Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship

“Religious Kitsch or Meaningful Expression?”: New Paths in Schumann’s Op. 63 and Mendelssohn’s Op. 66

Siegwart Reichwald, Converse College

Mendelssohn's Piano Trio no. 2 and Schumann's Piano Trio no. 1 have much in common. Friedhelm Krummacher has detected a clear stylistic shift in Mendelssohn's second piano trio; John Daverio has cited Schumann's op. 63 as one of the first examples of his “new path.” Critical voices have lumped in the church-like third theme in the development section of the first movement of Schumann's op. 63 with other such occurrences as a well worn, unimaginative tool--much like Mendelssohn's use of a chorale in the last movement of op. 66, which has been described as religious kitsch. I will present a new, narratological reading, offering a more literal interpretation based on the forms and specific contexts of these works and draw conclusion about the composers’ intentions of their new compositional paths.

That Schumann realized Mendelssohn’s specific use of the chorale Gelobet seist du Jesu Christ as the turning point in this intimate musical discourse and possibly even as a personal “statement of faith” can be seen in Schumann’s allusion to Mendelssohn’s musical expression of redemption through the employment of the above-mentioned church-like theme in op. 63. Schumann, however, expressed an experience of failed redemption and continued struggle in his work.

While both of these chamber pieces have been recognized as important markers in the stylistic development of the composers, the focus has been on the wrong aspects. My narratological interpretation uncovers the crucial element in the composers’ stylistic developments: a more immediate, deeper, and more meaningful expression of matters of importance within Schumann’s and Mendelssohn’s life experiences.

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“The Lyre and the Harp: Expressions of Pagan Sensuality and Christian Virtue in Saint-Saëns’s Ode (1879)”

Mary Heiden, University of North Texas

abstract forthcoming

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Reclaiming the Brahms Requiem: A Christian Close Reading

R. Allen Lott, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

As an inspired musical setting of a unique assemblage of texts, Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem continues to earn respect among the scholarly community as one of the master’s greatest works. Indeed, its profound but enigmatic meaning has been the subject of much recent scholarly discussion. Although its text consists solely of biblical passages, most scholars have argued that the work was vigilantly crafted to avoid references to any specifically Christian doctrine.

Brahms’s perceived intent to produce a nondogmatic libretto has been given privileged status, despite the steady devaluation of authorial intent in the age of deconstruction. Recent authors have been too easily influenced by the composer’s own indistinct views of theology, or else they have been misled by the observations of Karl Reinthaler, the conductor who prepared the Bremen premiere, who was disappointed that the text was not more overtly about Christ. The meaning of the text in and of itself, without reference to Brahms’s personal views or the social, political, and religious context of the period, remains to be carefully explored.

As a Christian believer, I will offer a close reading of the text. I will demonstrate that the work is far from universal in its creed but rather presents a masterly summary of the unique Christian view of death, including the bodily resurrection of the dead and eternal life spent in praise of the Creator. Instead of carefully ignoring the role of Jesus Christ simply by omitting his name as most writers assert, the text undeniably focuses on Christ, quoting his very words, referring to him specifically as “Lord,” and alluding to the result of his saving work on earth. Above all, the work emphasizes divine not human comfort, for no agency of human intervention is depicted.