German Baroque Research Articles

17세기 후반 독일 바로크의 오페라 문화: 베니스에서 라이프치히까지

17세기 후반 독일 바로크의 오페라 문화: 베니스에서 라이프치히까지

Иностранная часть рукописного собрания академика М. Н. Тихомирова: источники формирования

The article deals with solving actual issues of identifying the sources of formation the collections of manuscripts, old printed book and acts of academician M. N. Tikhomirov, donated by the owner’s will to the State Public Scientific Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences (SPSTL SB RAS) of USSR. The purpose of the study is to clarify the attribution and dating of materials in foreign languages and to establish their provenances. For this purpose, the methods of palaeography and codicology were applied and the possibilities of searching and analyzing data from digital libraries and Internet resources. Attention is paid to such an important aspect of source criticism as the reconstruction of the social context and conditions of origin and existence of a certain document (manuscript, printed edition, acts, etc.). The article identifies the acts – records on parchment, purchased by M. N. Tikhomirov from Leningrad collector and military doctor V. F. Gruzdev. The article gives correct dates of the act sources in the chronological range from the middle of 13th to the last quarter of 15th centuries, presents their brief paleographic description, and identifies some sphragistic data. Three of them refer to Bremen by their origin, the fourth with Lower Silesia. The original storage of at least two of them is identified – Tresekammer (Trese) – the oldest fund of Bremen Staatsarchiv. An archaeographic description of album de luxe of the 17th century, attributed during the admission of Tikhomirov’s collection to the SPSTL SB RAS as an Album of Coats of Arms. Valuable information about it was found in in the publication of 1887 "Zacharias Allerts Tagebuch aus dem Jahre 1627" (The Diary of Zacharias Allert of 1627). According to the brief description of the Album given in it, which was at that time in the city archive of Breslau (Wroc?aw), its identity with the manuscript of the Tikhomirov’s collection was established. The article characterizes the Album, reveals the circle of persons involved in its creation and the circumstances of their biographies, determines its genre and compositional specifics due to the German baroque aesthetics. Especially valuable results were obtained by the discovery of information about manuscripts and documents that had disappeared from the field of view of researchers almost a century ago.

Textuelle Infrastrukturen des Theaters. Dramaturgie als Vermittlung

Textuelle Infrastrukturen des Theaters<b>. Dramaturgie als Vermittlung</b>

The Training Value of Handel’s Vocal Works in Vocal Pedagogy

Vocal technique training is a crucial aspect of vocal education, aimed at refining and developing the human voice instrument. By utilizing a variety of training methods and content, singers can achieve aesthetic auditory art that provides listeners with a profound emotional experience. However, mastering this skill is an abstract concept, with each singer having their unique experiences and challenges. In vocal education, selecting the appropriate vocal works is essential in shaping the human voice instrument. The composer Handel, widely considered the greatest composer of the German Baroque period, created a vast collection of classic operas and oratorios throughout his life. The elements of rhythm, melody, and dynamics in Handel’s vocal works have a profound impact on a singer’s breath control, rhythm, and dynamics, making them an essential part of vocal education. Handel’s vocal works remain popular today due to their complex and dynamic elements that provide an exceptional learning experience for singers in vocal education. Overall, this paper demonstrates the importance of utilizing Handel’s vocal works in vocal education to produce skilled and expressive singers.

Tempo and Tactus in the German Baroque: Treatises, Scores, and the Performance of Organ Music Julia Dokter.

<i>Tempo and Tactus in the German Baroque: Treatises, Scores, and the Performance of Organ Music</i> Julia Dokter.

Иоганн Себастьян Бах и Вольфганг Амадей Моцарт в творчестве Бориса Поплавского

The paper is devoted to studying the images of 18th-century German composers Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the works of Boris Poplavsky, including diaries, articles, poems, and prose. It was found that the image of Bach was transformed, starting from the articles of the early 1930s to the final work “About substantiality of personality”. In early works, Bach is a symbol of Apollonian art, perfect and harmonious, but cold-blooded towards man. However, in the final work, the music of the German Baroque composer is a symbol of “Pan, who resurrected in Christ” and embodies harmony and integrity of the Universe. The image of Mozart shows other connotations. He is a Dionysian artist, understood in terms of sensuality, “playing on the low and sweet” nature of man. This nature principle of Mozart, which Poplavsky names “sweet melodiousness”, is considered necessary for the formation of the creator, his initiation. This is related to Boris Poplavsky’s conception of the spirit of music, according to which an artist must die and sacrifice himself to the sacred spirit of music. For this reason, Mozart in Poplavsky’s conception of music has a mortal origin. In prose (novel “Apollon Bezobrazov”) and poems, the motive of Mozart’s “Requiem” arises, connected with apocalyptical themes and harmony of the world. This paper compares Poplavsky’s views and works with the concepts of his modernist predecessors and proves that the poet created original myths about musicians based on the traditions of modernity but acquiring uniqueness due to aesthetic principles.

