KOLLOQUIUM MUSIKTHEORIE / MUSIC THEORY COLLOQUIA
with Emily Shyr
Duke University (USA)
Kolloquium Musiktheorie / Music Theory Colloquia – Early 2025 Series:
Current Questions in Philosophy of Music, Analysis and Society
Written in 1928 on the occasion of the centenary of the death of Franz Schubert, Theodor W. Adorno’s “Schubert” essay marks his first attempt at an extended piece of music criticism. Embedded within the text are several references to Walter Benjamin’s work, including his Origin of the German Trauerspiel, published the same year as Adorno’s “Schubert” essay. Thus, a deeper analysis of Adorno’s “Schubert” essay via Benjamin’s constellation technique reveals new ways of understanding what Adorno calls the “truth characters” in Schubert’s music and the temporal condition of these characters, that is, their relationship to myth and history. Using Benjamin’s constellational method, I juxtapose Adorno’s “Schubert” essay with texts by Benjamin to create a literary and musical mosaic that examines Schubert’s music through Benjamin’s concept of origin. Concluding with Schubert’s “Der Leiermann,” I demonstrate how the song disturbs historical time by effecting a moment of Jetztzeit (now-time) in which historical truth and possibility are realized.
Emily Shyr is a PhD candidate at Duke University, where she is writing a dissertation titled ‘The Romantic Sublime in the Late Works of Franz Schubert.’ Her project has been supported by Fulbright and Ernst Mach grants and she has presented her research in England, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and the US. She is also the oboe instructor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
The evenings are moderated by Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Sprick and Roberta Vidic, who both teach in the Music Theory Department at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater.
Free admission
Contact and Zoom sign-up: roberta.vidic@hfmt-hamburg.de
Overview
13 January, 6.00 pm (CET)
20 January, 6.00 pm (CET)
10 February, 6.00 pm (CET)