Abstract

This article examines mid-nineteenth-century Anglo-French relations through the prism of musical standardization. Bringing together perspectives from musicology, history of science, and political history, it demonstrates the holistic value of musical practices for the study of processes of political integration. In 1859, Napoléon III's government determined a national pitch to which musicians should tune their instruments. The following year, Britain's Society of Arts attempted to emulate this standard. Amid tense Anglo-French relations, British audiences interpreted the French pitch as a measure of the country's autocracy, and these political anxieties materialized through a redefinition of the standard. The challenges of introducing a musical pitch within a liberal political framework encountered in 1859 were subsequently echoed in debates over the reform of weights and measures following the 1860 free trade treaty between Britain and France. Both the economic and artistic integration of these countries involved the problem of how to regulate society within a laissez-faire state. Musical standardization has received little historiographical attention, but the regulation of this art offers insights into mid-nineteenth-century Anglo-French political culture. Entangled within complex network of industrial, institutional, and social structures, musical pitch demonstrates how problems of economic and social integration were inseparable from international and socio-political contexts.

中文翻译：

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19世纪法国和英国的音乐标准化政治*

摘要

本文通过音乐标准化的角度考察了19世纪中叶的英法关系。汇集了音乐学，科学史和政治史的观点，证明了音乐实践在政治整合过程研究中的整体价值。1859年，拿破仑三世（NapoléonIII）政府确定了一个全国音高，音乐家应将其乐器调到该音高。第二年，英国艺术学会试图效仿这一标准。在紧张的英法关系中，英国观众将法国的推销解释为衡量该国专制的手段，而这些政治忧虑通过重新定义标准而得以实现。在1859年遇到的自由政治框架内引入音乐音调的挑战随后在1860年英法自由贸易条约之后有关权衡的改革的辩论中得到了回应。这些国家的经济和艺术融合都涉及如何在自由放任的国家内规范社会的问题。音乐标准化很少受到史学上的关注，但是这种艺术的规范为19世纪中叶的英法政治文化提供了见识。音乐音调被复杂的工业，制度和社会结构网络所缠结，表明了经济和社会融合问题与国际和社会政治背景是如何密不可分的。