Motet “Jesu, Meine Freude” by Johann Sebastian Bach: Comparative Analysis of Editions of Musical Text

Relevance and scientific novelty of the selected subject for the research. In the Ukrainian musicology, the motets written by Johann Bach were mainly studied from the compositional means standpoint, considering the system of polyphony, the role of chorale and fugue in dramaturgy as well as the composition of works. Scientists have not previously researched the motets performance specificity. Meanwhile, motets, particularly the one reviewed in the article “Jesu, meine Freude”, are among the most frequently performed works of the choral repertoire. For the first time in the Ukrainian musicology, three edited versions of the motet “Jesu, meine Freude” are analyzed from the standpoint of historically oriented performance. Based on the study of editors’ comments and source literature (mostly German), the question of compliance of the musical text with the task of performing reconstruction of the baroque vocal and choral style was studied. The aim of the article lies in the need to find out specificity of the editors’ interpretation of motet “Jesu, meine Freude” written by Johann Bach and suitability extent of different edited versions for the historical reconstruction of the vocal-choral style of the German Baroque. During the development of particular article, such methods were utilized: historical — the history of edited versions of “Jesu, meine Freude” motet was traced, comparative — the comparative analysis of three edited versions of motet “Jesu, meine Freude” written by Johann Bach (Franz Wulner, Konrad Ameln and Mykhailo Berdennykov) was completed. Main results and conclusions. According to the completed comparative analysis, the first two of the three considered edited versions are textual, while the third one is adopted for performing. Textual versions are characterized by the preservation of the composer’s text in the smallest details, including comments to clearly identify the extent of changes made by the editor in the text. The peculiarities of the version adopted for performing contain the large amount of remarks added by the editor, covering dynamic shades, strokes, tempo notation, etc. It is noted that the choice of version type is determined by performance goals: to perform the works of Johann Bach in an authentic manner, the conductor should focus on facsimile versions, and if they are absent (as in the case of the “Jesu, meine Freude” motet), the one should use textual type of edited versions. The version developed for performing cannot correspond to the authentic performing, as the first does not reflect specific tendencies of the time when it was created. It is specified that the conductor should be familiar with the peculiarities of fixing the means of performance in the musical text of the Baroque era.

Hamburg to Vienna: German and Austrian Baroque

Hamburg to Vienna: German and Austrian Baroque

Persia in German Baroque literature—Sa‘dī’s Rose Garden and Adam Olearius’s embassy to Persia

Despite renewed efforts to establish world literature, most of the presently available theoretical models do not provide solid concepts as to the meaning and relevance of this approach. After a critical review of recent publications, this article analyzes a unique and most revealing case, the reception of medieval Persian literature (Sa‘dī) through translations into European languages beginning in the seventeenth century, primarily by the German diplomat, traveler, librarian, philologist, and linguist Adam Olearius. Here we can observe what truly constitutes world literature, with Sa‘dī serving as a major literary inspiration for early modern reflections on virtues and vices, relevant also for Western audiences. He was not a Christian, but the poet’s truly noble ideals were to have a deep impression on his future readers in East and West, especially since the early modern age.

