Robin Elliott & Siobhán Donovan 
Music and Literature in German Romanticism [PDF ebook] 

Essays on the synthesis of the musical and literary arts in German Romanticism.


The interrelationship between music and literature reached its zenith during the Romantic era, and nowhere was this relationship more pronounced than in Germany. Many representatives of literary and philosophical German Romanticism held music to be the highest and most expressive, quintessentially Romantic art form, able to convey what cannot be expressed in words: the ineffable and metaphysical. The influence was reciprocal, with literature providing a rich source of inspiration for German composers of both instrumental and vocal music, giving rise to a wealth of new forms and styles. The essays in this volume are selected from papers presented at an international, interdisciplinary conference held at University College Dublin in December 2000, and include contributions from Germanists, musicologists, comparatists, and performance artists. This interdisciplinarity makes for informed and complementary approaches and arguments. The essays cover not only the ‘Romantic’ nineteenth century (commencing with the early Romanticism of the Jena circle), but also look ahead to the legacy, reception, and continuation of German Romanticism in the modern and postmodern ages. Alongside new readings of familiar and established writers and composers such as Goethe, Hoffmann, Wagner, and Schubert, a case is made for other figures such as Wackenroder, Novalis, Schlegel, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, and Berlioz, as well as less-known figures such as Ritter, Schneider, and Termen, and for a reconsideration of questions of categorization. The essays will appeal to readers with a wide variety of academic, musical, and literary interests.

Siobhán Donovan is a Lecturer in the Department of German at University College Dublin. Robin Elliott is Jean A. Chalmers Chair in Canadian Music at the University of Toronto.

Tabla de materias

Iniquitous Innocence: The Ambiguity of Music in the
Phantasien über die Kunst (1799) – Richard Littlejohns

The Cosmic-Symphonic: Novalis, Music, and Universal Discourse –

‘Das Hören ist ein Sehen von und durch innen’: Johann Wilhelm Ritter and the Aesthetics of Music – Thomas Straessle

Music and Non-Verbal Reason in E. T. A. Hoffmann – Jeanne Riou

Perceptions of Goethe and Schubert – Lorraine Byrne

Goethe’s
Egmont, Beethoven’s
Egmont – David Hill

A Tale of Two
Fausts: An Examination of Reciprocal Influence in the Responses of Liszt and Wagner to Goethe’s
Faust
Faust – David Larkin

Musical Gypsies and Anti-Classical Aesthetics: The Romantic Reception of Goethe’s Mignon Character in Brentano’s
Die mehrenen Wehmüller und ungarische Geschichter
Die mehrenen Wehmüller und ungarische Geschichter – Stefanie Bach

Stages of Imagination in Music and Literature: E. T. A. Hoffmann and Hector Berlioz – Andrea Huebener

The Voice from the Hereafter: E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Ideal of Sound and Its Realization in Early Twentieth-Century Electronic Music Electronic Music – Werner Keil

‘My song the midnight raven has outwing’d’: Schubert’s ‘Der Wanderer, ‘ D. 649 – James Parsons

The Notion of Personae in Brahm’s ‘Bitteres zu sagen denkst du’: op. 32, no. 7: A literary key to musical performance? – Natasha Loges

Robert Schneider’s
Schlafes Bruder — a Neo-Romantic
Musikernovelle? – Juergen Barkhoff

Sobre el autor

NATASHA LOGES is Head of Postgraduate Programmes at the Royal College of Music and has co-edited Brahms in the home and the concert hall: Between private and public performance and contributed to the Cambridge History of Musical Performance and is currently co-editing Johannes Brahms in Context. As a song accompanist, she has performed in various venues overseas and in the UK.