In 1848, two dozen German musicians formed a musical association under the name Germania Musical Society in Berlin. After a limited number of concerts, they traveled, via London, to the United States, where, over the course of the following six years, they gave more than nine hundred concerts, primarily in East Coast cities and seaport resorts as well as in the Mid-west.

The “Germanians” are no strangers to students familiar with nineteenth-century US cultural history. They frequently appear on the margins of introductions to the genesis of American musical history but their fleeting existence in an era when there were few symphony orchestras often leaves readers puzzled. Who were these people and what does their story mean in the context of nineteenth-century German and American social and musical life? This is the story Nancy Newman explores in her book.

To this end, Newman divides her book into five chapters: the first delineates the musical and social context of the Germanians, including the existence and fate of other transatlantic orchestras such as the Steyermark Company and Joseph Gungl's band. The next two chapters recapture the travels, experiences and successes of the Germania Musical Society in the United States, while chapter 4 represents an in-depth analysis of the Germanians' repertory. The final part frames the preceding narrative by dwelling extensively on the motivations and long-term effects of the band's impact in the United States and its sociopolitical significance.

At the core of this book is a semi-autobiographical sketch, “Skizzen aus dem Leben der Musik-Gesellschaft Germania” (Sketches from the Lives of the Germania Musical Society, Philadelphia, 1869) composed by band member Henry Albrecht and translated by Newman in its entirety. “Skizzen” summarizes Albrecht's vision as well as the genesis and reception of the band in the United States. Of central importance, we learn, is the fact that Albrecht was a devoted utopianist who in his youth had spent much time studying the ideas of Etienne Cabet, and who, after the dismissal of the Germania Musical Society, spent nearly two years in Cabet's utopian community Icaria in Illinois.

As Newman shows, the founding of the Germanians reflected a facet of European revolutionary activities framed by the events preceding and taking place in 1848. Seeking to free themselves from the traditional patterns of court patronage, their association was based on the principle of economic, social and political independence and community ante Marx: equal rights, equal duties and equal rewards for all. As such, the group reflected the utopian ideas customary in the first half of the nineteenth century. What is more, their transatlantic voyage was an expression of the social utopianism seeking an independent existence in the New World. In tandem with their utopianism, the Germanians foreshadowed the philantrophist motivation that became a central impetus for many symphony orchestras in America after 1850, notably the urge to introduce broad audiences to the music of the Romantics as a vehicle for the vision of social harmony and the perfect society. Here, Newman directly confronts the social criticism of Lawrence Levine, Paul DiMaggio and others who, since the 1960s, have delineated an increasing sense of hierarchy and “sacralization” in cultural venues such as theatres, orchestras and opera houses based on dress code and behaviourist changes. One should not take these dynamics at face value, Newman argues, nor should historians exaggerate the religious terminology of the time. At the end of the day, the Germanians – like their successors – kept ticket prices low, tried to appear accessible and increasingly strove to “educate” audiences by applying a carrot-and-stick method, mixing light and serious music.

This is a rich, introspective and thought-provoking book that merges well with the recent rise of “audio history” as the study of music itself appears to assume – once again – a central position across disciplines. Readers may squabble with the fact that the introduction to European social theory and political life might have deserved more space, that the focus on Levine misses some of the more recent arguments in the debate on American cultural elitism (e.g. Ann Douglas, Mark Renella), that the quotes are often too lengthy and that central explanations for the vision of the Germanians are presented in the last chapter rather than at the beginning of the book. But Nancy Newman has accomplished a major feat: in a forceful narrative, she has moved a seemingly marginal cultural actor from the periphery into the spotlight of historical sociopolitical analysis, presenting a number of thought-provoking arguments and raising more questions about utopianism, transcendentalism and the link between music and politics than she could possibly answer in one book. Most importantly: how could utopians perceive the symphony orchestra as a microcosm of an ideal society when much of the performance rested on the dictatorship of the conductor?