J. S. Bach's Twenty-First Cantate in the Context of the German Protestant Glorical Tradition

The poetic features of the poetics of the German Protestant cantata, which was closely connected with the Lutheran liturgical practice and played the role of a “musical sermon” defined at the level of Hauptmusik — the “main music” of worship, are summarized. It is established that the poetics of the German spiritual cantata was nourished by the teachings of Lutheran doctrine, as well as indicative of the thesis of “service to the glory of God”, correlated with the Protestant imperative “Soli Deo Gloria” (“Glory to God”). Structurally, the cantata was a combination in the end-to-end composition of episodes such as a motet based on quotations from Scripture and episodes created on a free spiritual and poetic text. The above-mentioned praiseworthy and preaching function of the spiritual cantata determined not only the key role of intonation and semantic indicators of the Protestant chorale, but also the creative reproduction of musical and rhetorical formulas indicative of German Baroque, including SDG (EsDG). The essential role of the spiritual cantata in the creative legacy of J. S. Bach, which covers five full church years of the Lutheran calendar, is noted. It is established that the twenty-first cantata, created in 1714 in Weimar on the texts of S. Frank, is directly related to the complex of Trinity holidays. The deep spiritual and semantic subtext of this cantata as “preaching music” is also complemented by its indicative musical and rhetorical symbolism, which is manifested in the widespread use of E flat major and C minor as tonalities associated with the image of the Trinity; in an appeal to the musical-intonational equivalent of the famous sacred Protestant formula “Soli Deo Gloria”. It was found that this intonation complex, arising in the first bars of the cantata, permeates all its sections, becoming in the final part of the melody of the Protestant chorale “Wer nur den lieben” quoted in the cantata and determining the dominant role of eulogy in the semantics of this work. This largely determines the compositional logic of the cantata, which consists of two sections and is performed, respectively, before and after the sermon. The main idea of the work is focused on the consistent movement from the “glorious in sorrow” to the glorious-alleluia quality of the final chorus.

TRADUÇÃO COMO ESTRATÉGIA DE ENSINO DE LITERATURA GERMANÓFONA: VERSÕES BRASILEIRAS DE UM SONETO ALEMÃO

Este artigo aborda a aplicação de exercícios de tradução ao ensino de literatura germanófonano Curso de Letras Alemão-Português da UFC. Em primeiro lugar, exercícios de tradução, entendidoscomo estratégias de ensino-aprendizagem no âmbito da literatura, são examinados à luz dasorientações do Quadro Europeu Comum de Referência para as Línguas (QECR) e, em seguida,comparados com resultados de outros autores (BISCHOF et al., 2003; HÄUSSERMANN; PIEPHO,1996; KÖNIGS, 1981). Em uma outra etapa, esses fundamentos teóricos são conectados comaspectos práticos do ensino de literatura germanófona, aplicando-os ao soneto barroco alemão Esist alles eitel (1637), de Andreas Gryphius, e sua tradução em português brasileiro feita por oitoestudantes da UFC. Trata-se de traduções literais e/ou recriações literárias, visando a mostrar queesse tipo de exercício pode contribuir: a) como estratégia metodológica para diminuir a heterogeneidadeno tocante à competência linguístico-cultural germanófona na sala de aula; b) como formade utilizar a tradução visando a uma análise integral do texto; e c) como forma de sensibilizar osestudantes para a importância da tradução literária na formação de professores de alemão comolíngua estrangeira (ALE). Considerando-se as interseções existentes entre a formação de professoresde ALE e seu acesso à literatura germanófona, é possível concluir que exercícios de tradução literáriapodem gerar ganhos de conhecimentos interdisciplinares envolvendo língua, cultura, teorialiterária e o próprio ato de traduzir, aqui também entendido como recriação.Palavras-chave: Ensino de literatura. Exercícios de tradução. QECR

The German Baroque Solo Organ Sonata in the Work of Theophilus Andreas Volckmar

«Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Искусствоведение» — научно-теоретический рецензируемый журнал, обобщающий результаты исследований ученых всего мира в различных областях искусства, включая музыковедение, культурологию и художественное образование.

Johannes Schefler: Mystical Poetry as a Catalyst of (Post)Modern Thought

This article deals with the history of reception of the German Baroque poet Johannes Scheffler (aka Angelus Silesius, 1624-1677), which served as a significant catalyst (to use the renowned poetological term of T. S. Eliot) on a number of writers and philosophers in the 19th and 20th century. First of all, the analysis is focused on Scheffler’s impact on Jorge Luis Borges who in reading of Scheffler’s mystical epigrams attempted to find the way out of the impasse of modernist subjectivity. Next, the article investigates the reception of the distinguished German poet by three renowned 20th century philosophers: Heidegger, Derrida, and Lacan. It becomes clear that all three have creatively appropriated the verses of Johannes Scheffler, and it has turned out that the mystical paradoxes of his poetry paved the way for the articulation of some typical postmodern concepts of these philosophers. In Heidegger’s case, Scheffler’s verses on the mystical rose helps define the ungroundedness of being. In the case of Derrida, the scope of Schefflers epigrams seems very close to that of the so-called experience of deconstruction, and in case of Lacan, Schefller’s poetry is read as the most efficient meditation on being, which in opposition to un-being (the Real) marks the successful end of the psychoanalytical process.

