Music and German Literature. Their Relationship Since the Middle Ages

Abstract

The relationship between music and literature is emerging as one of the prominently discussed subjects among literary scholars and musicologists. This volume brings together the scholarly fields of musicology and German literature. Among the areas of research discussed are the study of opera libretti, the history of poetry set to music, metaphorical references to music, and writers' contributions to the formulation of our view of music in the modern period. The present volume is especially valuable as a contribution to our understanding of the relationship of German music and culture because German composers have tended to select products of their own linguistic culture to set to music. And in German literature, more than in any other, music has represented a poetic theme of major significance in the works of many of its best writers.