General

I have the pleasure of welcoming two invited guests to my current seminar on piano sonatas of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries at Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. The pianists will perform repertoire of their own choice and discuss it with the students, while I will add some analytic remarks. Both sessions will be open for colleagues and friends, so if you happen to be in Düsseldorf and would like to come around, just let me know!

• Wednesday, 22 January, 9 am: Severin von Eckardstein will perform and talk about Nikolai Medtner‘s Piano Sonata in G minor, Op. 22
• Wednesday, 5 February, 9 am: Kyra Steckeweh will present both of Dora Pejačević‘s piano sonatas, Op. 36 in B-flat minor and Op. 57 in A-flat major

I am mourning the death of my friend and colleague Stephan Schönlau (1985–2024), who passed away recently during the Christmas holidays after a fierce battle against cancer for two and a half years. It is heartbreaking to lose a person of such sincerity, integrity, awareness, and kindness, and the more so if this person has been such a dear and valuable companion in professional and private life.

Stephan was a music theorist and lecturer at music universities in Berlin and Dresden. In his research, he opened up new perspectives on English and Italian Baroque music, and on the study of thoroughbass, passacaglia, and ground composition. As a member of the GMTH and its working group for international affairs, he co-established and coordinated the international lecture series of the society, and introduced his approaches to transcultural music theory and the integration of musics from a variety of origins in the classroom. In doing so, he contributed significantly to the advancement of the European music theory community. Moreover, Stephan and his husband, as a cross-continental and multiethnic couple, themselves were—and continue to be—a role model of diversity and plurality in many respects.

Stephan and I were in close exchange on a number of subjects, discussing the relations of music and politics, career paths in academia, and recent developments in European and American music theory. I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to be in touch with him. Our communication has broadened my mind and prompted me to challenge my own views on several occasions. May he rest in peace; may his graciousness in everything he was doing set an example for others who share his ideals and convictions; and may his family and friends find consolation and comfort in the idea that his work will be an inspiration to many people who have known and met him.

I pondered over the relationship of musicology and music theory in the German-speaking countries, and examined different aspects of collaboration, cooperation, and competition between the two fields and their protagonists. My article »Miteinander, nebeneinander oder aneinander vorbei?« (»Along with, side by side, or past each other?«) appears in Die Musikforschung 77, no. 4 (2024): 332–343.