Cultural analysis of composers’ settings and stylistic analysis of compositions of the Biedermeier Era. The emphasis in this historical survey of both vocal and instrumental music will be given to the socio-cultural sphere in Austria and principally the works of Franz Schubert. Content will be closely tied to the repertoire chosen for the Performance Workshop. Includes excursions to historical sites and attendance at performances.
Prerequisites:
Music major and intermediate background in music history and analysis.
Method of presentation:
Lectures, discussions, and excursions
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation (20%); five reports (written and oral presentations) (30%); listening quizzes (20%); final exam (30%)
content:
Week 1 Vienna and the Biedermeier Era
Course introduction, Genres and style periods
Romanticism
Visual arts, literature, music, philosophy
Wackenroder, Tieck, Jean Paul
All-Day Excursion
Atzenbrugg Castle and Heuriger (welcome dinner)
Listening: Schubert: various Ländler and Ecossaises
Piano sonatas by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
Reading: Gibbs: Life 5-21; Notley 138-154
Week 2 Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Biography, precursors, contemporaries
Listening: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (1824)
Reading: Levy 145-173
Excursion: Birthplace, Lichtentaler Church
Listening: Schubert: F-Major Mass (1814)
Reading: Gibbs: Life 22-59
Schubert Kosegarten Liederspiel
Examining original manuscripts (Austrian National Library)
Listening: Schubert: Kosegarten Liederspiel (1815)
Reading: Solvik: Of Songs…392-399
Week 3 Of Songs and Cycles
Listening: Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (1823)
Reading: Youens 1-33 + selections
Weekend trip to Steyr
Historic sites, Schubert’s travels
Listening: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837): Piano Quintet, (1802)
Schubert: Die Forelle (1817), ‘Trout’ Quintet (1819?)
Week 4 Symphonic Music
Listening: Schubert: Symphony in B minor (“Unfinished”) (1822)
Reading: Chusid 3-11, 71-82, 98-110
Reception
Excursion: Deathbed, “Dreimäderlhaus”
Listening: Heinrich Berté (1857-1924): Das Dreimäderlhaus (1916)
Reading: Gibbs: Poor Schubert 36-55
Sexuality
Reading: Solomon 193-206
Week 5 After Schubert
The Song Cycle
Listening: Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Dichterliebe (1840)
Reading: Komar 3-12, 63-81, 122-133
Piano and Chamber Music
Listening: Franz Liszt (1811-1886): [various]
Robert Volkmann (1815-1883): Piano Trio in B-flat minor (1852)
Reading: Dunsby 500-521
The Symphony
Listening: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Symphony No. 2 (1877)
Reading: Hepokoski 424-459
Week 6 German Romantic Opera
Legend, Magic, and the “Volk”
Listening: Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826): Der Freischütz (1821) (libretto)
Wagner
Listening: Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Tannhäuser (1845)
Reading: Grey 371-423
Review session and
Composer reports
FINAL EXAM + Listening Quiz 2
Required readings:
Chusid, Martin (1971). Franz Schubert: Symphony in B Minor (“Unfinished”) New York: Norton.
Gibbs, Christopher (ed.) (1997). The Cambridge Companion to Schubert. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press (Gibbs, Christopher: “’Poor Schubert’: image and legends of the composer”;Notley,
Margaret: “Schubert’s social music: the ‘forgotten genres’”).
Gibbs, Christopher (2000). The Life of Schubert. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Komar, Arthur (1971) Robert Schumann: Dichterliebe New York: Norton.
Levy, David Benjamin (2003). Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press.
Newbould, Brian (1992) Schubert and the Symphony London: Toccata Press.
Roeder, Michael Thomas (1994) A History of the Concerto Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.
Jim Samson (ed.) The Cambridge History of Nineteenth Century Music Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001 (Dunsby, Jonathan: “Chamber music and piano”; Thomas Grey “Opera and music drama”; James Hepokoski “Beethoven reception: the symphonic tradition”).
Solomon, Maynard (Spring 1989) “Franz Schubert and the Peacocks of Benvenuto Cellini” in: 19th-Century Music Vol.12, No.3, 193-206.
Solvik, Morten (1999). “Finding a Context for Schubert’s Kosegarten Cycle” in Eva Badura-Skoda et al (eds.), Schubert und seine Freunde Vienna, Cologne, Weimar: Böhlau Verlag.
------- (2000) “Of Songs and Cycles: A Franz Schubert Bifolio” in Music History from Primary Sources. A Guide to the Moldenhauer Archives, ed. Jon Newsom and Alfred Mann Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress,
Youens, Susan (1992). Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press.
Recommended readings:
Burnham, Scott (1995). Beethoven Hero. Princeton: Univ. Press.
Cook, Nicholas (1993). Beethoven Symphony No.9 Cambridge: Univ. Press.
Ingrao, Charles (1994). The Habsburg Monarchy 1618-1815. Cambridge: Univ. Press.
Kerman, Joseph (1988). Opera as Drama. Berkeley: UC Press.
Newbould, Brian (1997). Schubert. The Music and the Man. London: Victor Gollancz.
Plantinga, Leon (1997). “’Classic’ and ‘Romantic’ Beethoven and Schubert” in: Raymond Erickson, ed.
Schubert’s Vienna. New Haven: Yale Univ Press.
Rosen, Charles (1995). The Romantic Generation. Cambridge, MA:Harvard U. Press.
Solomon, Maynard (1988). Beethoven Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Swafford, Jan (1997). Johannes Brahms. A Biography. NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Todd,R. Larry, ed. (1994). Schumann and His World Princeton: Univ Press.
