performedmore problematic compensatoryfunctions. Choral leaders frequently
argued over the competing demands of artistic quality and political aspiration
and tried toresist the corruption of the proletarian dream by reactionary dis-
courses of nation and people (or folk). What some socialist leaders sawas
self-affirmation, others criticized as self-segregation. The frequent accusation
that workers’choral societies existed in competition with the socialist movement
can be traced through the most recent scholarlydebates over their (a)political
nature–reason enough to takeacloser lookatthe collective emotions and imag-
inaries produced through choral singing.⁵
Musically, workers’song developed asahybrid form, with the typicalreper-
toireconsistingofrevolutionary anthems, traditional folk songs, churchhymns,
and bourgeoisKunstlieder(art songs). Religion remained an important reference
point in the languageofsufferingand salvation thatallowed worker poetsto
imagine the proletariat asaChrist-likefigure distinguished, in the words of
one song,by“your crownofthorns.”Choral singingdrew rich inspiration
from oral traditions and local customs,promptingSPD politician Emanuel
Wurm (1857–1920)todeclare, “the folksong of our times is the workers’
song.”⁶WhileVormärzwriters and worker poets provided the revolutionary mes-
sages, the tunes usually came from folkloric, patriotic,and religious songs. The
substitution of onetext by another,known ascontrafactumin vocal music and
examined here as an example of the widespread socialist practice of appropria-
tion andrefunctionalization, often involved dramatic shifts in the discursive
field: from sacred to profane, or fromreactionary to progressive.
Bourgeois conventionsofpublicsentimentality are most noticeable in the
songs’abundant naturemetaphors:the ubiquitousrays of sun, dawns of day,
and storms of revolution. Meanwhile middle-class forms of sociability,including
the convivialityofstudent fraternities,influenced the singingand drinking rit-
uals perfected in the corner pubs of working-class neighborhoods.Workers’cho-
ralsocieties drew heavilyonthe traditions established by various trades and
crafts and identifiedwith specific regions and ethnic groups.The discovery dur-
ing the romanticmovement of the“authentic”voice of the folk and the emphasis
See Severin Caspari,“‘Wann wir schreiten Seit an Seit’.Zur mythenbildenden Kraft des Arbei-
terliedes für die SPD,”inMythen, Ikonen, Märtyrer. Sozialdemokratische Geschichten,ed. Franz
Walter andFelix Butzlaff (Berlin:Vorwärts,2013), 223 – 238.
EmanuelWurm, quoted in Lammel,Arbeiterlied—Arbeitergesang,133.The continuities be-
tween folk songand workers’songare evident in the collection puttogether byWolfgang Stei-
nitz and republished inDer große Steinitz. DeutscheVolkslieder demokratischen Charakters aus
sechsJahrhunderten(Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins, 1983).
On Workers Singing in OneVoice 87