title: [Armourer and mad cow disease: images of veterinarians in music].
abstract: This contribution is not about animals in music; it rather attempts to describe how veterinary medicine as a discipline and veterinarians as representatives of the profession are perceived of and portrayed in music. Aside from Gioacchino Rossini's "Barber of Seville", in which Count Almaviva impersonates a veterinarian of the day, the most sympathetic veterinarian character ever created by a lyricist or composer in surely Hans Stadinger, the "armourer" and vet in Albert Lortzings opera. In other musical genres such as artsongs and folksongs, the only such figure worthy of musical interpretation seems to have been those masters of the fiery forge who were also wise in the veterinary healing arts. In the past 20 years vets and veterinary medicine have been included in new musical trends: There are musicals and radio plays in which even the youngest members of the audience are exposed to the veterinarian profession. A number of pop groups are also to be mentioned here. For example, animal welfare has been thematized by punk rockers, and a pop group for Hamburg has put a medieval horse blessing to music. Last but not least, a number of vets in Berlin turn their everyday troubles and worries into musical parodies.
authors.affiliation: Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schäffer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D016643:Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform / Q000266:history*; D049711:History, Modern 1601-; D009146:Music / Q000266:history*; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000266:history*
vernacular_title: Vom Waffenschmied zum Rinderwahn Tiermedizin(er) in der Musik.