Oliver Puckey - 2021 cohort

Oliver Puckey op293@cam.ac.uk

UK

History, St Catharine's College

PhD thesis: The Influence of German Music on Cultural Thought and Organisation in Britain, 1824-1867.

Research interests:
1. Nineteenth-Century European History
2. The history of nineteenth-century music
3. Transnational Studies, and the history of nationalism
4. Musical and philosophical exchanges between Germany and Britain/North America

My PhD focuses on the British engagement with German music and musicians between 1815 and 1871. In particular, I hope to demonstrate the role played by music in transmitting ideas of nationalism and national identity across borders in post-Napoleonic Europe. My research will be structured around four case-studies, each reflecting a different aspect of transnationality in British musical culture:

  1. Carl Maria von Weber’s death in London in 1826
  2. Felix Mendelssohn’s composition of Elijah for the 1846 Birmingham Festival
  3. Richard Wagner’s 1855 sojourn in London to conduct the Philharmonic Orchestra
  4. Karl Halle’s formation of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester in 1858

By working on the reception of German music in Britain, I will emphasise how key aspects of national cultural identity in Britain have been intrinsically international in their formation and development, and will work to anchor nineteenth-century British historical change within a more broadly European framework. 

Who or what inspired you to pursue your research interests?

I was inspired to pursue my research interests by questions concerning Britain’s relationship to Europe that have punctuated political and cultural discourse since the 2016 Brexit Referendum. To me, reassessments of Britain’s cultural past that place emphasis on its European and global dimensions have henceforth been given a renewed urgency. I am also heavily indebted to Prof. Axel Körner at UCL, whose valuable contributions to the fields of Transnational Music Studies and European History convinced me to write an MA dissertation on the Wagner movement in Victorian Britain, out of which this PhD thesis emerged.