Semester of Graduation

May 2022

Degree

Master of Music (MM)

Department

Musicology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Josephine Lang's contribution to nineteenth-century song has been increasingly recognized in recent scholarship. This is largely because of Harald Krebs’s and Sharon Krebs's groundbreaking book, Josephine Lang: Her Life and Songs (2007). In their book, Krebs and Krebs draw information about Lang’s life from two early biographies, the first written during Lang’s lifetime by Ferdinand Hiller and the second written after her death by her son Heinrich Adolf Köstlin. Primary sources fill in the gaps that these two nineteenth-century biographies left open. For example, the letters between Lang and her correspondents also reveal much about her social reputation, financial hardships, dealings with publishers, and relationships with contemporary composers, including Felix Mendelssohn and Ferdinand Hiller. In my thesis, I study the influence of Felix Mendelssohn and Ferdinand Hiller on Josephine Lang. To do so, I use primary sources (letters and manuscripts) and secondary sources (historical and modern biographies). I also provide a comparative study of settings of the same text by Lang and her contemporaries, focusing on her songs “Schon wieder bin ich fortgerissen” and “An die Entfernte,” in order to demonstrate how her works may have been inspired or influenced by others. This research finds hints of influence in the settings that are examined and highlights the impact of Mendelssohn and Hiller on Lang’s professional career.

Committee Chair

Howe, Blake

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.5520

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