Wendelin Bitzan

Wendelin Bitzan

Musician・Researcher・Digital Content Creator

Seminar on Piano Sonatas

I am currently teaching a musicology seminar at Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, focusing on piano sonatas of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While the works are considered in their particular aesthetical and genre-historical contexts, the primary approach is analytic, and we are examining the various conceptions of musical form and cyclic construction as seen in the music.

The start of the semester has been auspicious, with student presentations on works by Franz Liszt and Joachim Raff, besides sonatas by Josef Rheinberger, Edvard Grieg, Ethel Smyth, and Felix Draeseke. As the journey continues, we will delve into music by Peter Tchaikovsky, Mykola Lysenko, Leoš Janáček, Cécile Chaminade, Alexander Scriabin, Zara Levina, Béla Bartók, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Viktor Ullmann, and others. Moreover, we will have two guest appearances by pianists Kyra Steckeweh and Severin von Eckardstein who will introduce and perform sonatas by Dora Pejačević and Nikolai Medtner. I am looking forward!

 

Workshop: Creating OER for Music

On the occasion of the current International Open Access Week, I take the opportunity to acknowledge my conviction to publishing and providing my research and educational materials online and free of charges. In this context, I am glad to announce that I will be conducting an online workshop for the Netzwerk 4.0 der Musikhochschulen (in German language) on designing open educational resources and tutorials using the platform Open Music Academy. If you are teaching at a conservatory or music university, feel free to join the webinar! Please follow this link for more information and registration.

» Online workshop on creating OER for music content
» Thursday, 7 November 2024, 10–12 am

Teaching position in Dresden

This week I will begin teaching as a visiting professor at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden. For the coming academic year, I will lecture in music theory, aural skills, and music analysis in the artistic bachelor, school music, and composition programmes. Thankful for this opportunity, I look forward to a fruitful exchange with students and colleagues at the Zentrum für Musiktheorie!

GMTH Conference in Cottbus

Looking forward to participating in the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, hosted by the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg next weekend, 4–6 October. The promising line-up has a particular focus on paradigm chances in music theory, digitalisation and internationalisation in the post-pandemic era, and music theory scholarship in Chopin’s time and the fin de siècle. I will be contributing with a workshop on the possibilities and functionality of the Open Music Academy. See you in Cottbus soon!

Delving into Stravinsky

I am currently preparing a contribution for a Stravinsky volume that kind of absorbs me. The chapter will focus on analytical examinations of Old Igor’s music, confronting historical writings (starting with Messiaen’s and Boulez’s analyses of the Sacre) with contemporary approaches. Beyond the ubiquitous Taruskin, Kholopov, Straus, Horlacher, et alii: is there anything notable or indispensable in Stravinsky studies that you think I should care about and include in my survey? Any leads and opinions are much appreciated.