German Literature Commons^™

Revisiting Paradise Lost Through K-Pop: A Global Approach To Teaching Writing, Nayoung Bishoff

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The short film series Wings (2016) by the Korean musical group BTS (Beyond the Scene) revisits John Milton’s Paradise Lost. BTS reinterprets Adam and Eve’s leaving of Eden as youths’ self-discovery process, overcoming a binary mindset. BTS emphasizes how experiences—trials, pains, and the struggle of youths to walk out of black-and-white perspectives—turn out to be “all so beautiful” as resources to grow. Wings demonstrates how the themes and elements in Paradise Lost can be used as a tool not only to explore Biblical concepts, but also to understand what pedagogical environments youths need to fully express themselves as writers. …

A Bird’S Eye View: Large-Scale Tonal Structures In Robert Schumann’S Four Song Cycles (Op. 42, 24, 39, And 48), Peter Kramer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Some of Robert Schumann’s most notable works are his Lieder for solo voice and piano accompaniment. Schumann's Lieder are considered some of the best compositions in this genre, engendering various interpretations by performers and exciting vigorous debate among musicologists and theorists. Robert Schumann’s early music was almost entirely composed for the piano alone; it wasn’t until 1840 that he started to compose almost exclusively Lieder and song cycles inspired by his predecessors Beethoven and Schubert. This was a prolific year for Schumann compositionally, in part due to his marriage to Clara Schumann who was one of Europe’s most preeminent piano …

Songs For High Voice: An Annotated Guide To African Romances, Op. 17 By Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Makeda Danielle Hampton

Theses and Dissertations--Music

African Romances, Op. 17, composed in 1897 by African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), is a collection of seven songs for high voice that is uniquely both African and American. The lyrics of this song cycle were first published in the book Majors and Minors, a collection of poems published in 1895 by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).

An analysis of resources supports that academic discourse in Black vocal music has been underrepresented due to the absence of centralized information, such as published scores, recorded materials, catalogs, and guides for study and performance. While in depth research focusing on the art …

Jazz Banned: How Jazz Music Shaped Nazi Germany, Stella Coomes

Young Historians Conference

Jazz is widely known to be a formative element in American history, but it also played an important role during some of Europe’s most formative and memorable years: the time of World War II and Adolf Hitler’s reign in Germany and surrounding countries. With its roots in Black American culture, it is easy to believe that Hitler would not have supported the increasing popularity of jazz music in his homeland. However, that did not stop him from using it to his advantage (of course, denouncing any form of jazz that was not sponsored by the state). Also not to be …

The Musical Poetics Of Witness: Two Anthropocene Journeys, Heidi Hart

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Kerstin Ekman’s The Forest of Hours (first published in Swedish in 1988) and Jenny Erpenbeck’s Visitation(published in German as Heimsuchung in 2008) span two decades and two countries, but both novels reach across far larger epochs, in their respective journeys from Europe’s glacial prehistory through the Dark Ages and the Thirty Years War, and through the twentieth century’s collective trauma. Though disagreement persists on when the Anthropocene began to leave its mark in stone, contemporary fiction often registers its traces through a marginally human witness who somehow survives generation after generation, recording in word or action what he or …

May Ayim's Blue Notes In Blues In Schwarz Weiss, Gabrielle Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

May Ayim has become a staple when it comes to Black German poetry within German Studies and continues to influence and challenge ideas of what it means to be black in Germany at the end of the 20th century. What is perhaps not challenged enough is the ways in which we, the readers and students of German literature and poetry, approach and study Ayim’s poetry as we move deeper into the 21st century. Her collection of poetry, Blues in Schwarz Weiss, can be seen through a significant word found in her collection’s title—blues. It is through blues, …

Unlearning Don Carlos: Historical And Fictional Elements Of Innovation In César Vichard De Saint-Réal’S 'Dom Carlos, Nouvelle Historique,' Friedrich Schiller’S 'Don Karlos, Infant Von Spanien,' And Giuseppe Verdi’S 'Don Carlos', Maria-Cristina Necula

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The story of the sixteenth-century Spanish prince, Don Carlos, has inspired numerous literary and musical adaptations that, despite the artistic limitations of historically-based content, reflect an astonishing scope of creative freedom. The myth created around Don Carlos originated in European consciousness as early as 1568. Various theories recorded in political reports and in historical works insinuated that the prince had been murdered while incarcerated by orders of his father, King Philip II. Simultaneously, hatred of Spain, intensified by Philip’s violent suppression of the revolt in the Netherlands, determined exiled Flemish nobles to launch an anti-Philip propaganda. The mystery of Don …

