Texte remanié de: Diss.--Berlin, 1991. / Bibliogr. p. 266-277. Index.

Spectral Radiance is a concerto for alto saxophone and chamber orchestra. In this paper, the influence of Franz Schreker's Kammersymphonie on Rowlett's compositional inspiration is discussed in detail. In addition, the various compositional elements that make up the work are explained. These include elements of form, motivic development, sharing themes between movements, and harmony. Rowlett's use of these compositional elements aims to create cohesion throughout the work as a whole. The paper acts as a guide, retracing the steps taken by the composer during the composition of the concerto.

Franz Schreker (1878-1934) was a Jewish-Austrian composer of great success during the first decades of the twentieth century. Schreker’s reputation diminished after 1933 when Hitler came to power and, in 1938, his compositions were labeled Entartete Musik (“degenerate music”) by the Nazis in a public display in Düsseldorf. The Third Reich and post-war Germany saw Schreker as a decadent outcast, misunderstanding his unique style that combined elements of romanticism, expressionism, impressionism, symbolism, and atonality. This study of Schreker’s Lieder will pursue two goals. First, it will analyze the Mutterlieder (before 1898), the Fünf Gesänge (1909), and the first piece from Vom ewigen Leben (1923) stylistically. Schreker composed nearly four dozen Lieder, incorporating a wide range of styles and ideas. By studying and performing these songs written at various points in his career (including early songs, songs written after he met Schoenberg, and his last songs during the height of his fame), I hope to develop a clearer understanding of how Schreker synthesized the many cultural forces and artistic movements that seem to have influenced his compositional style. Second, this study will consider the sociopolitical circumstances that fueled the disintegration of his reputation. This disintegration occurred not just during the Third Reich, but also afterwards, notably in an often discussed essay by Theodor Adorno. Only in the last thirty years have scholarly voices critical of such rejections of Schreker emerged. My ultimate goal, then, is to join this reevaluation, studying and contextualizing this repertory to develop a new understanding of an oft-neglected chapter in the history of the German Lied.

Der österreichische Komponist Franz Schreker (1878 – 1934) zählte in der Weimarer Republik für kurze Zeit zu den erfolgreichsten Opernkomponisten deutscher Sprache. Bei genauerer Betrachtung der zeitgenössischen Aufführungs- und Kompositionskritiken über Schrekers Opernwerk zeigt sich, dass viele Kommentatoren den Komponisten auf der symbolhaften Ebene über nationsspezifische Geschlechterzuschreibungen zu einem ›undeutschen‹ bzw. ›effeminierten‹ Komponisten konstruierten. Schreker galt somit als Verkörperung eines inneren Anderen der deutschen Nation, der nicht nur ›feminisiert‹, sondern mit anderen Attributen der Devianz (Sexsismen, Rassismen, Pathologien) marginalisiert werden sollte. Anknüpfend an postmoderne Identitäts- und Nationalismustheorien untersucht diese Arbeit anhand eines diskursanalytischen Verfahrens am Beispiel der Schreker-Rezeption, welche Rolle die Kategorie Geschlecht auf dem Gebiet der Musik für die Stiftung der deutschen Nation im 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts gespielt hat. Sie leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zum Verständnis historischer Konstruktionsprozesse nationaler Identität bzw. Alterität sowie den damit verbundenen diskursiven Imaginationen von ›Männlichkeit‹ versus ›Weiblichkeit‹ im deutschen Musikdiskurs. Dabei geht die Untersuchung zugleich auf (Dis-)Kontinuitäten dieser Rezeptionsgeschichte nach 1945 sowohl in der BRD als auch in DDR ein. Schließlich belegt die Arbeit, auf welche Weise Schreker selbst in seinem Spätwerk, namentlich im Christophorus, künstlerisch auf die ihm zugeschriebenen Bilder eines ›effeminierten‹ Komponisten reagiert, diese in die Vorstellung devianter ›Männlichkeit‹ positiv umdeutet und in seine eigenes konstitutives Selbstbild integriert. Somit lässt sich Schrekers später ästhetischer Stil als eine Form der Selbstermächtigung verstehen, mit welcher der Komponist auf der Ebene der Kunst eine subversive Gegenposition zu dem normativen Identitätsbegriff des Deutschen in der Musik entwickelt. / In the early 20th century, the Austrian composer Franz Schreker (1878-1934) ranked among the most renowned opera composers in German-speaking countries. Upon closer consideration however, contemporary reviews of his works and of their performances illustrate how numerous critics constructed Schreker, on a symbolic level, as a “Non-German” and “effeminate” composer through attributions of gender and national bias. Thus Schreker – who, in the eyes of his critics, epitomized an inner “other” of the German nation – has seen himself not only effiminated but also marginalized through attributions of deviance (sexisms, racisms, pathologies) imposed on him. Building on postmodern theories of nation and identity while using the example of the reception of Schreker, the present study examines by means of discourse analysis the role of gender in 19th- and 20th-century music in light of the founding of a single German nation. Designed as a scientific contribution to understanding historical construction processes of national identity and alterity as well as discursive imaginations of “masculinity” and “femininity” related to them, it is not limited to critical reviews during the composer’s lifetime but does encompass the analysis of subsequent (dis-)continuities in post-war reception history both in the Federal Republic of Germany and in the German Democratic Republic. Essentially taking recourse to Christophorus, the study furthermore demonstrates how Schreker himself did not simply react to these attributions but positively redefined such imaginations of deviant masculinity and integrated them in his later work in an astoundingly creative way. The present thesis concludes with the finding that Schrekers later aesthetic style can be meticulously construed as a pattern of self-empowerment enabling the composer to develop a subversive counter-position to a normative notion of identity and Germanness in 20th-century music.

Zugl.: Diss.