workers’choral societies, and despite sharp political divisions over theirrela-
tionship to earlier discourses of folk and nation, working-classmasculinity re-
mainedthe ultimatereferencepoint in all musicalexpressions ofacollective
“we,”from the performances of sentimental masculinity inWilhelmine Social
Democracy to the habitus of militant masculinity inWeimar-era Communist agit-
prop. Evenacursory survey of existing choral societies (i.e.,Sängerrunden)
today, including in the centers of German immigration in the United States,
would confirm that the historical connection between worker’smovement and
choral singingmay have entirelydisappeared from view;but thegendered na-
ture of the chorus asamodel of emotional community has survivedeventhe
end of traditional class society and the death of communism. Thisisdefinitely
not the case for socialist allegory,which likewiseinvolvesprocesses of appropri-
ation and refunctionalization but,aswillbeargued in the next chapter,remains
entirelycaught within the aestheticsensibilities of the nineteenth century.
On WorkersSinging in OneVoice 99