Compiles Johann Gottfried Herder's writings on music and nationalism, from his early volumes of Volkslieder through sacred song to the essays on aesthetics late in his life. The author uses the mode of translation to explore Herder's own interpretive practice as a translator of languages and cultures.
"In Song Loves the Masses, Philip V. Bohlman has achieved what I regard as the finest achievement (only finest so far, of course) in his enormously productive, wide-ranging, innovative, and influential career as a scholar."—Celia Applegate, Vanderbilt University
"This book is that rarity, a genuinely original work. It is simultaneously a valuable translation of Herder and a meditation on translation itself. In this double role it will merit a wide readership in literary scholarship, history, German studies, philosophy, and musicology."—Harry Liebersohn, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"Herder's essays on music are ground zero for the study of musical nationalism, especially in Europe but also in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. All of us interested in this important topic owe Philip V. Bohlman a debt of gratitude for translating them into English for the first time."—Timothy Rice, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Ethnomusicology
"Philip V. Bohlman takes us back with Herder to witness the birth of the conjoined triplets Romanticism, modern anthropology, and comparative musicology. No one reading this book will ever forget their nexus, as well as its costs and its benefits. And we also meet the eighteenth-century philosopher who truly understood—though his contemporaries did not—the dynamic power of music. Herder needs to become our contemporary once more, and now, thanks to Philip V. Bohlman, he can."—Richard Taruskin, author of Oxford History of Western Music