Pantomime: The History And Metamorphosis Of A Theatrical Ideology, Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This book offers perhaps the most comprehensive history of pantomime ever written. No other book so thoroughly examines the varieties of pantomimic performance from the early Roman Empire, when the term “pantomime” came into use, until the present. After thoroughly examining the complexities and startlingly imaginative performance strategies of Roman pantomime, the author identifies the peculiar political circumstances that revived and shaped pantomime in France and Austria in the eighteenth century, leading to the Pierrot obsession in the nineteenth century. Modernist aesthetics awakened a huge, highly diverse fascination with pantomime. The book explores an extraordinary variety of modernist and postmodern …

From Swing King To Swing Kids: The Jazz Era Of ‘Big Band Orchestras’ In World War Ii, Katie Victoria Burnopp

Student Scholar Showcase

Known as the ‘King of Swing’, clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (1909-1986) threatened the Nazi cause during WWII. With intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to investigate swing music during World War II. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) identify how the swing music of Benny Goodman (1909-1986) influenced adolescents in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany; (2) explore the Nazi party view on ‘swing’ music of the era; (3) examine how the music of Charlie and his Orchestra became used as a tool for Nazi propaganda; and …

P13. Wagner's Use Of The Formal Lament For King Mark In Tristan Und Isolde, Julie Anne Nord

Western Research Forum

Background: The composer Richard Wagner often expressed his distaste for “number” operas and other contrived forms used in the Italianate works of his forerunners and contemporaries. In place of these operatic conventions, Wagner drew upon the Tragedy of Ancient Greece to propose a “total artwork” (Gesamtkunstwerk)) with no contrived breaks for conventional form. Despite, or perhaps because of, his aversion toward operatic formal conventions, Wagner turned to one such form for his music for King Mark in Tristan und Isolde.

Methods: This poster demonstrates Wagner’s use of lament tropes from the poetry of Greek Tragedy and from …

Magical And Mysterious Resonances: Structural Principles In E. T. A. Hoffmann's Kreisler Works And Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana, Alison Elizabeth Redman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (1838), borrows its title from E. T. A. Hoffmann's set of essays concerning his literary alter ego, Johannes Kreisler. The character of Kreisler is most prominently featured in two of Hoffmann's works: the Kreisleriana essays (1814-1815) and his final novel, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1820-1822). This thesis explores the influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann on Schumann's Kreisleriana, focusing on how structural principles derived from Hoffmann's Kreisler works--duality, creating and blurring boundaries, fragmentation and irresolution, and circularity--are at work in Schumann's composition. While others have treated the relationship between …

Music And The Mind, Amanda K. Densmoor

Student Publications

How does music affect a work of literature? What does it reveal about the psychological state of the characters?

A Theory Of Associations: An Explanation And Applications To Wagner's Das Rheingold, Parker T. Gordon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis posits an interdisciplinary theory of associations. Within inter- and intra-textual texts, there exists a presence that points toward an originating source, which audience members may or may not consciously recognize. This presence accumulates associations from surrounding materials through abstract and subtle references or through direct quotations. These associations, once examined in relation to one another in the context of the narrative, may help readers discover additional insights and uncover new information about a text. My theory draws upon literary scholarship primarily grounded in intertextual theory and adaptation theory. Inspired by the intertextual insertion of pre-existing music in film …

Gretchen’S Soliloquy “Ach Neige, Du Schmerzenreiche” From Goethe’S Faust: A Vocal Performance Analysis And Set Of Performance Guidelines For Various Solo Voice Settings, Savanna Sokolnicki

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The great novelist and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) arguably made his most significant contribution to the artistic world with his literary masterpiece Faust I. Goethe’s love of music and melody is evident throughout all of Faust, particularly in the expressive poetry of the character of Gretchen, whose meaningful words gave inspiration to a variety of musical manifestations, especially in German Lied.

This document serves as a performance guide for vocalists. It provides vital information on the setting and arrangement of the poetry within the musical settings, the background and significance of the composer and …

Brahms The Exotic: The Representation Of Non-European And Ethnic `Others' In The Hafiz/Daumer Settings Of Opus 32, "Romanzen Aus L. Tieck's Magelone," And "Zigunerlieder," Opus 103, Kristina Marie Eckelhoff

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Though scholars, performers, and classical enthusiasts alike recognized and praised the many facets of his compositional craft, Johannes Brahms's treatment of poetry in his Lieder has led to much conflicting assessments. The negative critiques exist partially because the majority of scholars do discuss an interpretation of the poems but seldom explain precisely how Brahms conveys the texts' meanings through his music, leaving the more specific details of text-to-music relationship and what it shows about Brahms's own understanding of the texts unexplored.

