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A great show! Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey

Posted by (Cleveland) on

If you haven’t seen it, you are in for a treat:

Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/tv-specials/symphonic-journey

19th-Century Nationalism and Romanticism 19th-Century Europe

In the 1800s — when this music was written — the twin "isms" of
nationalism and Romanticism were sweeping through Europe, challenging
the old regime notion of divine monarchs and forging the modern world.

The 19th century was a mix of old and new. Beethoven and Einstein.
Napoleon and Freud. White-gloved duchesses and bomb-throwing
Socialists. The train, the bicycle, the horse and buggy, the
automobile, and the balloon. Europe was steaming into a modern world
of factories, rapid transit, instant communication, and global
networks.

At the same time, it clung to a medieval world of kings, nobles, and
time-worn tradition. It was the century when freedom fighters and bold
individuals would finally shatter the belief that some were born to be
rulers and the vast majority were born to just accept their lot in
life and be ruled.

Happy travels

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861 posts

During Napoleon's time, the major countries as such didn't speak their respective languages.

During Napoleon's lifetime (late 18th/early 19th century), only a
small minority of people in France and even smaller minorities in the
regions that make up modern Germany and Italy spoke the respective
standard languages as their first language. Most people spoke regional
languages or dialects.

France

In France, at the time of the French Revolution (1789-1799), which
immediately preceded Napoleon's ascent to power, only about 10% to 13%
of the population spoke French fairly well or fluently as their native
tongue. A survey in 1794 found that only 3 million people out of a
total population of around 28 million were "pure" French speakers.
The majority spoke various regional languages or patois, such as
Occitan, Breton, Alsatian, and Corsican (Napoleon's own first
language).

Germany

In the German-speaking lands, a standard "High German" was used as a
literary and official language, but the common people across the Holy
Roman Empire (and later the various German states) spoke diverse,
often mutually unintelligible, regional dialects (e.g., Low German,
Bavarian, etc.). The modern concept of a unified "Germany" with a
single dominant native language did not exist at the time. While most
people in the core Germanic regions spoke a dialect related to High
German, the percentage who spoke the standard High German as their
first language was not a majority, and the process of standardisation
was a 19th-century development.

Italy

The situation in the regions of modern Italy was even more fragmented.
At the time of Italian unification in 1861 (shortly after the
Napoleonic era), only about 2.5% of the population spoke standard
Italian as their primary language. The language was primarily a
literary one, based on the Florentine dialect used by authors like
Dante. The vast majority of people used their local or regional
languages (e.g., Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Piedmontese, which
were distinct languages, not just dialects).

This music helped build countries!

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