Goethe and Zelter: Musical Dialogues

Rezensionen / Stimmen

'...an excellent translation, and discussion, of Goethe and composer Carl Friedrich Zelter's correspondence about music...makes a major contribution to understanding both men...Bodley's rich, far-reaching documentation includes details about their few personal encounters. Opening new avenues to scholars of music and the humanities, this title will certainly stimulate further research...Highly recommended. All readers.' Choice 'Lorraine Byrne Bodley provides for the first time the complete musical correspondence between Goethe and Zelter. Hitherto there has never been a published monograph on the musical dialogues between the poet and man of letters in Weimar and the composer and pedagogue in Berlin, neither in English nor in German. The correspondence now shows us a wider picture of their moving friendship and of their sensitive thinking and imaginative observations on music. The quality ofthe translation is remarkable. To borrow from the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutic reflexions on language: 'there is actually no translation but replacement'. From this standpoint the 'translator' becomes an interpreter who is to elucidate the meaning of the texts. Particularily in discussions on technical musical details this hermeneutical claim has been convincingly achieved.' Dr Claus Canisius, author of the seminal study Goethe und die Musik (1998) 'The Goethe-Zelter correspondence belongs among the richest and most illuminating documents of German cultural history in the early nineteenth century. Lorraine Byrne Bodley's fine translation, expert annotation, and contextual discussion of this 35-year-long dialogue between a literary hero and one of the leading, most seminal, yet much underestimated musical figures of the time brings to life a fascinating and colorful period of musical life and thought that helped shape the future.' Professor Christoph Wolff, Adams University Professor, Department of Music, Harvard University, USA 'Lorraine Byrne