MUS 329 - Schubert & Schumann

1 course unit

Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann both worked in intimate art forms: German art song (or Lied, pl. Lieder) and chamber music. Students will study the German Romantic movement and its poetry, the roles of composer and performer, and the musical materials Schubert and Schumann chose to express meaning. We will also sample what various scholars have said about this music as a cultural phenomenon, an object of analysis, and the subject of studies in the performance of identity and gender. Students will be able to perform for the class, and the culminating experience will be an informal event, open to the public, similar to the Schubertiades held during Schubert’s lifetime-a gathering of friends to share in music-making.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 211 Music Theory III or permission of the instructor.