341681"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cambridge/oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/341681","repository":{"repo_id":"cambridge","name":"Cambridge University","base_url":"https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Georg Philipp Telemann and the Invention of 'the Polish Style': Musical Polishness in the Early Modern German Imagination","abstract":"This dissertation explores the history and cultural significance of Polish-style music and dance across early modern German lands, focusing on the composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), who was regarded by his contemporaries as a leading practitioner of ‘the Polish style’ of composition. Although references to ‘Polish’ music and dance are abundant in German-language sources from the sixteenth century onwards, it is rarely clear what early modern subjects meant when referring to music as being ‘in a Polish style’. The historical record seems rife with contradiction and ambiguity concerning the origins, musical features and – most importantly – socio-cultural connotations of these repertoires. In some sources, Polish-style music is associated with the splendour of courtly ceremony, while in others, it is linked with peasant musicians and dancing bears. Likewise, some writers viewed Polish-style music as the paragon of masculinity, while others decried its effeminate qualities. And for some witnesses, Polishness in music was understood in terms of on-the-page musical elements; for others, it was manifest in the sounds of certain instruments and performance practices. I resolve these apparent contradictions by deconstructing the idea of a single well-defined concept of Polish-style music. I show that several different traditions of music and dance were considered ‘Polish’ for different reasons by different early modern communities. Far from representing a long-standing and widely recognised mode of music-making, ‘the Polish style’ is, I argue, best understood as the invention of Telemann and his Hamburg circle. This ‘new’ style was a synthesis of pre-existing traditions, which Telemann applied creatively to a host of novel compositional contexts. Exploring these traditions separately allows us to situate individual instances of what I term ‘musical Polishness’ (that is, music described as ‘Polish’ by non-Poles) within the daily lives of the early modern Germans who sang, played, danced and listened to this music. In the process, I challenge the notion that Polish-style music was widely perceived as exotic or ‘other’. Instead, these repertoires often reveal porous borders, entangled identities and shared cultural practices, thus destabilising recent narratives of an East-West geopolitical divide in early modern Europe.","abstract_html":"This dissertation explores the history and cultural significance of Polish-style music and dance across early modern German lands, focusing on the composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), who was regarded by his contemporaries as a leading practitioner of ‘the Polish style’ of composition. Although references to ‘Polish’ music and dance are abundant in German-language sources from the sixteenth century onwards, it is rarely clear what early modern subjects meant when referring to music as being ‘in a Polish style’. The historical record seems rife with contradiction and ambiguity concerning the origins, musical features and – most importantly – socio-cultural connotations of these repertoires. In some sources, Polish-style music is associated with the splendour of courtly ceremony, while in others, it is linked with peasant musicians and dancing bears. Likewise, some writers viewed Polish-style music as the paragon of masculinity, while others decried its effeminate qualities. And for some witnesses, Polishness in music was understood in terms of on-the-page musical elements; for others, it was manifest in the sounds of certain instruments and performance practices. I resolve these apparent contradictions by deconstructing the idea of a single well-defined concept of Polish-style music. I show that several different traditions of music and dance were considered ‘Polish’ for different reasons by different early modern communities. Far from representing a long-standing and widely recognised mode of music-making, ‘the Polish style’ is, I argue, best understood as the invention of Telemann and his Hamburg circle. This ‘new’ style was a synthesis of pre-existing traditions, which Telemann applied creatively to a host of novel compositional contexts. Exploring these traditions separately allows us to situate individual instances of what I term ‘musical Polishness’ (that is, music described as ‘Polish’ by non-Poles) within the daily lives of the early modern Germans who sang, played, danced and listened to this music. In the process, I challenge the notion that Polish-style music was widely perceived as exotic or ‘other’. Instead, these repertoires often reveal porous borders, entangled identities and shared cultural practices, thus destabilising recent narratives of an East-West geopolitical divide in early modern Europe.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Newton-Jackson, Paul"],"institution":"University of Cambridge","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Varwig, Bettina"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-04-29","date_published":"2022-04-29","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:00Z","subjects":["Early Modern History","Georg Philipp Telemann","German-Polish Relations","Early Music","Dance Music"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.89102","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.doi"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Varwig, Bettina"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.sponsor","label":"Sponsor","values":["Cambridge International Trust"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Newton-Jackson, Paul"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2022-04-29"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cambridge"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/341681"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Early Modern History","Georg Philipp Telemann","German-Polish Relations","Early Music","Dance Music"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["10.17863/CAM.89102"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/890c3ffb-9010-44a6-88af-cdc351ce5fff/download"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation explores the history and cultural significance of Polish-style music and dance across early modern German lands, focusing on the composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), who was regarded by his contemporaries as a leading practitioner of ‘the Polish style’ of composition. Although references to ‘Polish’ music and dance are abundant in German-language sources from the sixteenth century onwards, it is rarely clear what early modern subjects meant when referring to music as being ‘in a Polish style’. The historical record seems rife with contradiction and ambiguity concerning the origins, musical features and – most importantly – socio-cultural connotations of these repertoires. In some sources, Polish-style music is associated with the splendour of courtly ceremony, while in others, it is linked with peasant musicians and dancing bears. Likewise, some writers viewed Polish-style music as the paragon of masculinity, while others decried its effeminate qualities. And for some witnesses, Polishness in music was understood in terms of on-the-page musical elements; for others, it was manifest in the sounds of certain instruments and performance practices. I resolve these apparent contradictions by deconstructing the idea of a single well-defined concept of Polish-style music. I show that several different traditions of music and dance were considered ‘Polish’ for different reasons by different early modern communities. Far from representing a long-standing and widely recognised mode of music-making, ‘the Polish style’ is, I argue, best understood as the invention of Telemann and his Hamburg circle. This ‘new’ style was a synthesis of pre-existing traditions, which Telemann applied creatively to a host of novel compositional contexts. Exploring these traditions separately allows us to situate individual instances of what I term ‘musical Polishness’ (that is, music described as ‘Polish’ by non-Poles) within the daily lives of the early modern Germans who sang, played, danced and listened to this music. In the process, I challenge the notion that Polish-style music was widely perceived as exotic or ‘other’. 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Although references to ‘Polish’ music and dance are abundant in German-language sources from the sixteenth century onwards, it is rarely clear what early modern subjects meant when referring to music as being ‘in a Polish style’. The historical record seems rife with contradiction and ambiguity concerning the origins, musical features and – most importantly – socio-cultural connotations of these repertoires. In some sources, Polish-style music is associated with the splendour of courtly ceremony, while in others, it is linked with peasant musicians and dancing bears. Likewise, some writers viewed Polish-style music as the paragon of masculinity, while others decried its effeminate qualities. And for some witnesses, Polishness in music was understood in terms of on-the-page musical elements; for others, it was manifest in the sounds of certain instruments and performance practices. I resolve these apparent contradictions by deconstructing the idea of a single well-defined concept of Polish-style music. I show that several different traditions of music and dance were considered ‘Polish’ for different reasons by different early modern communities. Far from representing a long-standing and widely recognised mode of music-making, ‘the Polish style’ is, I argue, best understood as the invention of Telemann and his Hamburg circle. This ‘new’ style was a synthesis of pre-existing traditions, which Telemann applied creatively to a host of novel compositional contexts. Exploring these traditions separately allows us to situate individual instances of what I term ‘musical Polishness’ (that is, music described as ‘Polish’ by non-Poles) within the daily lives of the early modern Germans who sang, played, danced and listened to this music. In the process, I challenge the notion that Polish-style music was widely perceived as exotic or ‘other’. 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