'The Militant Musician': G. W. L. Marshall-Hall and the Uses of Nietzsche in Australia

Abstract

Professor G. W. L. Marshall-Hall's dismissal from the University of Melbourne in 1900 has been explained in terms of prudery, despite being sparked by his views on militarism. This article explores the international intellectual influences of Nietzsche and his editor, the Social Darwinist writer Alexander Tille, on Marshall-Hall. This article reveals that Tille influenced Marshal-Hall's misreading of Nietzsche to associate Nietzsche with militarism. Marshall-Hall rejected this Tille-influenced misreading of Nietzche in 1915, only to adopt a Wagnerian, dogmatic nationalist aesthetics reminiscent of those criticised by Nietzsche. The article argues Marshall-Hall's long misunderstood dismissal, and his often unacknowledged intellectual shift in 1915 which led to his support for an Australian identity in music, can only be understood by placing Marshall-Hall in an international context. Show more