Southern German Baroque and immigration to Sathmar (Romania)

Southern German Baroque and immigration to Sathmar (Romania)

Style actual principle in performance of the I.S.Bach works to piano art of the Odessa

The Purpose of the article given studies is a realization of the independent way Odеssa pianists in presenta- tion art of I.S.Bach, resting in performance tastes both age of the romanticism, and аctualited by XX century rhythmic ecstatic expressiveness in musics german baroque. The methodological basis of the research is observance of the prin- ciples of the intonational musical study approach of B. Asafiev's school [2] in Ukraine [1; 4; 11], the content of which is determined by the linguistic aspect of the interpretation of musical meaning, in particular, analytic-structural and stylis- tic-comparative methods with expressed hermeneutic-interpretive gravities in the spirit of musical hermeneutics by B. Yavorsky [see 3] and A. Schweizer [12], as well as its purely performing angle, as presented in the work of A. Verkina [4]. Scientific novelty of the work is based on innovatory interpretation of I.S.Bach style XX century as turned to con- trasting polyphony of french clavier art in concepts D.Androsova, from which author given studies culls the original idea to argumentations of the performance of the I.S.Bach works , coming from "borderland" academic Beethoven style and modernistic line og G.Gould, which rested in Mozart style to A.Schönberg. The given approach to interpretation forms prolongation Ukrainian idea, as it was developed by M.Grushevskij and as it complies with the creative prefer- ences of postmodern and post-postmodern persisting. Conclusions. It is noted special orientation musician of Ukraines and Odessa on innovatory aspects pianо-creative decisions of the artistic problems to post-postmodern contemporanei- ty, in which performance of I.S.Bach flexible agrees the precepts a romantic in organ character of Bach style - and neo- baroque "rhythmic mechanical engineers", declared by G.Gould in XX ct. and not lost urgency in modern gravity to clavier character of the classical piano heritage past ages.

“The False Appearance of Totality is Extinguished”: Orson Welles'sThe Trialand Benjamin's Allegorical Image

This article seeks to renegotiate Walter Benjamin's conception of allegory as an image that is a “fragment [… in which] the false appearance of totality is extinguished” ( 1998 , p. 176) in the context of Welles's The Trial. According to Benjamin, the allegorical image embodies its own limitations, displaying where its visuality falters. This article lifts Benjamin's notion of the allegorical image from its specific German Baroque discursive context and superimposes it onto the moving images of Welles's film. Welles's images in The Trial seem to perennially question their ability to meaningfully capture or represent the nature of the law. The faltering of the image is also apparent in Welles's use of cinematography, when offscreen space irrupts into Welles's images in unforeseeable ways, suggesting the powerlessness of the image over what is imposed upon it. In their displaying an absence of representation, Welles's images seem allegorical in Benjamin's sense.

Andreas Werckmeister's Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse: A Well-Tempered Universe trans. by Dietrich Bartel

