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.
What an achievement! The first-ever complete recording of Nikolai Medtner‘s vocal music is finally finished, including 108 songs (some of them never recorded before), the Sonate-Vocalise, and Suite-Vocalise. With this 5-CD series, singer Ekaterina Levental and pianist Frank Peters have made a substantial contribution to the Medtner discography that can hardly be overestimated. Congratulations to everybody involved in the Medtner Project! Please follow this link for ordering and further information.
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!
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
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!
