Music in Goethe's Faust: Goethe's Faust in Music ed. by Lorraine Byrne Bodley

Abstract

Reviewed by: Music in Goethe's Faust: Goethe's Faust in Music ed. by Lorraine Byrne Bodley Sarah Elaine Neill Music in Goethe's Faust: Goethe's Faust in Music. Edited by Lorraine Byrne Bodley. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2017. [xix, 336 p. ISBN 9781783272006 (hardback), $99.] ISBN 9781315583792 Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. Music in Goethe's Faust: Goethe's Faust in Music is the result of an interdisciplinary conference from 2012, organized in honor of Nicholas Boyle, a Johann Wolfgang von Goethe scholar and author of the second chapter. At the core of the conference's inquiry was a fundamentally multifaceted question: Why has Goethe's Faust been so enduring throughout music history? Partly, this is a question of why the Faust myth has held such tenure in European musical thought, but more so it is a question of what Goethe's version revealed that others did not. The answers that the contributors provide are both representative of the wealth of possibilities within the original work and the myriad cultural contexts of the musical responses to it. In short, Goethe's Faust is not only a deeply musical text but also one that reflects matters—such as redemption and the human condition—that had deep significance in Goethe's own time and have remained acutely relevant since. The literary and poetic analysis is sophisticated to such a level that scholars in multiple fields will find the volume to be valuable throughout, yet detailed music analysis is also not overlooked or avoided. This balance is due, in part, to the contributions by scholars with backgrounds in musicology, German literature, performance, and theater, among others. For academics, a distinct strength of the volume is the wealth of sources consulted and generously cited, giving the book a secondary function as a research guide. Undoubtedly, cohesion is the greatest challenge of a book that explores a topic of such great breadth as Goethe's Faust and the musical works it inspired. Particular credit is due to Lorraine Byrne Bodley for an in-depth introduction that acknowledges the unfeasibility of completing a comprehensive study while also reaching to frame the central question as completely as possible. The book is a success in that it touches upon the origins of the Faust myth in the sixteenth century, the wealth of reactions in the nineteenth century, and recent productions even within the last decade. It also does justice to the many angles of interpretation that Goethe's Faust invites, from post-Christian modernity to existentialist questions about the value of life to the sheer variety musical and poetic structures present within Goethe's text. Music in Goethe's Faust is structured in four parts: (1) "Goethe's Faust: Content [End Page 299] and Context," (2) "Legacies: Goethe's Faust in the Nineteenth Century," (3) "Topographies: Stagings and Critical Reception," and (4) "New Directions: Recent Productions and Appropriations." The organization is roughly chronological, although part 3, which spans the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is not explicit in this regard. Part 2, on legacies in the nineteenth century, receives the longest treatment—unsurprisingly, given the amount of existing literature on the subject and Bodley's own extensive research on Schubert. Given that part 3 is by far the shortest in length and number of chapters, it may have been worth integrating into parts 2 and 4 for a clearly chronological layout, especially given considerations of staging in part 4 and earlier discussions of critical reception in parts 1 and 2. Nevertheless, in general, the descriptive titles and comprehensive index will prevent readers from missing relevant discussions throughout the text. In its current form, the book also resists reinforcing a false delineation between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to which so many academic endeavors have fallen prey. It is helpful to both seasoned scholars and newcomers to Goethe's Faust that the first chapter addresses reception history. Most critically, Bodley discusses lost histories and misperceptions around Goethe's own musicality that are foundational for arguments in the following chapters. Researchers will also find Bodley's table outlining the reception of Goethe's musical aesthetics from 1826 to present day to be an invaluable resource (pp. 25–27). Martin Swales's...