Brahms's Lieder have also been criticized because of the supposed lack of exotic qualities in those works that portray …

Robert Schumann's Piano Sonata No. 1 In F-Sharp Minor, Op. 11–Style And Structure, Stephanie Abigail Emberley

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Robert Schumann's music reflects the complexity of his life and psyche. Even Schumann himself acknowledged the challenges this presented to anyone attempting to understand his music, and the Piano Sonata no. 1 in F-sharp minor, op. 11 is an example of the complex inter-relationship between Schumann's music and life. This document will have a three-fold approach to discussing Schumann's Sonata. I will outline the literary characteristics of German Romantic authors, discuss how Schumann musically interprets these characteristics while reflecting other composers, and show how these techniques help add extra-musical significance to op. 11, particularly in connection with Clara.

Robert Schumann's …

Der Zauber Der Musik: E.T.A. Hoffmann Und Das Erleben Des Sublimen, Katelin M. Richter

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Die Werke von E.T.A. Hoffmann konzentrieren sich auf ein bestimmtes romantisches Konzept: auf die Sehnsucht nach dem Unendlichen und auf das Erlebnis dieses sublimen romantischen Reiches. Um Hoffmanns romantische Ästhetik besser zu begreifen, lohnt es sich seine Werke (Novellen, musikalische Schriften, Aufsätze und Kompositionen) heranzuziehen, um festzustellen, wie seine Figuren vor allem durch die Musik das romantische Reich erleben und wie und aus welcher Perspektive der Zuschauer auf dieses Reich reagieren kann. Diese Arbeit wird untersuchen, wie sich Hoffmanns romantische Ästhetik in den Erzählungen, den theoretischen Schriften und in der Oper Undine offenbart, wie seine Charaktere durch die Musik danach …

A Musical Poet: Themes In The Lieder Of Robert Schumann’S Year Of Song, Mary H. Harkrader

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

My thesis will research themes of solitude, love, nature, mood or emotional states, and the duality of joy and pain in the Robert Schumann’s Lieder composed around the year 1840. This year was the year of Schumann’s marriage to his music teacher’s daughter Clara Wieck and is, consequently, the year when Robert Schumann turned to writing Lieder or songs. Lieder were a unique lyric genre created in Germany during Romantic era. These songs combined the works of great German poets of the time with the artistic expression of emotions captured by the composer. Tracing the themes in Robert Schumann’s Lieder …

Vilma Weber Von Webenau : Die Marienlieder, Sommerlieder Für Streichquartett Und Eine Sprechstimme, Carolyn Dehdari

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Vilma von Webenau (1875-1953) is not only worthy of study because of her connection with teacher Arnold Schoenberg. Her music is unique in the era of fin-de-siecle Vienna, but it also holds interest today because of its atmoshpheric and durational complexity, self-composed texts, and harmonic ambiguities. This critical edition seeks not only to present two of WEbenau's seventy works, but also to place Webenau in her historical and musical context. Exploring the aspects of Viennese modernism and the world that created it, I wish to give background to Webenau's life, of which so little is known. In trying to understand …

A Voice For Modernism In Elsa Bienenfeld's Music Reviews, Kelsey Draper

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis discusses Elsa Bienenfeld’s role as a modern music critic and cultural journalist and shows how she defended modernism by encouraging her Viennese readers to embrace it. The purpose is not to create a mere biographical sketch, but to demonstrate how Bienenfeld shaped and influenced the public’s perceptions of the budding modern music movement in Vienna. Chapter 1 introduces the problem of modern music and provides the historical context for Elsa Bienenfeld’s life. Chapter 2 introduces modermism as a movement in the city and reviews the development of music out of the classical and romantic periods into modernism. Chapter …

Kirschenballade, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.

Wo Das Brunnlein Springt, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.

Baby-Pussi-Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes!: Lied Und Shimmy, Camilla Frydan

Musical Performances

No abstract provided.

Drei Beliebte Kinderlieder, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.

Lieder Kranz, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.

Das Veilchen, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.

Konig Drosselbart: Weihnachtsmarchenspiel In 6 Bildern, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.

Der Luftikus: Operette In Drei Akten, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.

Hochzeit, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.

Auf Dem Ast Der Vogel Singt, Lena Stein-Schneider

Musical Performances

This work is part of the Sophie Digital Library, an open-access, full-text-searchable source of literature written by German-speaking women from medieval times through the early 20th century. The collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and is designed to showcase literary works that have been neglected for too long. These works are made available both in facsimiles of their original format, wherever possible, as well as in a PDF transcription that promotes ease of reading and is amenable to keyword searching.