Join us on October 17 at 12:30 pm Pacific Time for the virtual Ziegler Lecture Series, featuring Prof. Irmgard Scheitler-Schmidt of the University of Würzburg, Germany.
View the recording of this talk here:
Title: “Martin Opitz’ New Year’s Gift with Song”
Abstract: At the turn of the year 1623/24, Martin Opitz published a song of praise honouring Christ’s birth in German Alexandrine verse: Lobgesang Uber den Frewdenreichen Geburtstag Unseres Herren und Heilandes Jesu Christi [Song of praise about the joyous birthday of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ]. This example of erudition is also very personal: The author speaks about his troubles during the gruesome Thirty Years War. It concludes with a Latin Sapphic ode petitioning for absolution and peace. Scholars have never appreciated the ode’s function: It derives its full meaning from the intended melody, which was well-known to the dedicatee.
Amazingly, many poets copied Opitz in writing epic-dramatic poems including song(s) to honour friends or superiors with a New Year’s dedication; they imitated his motifs and even his title by way of “aemulatio”. When Opitz’ tendency towards dramatic representation and visualisation is enhanced, we find the work comes close to another musical epic-dramatic genre, the actus. We encounter this in several academic communities, its finest example being a hardly known musical composition by Johann Rosenmüller to words by Johann Ziegler.
Bio: Born in Munich, Irmgard Scheitler studied Catholic Theology, German Language and Literature and Byzantine Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. After completing her doctorate and habilitation, she taught at the Technical University of Dresden. She was appointed Professor for German Literature at the University of Würzburg in 2002, retiring in 2015. Her work and teaching cover the whole range of Modern German Literature from Luther’s times to the 21st century, with a decided focus on the relationship between music and literature.
