Syllabus
Block 1: 1 April 2022 Class 1–3, 9:30-12:30, 13:30-15:00 (with short breaks in between)
Block 2: 29 April 2022, Class 4–6, 9:30-12:30, 13:30-15:00 (with short breaks in between)
Block 3: 6 May 2022, Class 7–9, 9:30-12:30, 13:30-15:00 (with short breaks in between)
Block 4: 13 May 2022, Class 10–12, 9:30-12:30, 13:30-15:00 (with short breaks in between)
Annotation
This course is devoted to the study of nineteenth-century song with a focus on female musical protagonists and taking various methodological perspectives. Drawing on particular gender theories, it is the aim of this course to contextualise aspects of socio-politics, (auto)biography, reception, the academic research canon, performance practice, and the publishing business. Recent methodologies stemming from the fields of gender studies, reception studies, musical analysis, and cultural studies will be explored by way of specific case studies. On socio-political context, students will explore the Prague gatherings hosted by Elise von Schlik during the first half of the nineteenth century. On reception, two texts will be juxtaposed with each other: a private letter from song composer Josefina Brdlíková to her feminist writer friend Sofie Podlipská, and a statement concerning Czech song voiced in the music journal Dalibor (both were penned in the second half of the nineteenth century). On (auto)biography, students will scrutinise works by Josephine Lang, Stephanie Wurmbrand-Stuppachová, Josefine Brdlíková, Pauline Viardot-Garcia, and will be given the chance to explore pieces of their own choice in a workshop seminar (possibly with a focus on settings of Eliška Krásnohorská, if considered useful). Moreover, the role of interdisciplinary approaches within the contexts of academic teaching, performance practice, and the publishing business will be considered. Thus, students will be introduced to lesser-known nineteenth-century female composers and their repertoire as well as to a wide range of perspectives and methodologies through which musical works and their contexts can be examined. They will also reflect critically on challenges and chances posed by key texts originating in gender-oriented musicology and the aims described therein.
This course will be offered as a block course and will be enriched by way of short student presentations. Interested students may get the chance to get involved in an international symposium titled ‘Music-Cultural Exchange and the Nineteenth-Century Salon’, which is planned to take place in Prague from 18 to 19 July 2022.
Language: English (questions and discussions can also be pursued in Czech)