Weiss, Perio and Richard Taruskin (1984). A History in Documents New York: Schirmer.
Youens, Susan (1991). Retracing a Winter’s Journey.Schubert’s Winterreise. Ithaca: Cornell U. Press.
------- (1996). Schubert’s poets and the making of lieder. Cambridge: Univ Press.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Dietmar Friesenegger’s research interest include the musical migration from central Europe in the 1930s and its impact on American culture; the music, politics and culture of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the Turn-of-the-Century; music in confessional conflicts in early modern Europe; aesthetics and performance practice in late-eighteenth century music; the impact of the Cold War on musicological discourse.
He has co-edited the first edition of Hans Rott’s songs, which appeared in 2012 at Ries and Erler, Berlin and has written two articles on the composer published in Die Quarte. He recently contributed an article to the Marburg University series on the subject of early modern German funeral sermons.
Dietmar holds a Magister philosophiae degree from the University of Vienna and the University of Music, Vienna, a Master’s degree in Vocal Accompanying from the Conservatory at Vienna, and a Master’s degree in Musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also studied piano at the Eastman School of Music as an exchange student. Dietmar is currently pursuing his PhD in musicology at Cornell University. He has taught at IES Vienna since 2008.
Contact Hours:
46 classroom contact hours classroom and at least 18 hours of field study
Music In The Biedermeier Era
Cultural analysis of composers’ settings and stylistic analysis of compositions of the Biedermeier Era. The emphasis in this historical survey of both vocal and instrumental music will be given to the socio-cultural sphere in Austria and principally the works of Franz Schubert. Content will be closely tied to the repertoire chosen for the Performance Workshop. Includes excursions to historical sites and attendance at performances.
Music major and intermediate background in music history and analysis.
Lectures, discussions, and excursions
Class participation (20%); five reports (written and oral presentations) (30%); listening quizzes (20%); final exam (30%)
Week 1
Vienna and the Biedermeier Era
Course introduction, Genres and style periods
Romanticism
Visual arts, literature, music, philosophy
Wackenroder, Tieck, Jean Paul
All-Day Excursion
Atzenbrugg Castle and Heuriger (welcome dinner)
Listening: Schubert: various Ländler and Ecossaises
Piano sonatas by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
Reading: Gibbs: Life 5-21; Notley 138-154
Week 2
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Biography, precursors, contemporaries
Listening: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (1824)
Reading: Levy 145-173
Excursion: Birthplace, Lichtentaler Church
Listening: Schubert: F-Major Mass (1814)
Reading: Gibbs: Life 22-59
Schubert Kosegarten Liederspiel
Examining original manuscripts (Austrian National Library)
Listening: Schubert: Kosegarten Liederspiel (1815)
Reading: Solvik: Of Songs…392-399
Week 3
Of Songs and Cycles
Listening: Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (1823)
Reading: Youens 1-33 + selections
Excursion: Historic pianos, Gert Hecher
Listening: Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870): Piano Concerto No. 3 (1825)
Schubert: Impromptus, Op. 90 (1827)
Reading: Roeder 199-208
Discussion and in-class performance
Listening: Schubert: Kosegarten Liederspiel
Reading: Solvik: Finding Context 169-182
Listening Quiz 1
Weekend trip to Steyr
Historic sites, Schubert’s travels
Listening: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837): Piano Quintet, (1802)
Schubert: Die Forelle (1817), ‘Trout’ Quintet (1819?)
Week 4
Symphonic Music
Listening: Schubert: Symphony in B minor (“Unfinished”) (1822)
Reading: Chusid 3-11, 71-82, 98-110
Reception
Excursion: Deathbed, “Dreimäderlhaus”
Listening: Heinrich Berté (1857-1924): Das Dreimäderlhaus (1916)
Reading: Gibbs: Poor Schubert 36-55
Sexuality
Reading: Solomon 193-206
Week 5
After Schubert
The Song Cycle
Listening: Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Dichterliebe (1840)
Reading: Komar 3-12, 63-81, 122-133
Piano and Chamber Music
Listening: Franz Liszt (1811-1886): [various]
Robert Volkmann (1815-1883): Piano Trio in B-flat minor (1852)
Reading: Dunsby 500-521
The Symphony
Listening: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Symphony No. 2 (1877)
Reading: Hepokoski 424-459
Week 6
German Romantic Opera
Legend, Magic, and the “Volk”
Listening: Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826): Der Freischütz (1821) (libretto)
Wagner
Listening: Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Tannhäuser (1845)
Reading: Grey 371-423
Review session and
Composer reports
FINAL EXAM + Listening Quiz 2
Dietmar Friesenegger’s research interest include the musical migration from central Europe in the 1930s and its impact on American culture; the music, politics and culture of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the Turn-of-the-Century; music in confessional conflicts in early modern Europe; aesthetics and performance practice in late-eighteenth century music; the impact of the Cold War on musicological discourse.
He has co-edited the first edition of Hans Rott’s songs, which appeared in 2012 at Ries and Erler, Berlin and has written two articles on the composer published in Die Quarte. He recently contributed an article to the Marburg University series on the subject of early modern German funeral sermons.
Dietmar holds a Magister philosophiae degree from the University of Vienna and the University of Music, Vienna, a Master’s degree in Vocal Accompanying from the Conservatory at Vienna, and a Master’s degree in Musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also studied piano at the Eastman School of Music as an exchange student. Dietmar is currently pursuing his PhD in musicology at Cornell University. He has taught at IES Vienna since 2008.