FEBRUARY 20-22, 2014 | SARRATT STUDENT CENTER 216/220

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Featuring a Performance by Members of the Nashville Symphony

Keynote Speaker: Holly Watkins, Eastman School of Music

From minnesang to Mahler and beyond, the musical tradition of the German-speaking world has been remarkable not only for its aesthetic quality, but also because of the unusual degree to which musical works have been caught up in political, literary, and philosophical discourses. These convergences go well beyond such outright considerations of music in writing and philosophy as E.T.A. Hoffmann’s review of Beethoven’s 5th or Adorno’s dismissal of jazz. Examples of deeper and more subtle connections between music and language are found in everything from the complex use of alliteration in the Hildebrandslied to Thomas Mann’s use of sonata form in Tonio Kröger. Music crosses boundaries, whether these are the spatial boundaries muddled by Turkish-German rappers or the temporal boundaries sprung by heavy metal bands interpreting Walther’s courtly lyrics. Music can make the circular nature of such crossings apparent, as when a visitor to Magdeburg’s line-dancing club “The Nashville Saloon” hears an American country music singer break into a yodel. An interdisciplinary approach to music and German studies can offer new metaphors and pathways of thought for contemporary discussions of literature, history, politics, media, culture, and, of course, music itself.

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