Speaking German Musically: Poetic Recitation in Central Europe, 1760-1820

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-1-83765-214-3
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 14, 486 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 885 g

Reihe: Music in Society and Culture

Shows how poetic recitation and the interweaving of music and poetry contributed to the advent of a German identity in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe.

The art of reciting a text out loud, known as Vortragskunst, be it in a private circle or in a concert hall, originated in German-speaking countries in the 1760s, and by the nineteenth century had become a well-established practice subjected to an artistic blossoming unparalleled in the rest of Europe.

In this book Jacqueline Waeber explains and examines how and why this happened, focusing on the origins of poetic recitation and its development during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a period essential to the development of modern German literature and theatre, bookended by the two main figures who contributed to the theoretical and aesthetical tenets of poetic recitation, the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).

Poetic recitation quickly gained attraction for the Lied and the musical melodrama, both musical genres that were driven by a search for new declamatory styles. As a result, poetic recitation became increasingly 'musicalized' by the frequent addition of a musical accompaniment. As the book shows, this intertwining of music and poetry made a huge contribution to the advent of German identity through the reappraisal of its language.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Waeber, Jacqueline

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Deutsche Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

PART I
1. Re-evaluating German from Lessing to Klopstock
2. 'Germany's greatest bard'
3. On Wohlklang

PART II
4. Italian poetic improvisation and the German tradition of occasional poetry
5. Pygmalion: Before and after
6. German versus French melodrama
7. Goethe's Proserpina

PART III
8. From poetic recitation to Lied: The declamatorium as a missing link
9. Zumsteeg, Schubart, and the ballad: Poetic recitation and the demands of Sangbarkeit
10. J. F. Reichardt's Deklamationsstücke

PART IV
11. Theorising declamation c. 1800
12. Unearthing Sprachmelodie
13. Epilogue: Reconciling Ton and Rhythmus

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Waeber, Jacqueline
JACQUELINE WAEBER is Associate Professor of Music at Duke University, North Carolina.