Reviewed by: Andreas Werckmeister's Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse: A Well-Tempered Universe trans. by Dietrich Bartel Kimberly Beck Hieb Andreas Werckmeister's Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse: A Well-Tempered Universe. Translated with commentary by Dietrich Bartel. (Contextual Bach Studies.) Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. [xv, 157 p. ISBN 9781498566346 (hardcover), $90; ISBN 9781498566353 (e-book), $85.50.] Figures, bibliography, index. Dietrich Bartel's refined translation of Andreas Werckmeister's Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse appears as part of a series titled Contextual Bach Studies and edited by Robin A. Leaver. Other volumes in the series include studies of specific compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach (the "Leipzig" Chorale Preludes and The Art of Fugue), explorations of Lutheran theology manifest in Bach's compositions, the composer's incorporation of Polish musical styles, settings of the Crucifixus, and Lutheran church music by Johann Matheson and Christoph Raupach. At first glance, one might wonder how this particular volume fits into such a series, since the author, to our knowledge, never met Bach. While Werckmeister did teach the German master's cousin, Johann Gottfried Walther, the more substantial connection lies in the content of the treatise, which is the work of a contemporary devout Lutheran and, in the words of Bartel, "provides a more comprehensive or enlightening discussion of the theological foundation and interpretation of all aspects of music theory" than any other extant baroque treatise (p. 13). One of the great strengths of this volume is its effective and informative introductory section. Werckmeister, like many authors of his time, tends to assume a great deal of knowledge on the part of his reader. He takes for granted a fluency in biblical scripture as well as a working familiarity with both Latin and Greek and makes frequent passing references to treatises and publications in other disciplines, such as theology and philosophy, among others. In addition to the necessarily brief biography and summary of Werckmeister's earlier publications, Bartel contextualizes Werckmeister's musical understanding. Discussions of the musical philosophies of Pythagoras, Plato, Boethius, and Augustine present the divine order and origin of music that would have been at the forefront [End Page 646] of the German baroque musician's mind, living as he was on the cusp of a radical shift in musical thought. While Werckmeister's musical world was a "universe ordered and well-tempered by the hand of God," his successors would subscribe to an aesthetic rooted in Enlightenment philosophy, valuing reason (ratio) above all else, even in music (p. 6). Bartel's pragmatic preface introduces the readers to Werckmeister's worldview by presenting the books and treatises that would have been stacked on the composer/theorist's own library shelves. Furthermore, in his preface Bartel introduces the form and content of the treatise, summarizing the main points and key evidence presented in each chapter of the Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse, Werckmeister's ninth and final publication, printed posthumously in 1707, a volume that builds on many of the crucial ideas and concepts that were at the center of his earlier works. While the introduction to the main themes is welcome, the real value in this section is in the robust explanatory footnotes, in which Bartel provides details regarding the key historical figures referenced by Werckmeister throughout the treatise and explains the basic premise of every source the author cites. In addition to identifying the original authors of the texts Werckmeister cites, Bartel names their key contributions to their field, provides original-language excerpts, and, in some cases, explains how Werckmeister would have come the know the source. These footnotes are invaluable in illuminating the nuanced references that pepper Werckmeister's text. One might wish, however, that these references were included in the translation of the treatise itself rather than appearing only in the prefatory material. Several noteworthy threads run through the content of Werckmeister's treatise, a translation of which makes up the second half of this publication. First, he wishes to establish that the innate qualities of music prove that it was indeed created by God. Similarly, observable "harmonic" characteristics of humans demonstrate that they, too, are God's creation. After establishing necessary knowledge by relating to the reader the difference between numbers indicating scale degrees...

J. S. Bach, Jean-Luc Godard, and the Reimagining of the Immaculate Conception in Hail Mary (1985)

In his 1985 film Je vous salue, Marie (Hail Mary), Jean-Luc Godard integrated preexisting music by J. S. Bach. The choice is a surprise, as Godard hardly ever used the music of the German baroque master in his sixty-year film career. Since this use of Bach marks a singular instance in Godard's oeuvre, the objective of this essay is to explore the process of Godard's cinematic reappropriation of Bach's music and how the music infuses the filmic narrative with a Lutheran message.

Introduction: Exploring the Multifaceted Faces of Punctuation

This special issue of Studia Neophilologica offers on its cover a reproduction of a sonnet by the German Baroque poet Andreas Gryphius (1616–1664). We will discuss this sonnet in some detail to hig...

Johann Scheffler (Angelus Silesius): The Silesian Mystic as a Boethian Thinker. Universal Insights, Ancient Wisdom, and Baroque Perspectives

This paper offers an analysis of a number of the fascinating, thought-provoking, and yet often deeply puzzling epigrams by the German Baroque poet Johann Scheffler (Angelus Silesius), and illustrates how his enigmatic mystical concepts were influenced, to some extent, by the philosophical thoughts offered by the late antique statesman and thinker Boethius (d. 525). While recent research has already reached new insights into the long-term reception history of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae well into the modern age, including by Scheffler, we still face the critical desideratum to determine the meaning of Scheffler’s spiritual insights in direct correlation with Boethius’s fundamental teachings, and hence, to answer the intriguing and challenging question of why Scheffler, along with Boethius, continues to speak to us today, and this perhaps more than ever before. Even though Scheffler pursued deeply religious questions typical of his time, he obviously greatly profited from Boethius’s musings about the meaning of the absolute Goodness, the vagaries of fortune, and the instability of all material existence in the quest for happiness. Many times we observe that Scheffler offers paradoxical and also apophatic statements, but those make surprisingly astounding sense if we read them, especially in light of Boethius’s teachings, as perceived in the seventeenth century. The epigrams thus prove to be the prolific outcome of universal cross-fertilizations and demonstrate the continued impact of antiquity on the modern world and the growing need today to accept the notion of “world literature” not only in a contemporary, transcultural perspectives, but also in terms of universal interactions throughout time.