Die intermediale Differenz-Form-des-Dazwischen im (spät)romantischen Lied am Beispiel von Traum durch die Dämmerung – Vítězslav Nováks "musikalische Polemik"

Abstract

The present article examines the fundamentals of musical polemics such as the Czech post-romantic composer Vítězslav Novák conducted against Richard Strauss. Based on the foundations of modern theories of intermediality (Zemanek 2012, Wirth 2004) and (post) romantic intermedial aesthetics (Schmidt 2005), a comparative formalistic and structural analysis of the musical version of Otto Julius Bierbaum's poem Traum durch die Dämmerung by Strauss and Novák is carried out. Using this song as an example, it is examined on which structural levels the musical polemics in Nováks composition are realized, to what extent they represent a specific composition technique and whether and how they call into question the omnipresent idea of romantic "absolute music" (Dahlhaus 1978).

Keywords

• Vítězslav Novák
• Otto Julius Bierbaum
• Richard Strauss
• intermediality
• aesthetics of (post)romantism
• music and literature