November 10, 2025
6 pm CET
Frithjof Bömcke-Vollmer: Beethoven, the Anti-Heroic? Broken Gestures and Gender in “An die ferne Geliebte” op. 98 (1816)
When Ludwig van Beethoven completed his “Liederkreis” An die ferne Geliebte op. 98 in April 1816, its purpose seemed clear: a requiem for the recently deceased wife of his long-time patron Lobkowitz. Yet, as a counterdraw to Beethoven’s “heroic” period (including Symphonies 3–8), it is credited with paving the way for music that defies any association with “masculine“ determination: for it denotes yearning, searching, and failing; standing both textually and in its melodic-harmonic language within the “musical subjunctive” (Raymond Knapp 2003): What if? — What if, for example, the (decidedly male) poetic subject could follow into another, a better world? Here, withdrawal rather than triumph appears as the preferred course of action. This paper aims to discuss a set of specific gestures in Beethoven’s op. 98 previously linked to “heroic” motions: For instance, the characteristic jump gesture of the piano reply at the end of each verse in No. 1; or, more subtle, the enigmatically inverted sigh gesture of the culmination point in No. 6 (b. 26/283, Molto adagio). The talk concludes by considering the potential of musical gesture as a category for exploring gender attribution in 19th-century art song, with particular attention to compositions in the tradition of Beethoven’s “Liederkreis.”
Frithjof Vollmer studied Double Bass Performance, Historical Musicology, and Philosophy in Weimar (Germany), Eugene (USA), and Stuttgart (Germany). Research Assistant 2019–2025 at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts, PhD thesis on musical gestures in string instrument performance in the first half of the 20th century. Lectureships at the University Halle-Wittenberg (2023), University Tübingen (2024), and Nuremberg University of Music (since 2025), Germany. Recent publications include performance histories of the 19th and 20th century as well as the co-edition of a volume concerned with the current state of digital analysis in performance research (Softwaregestützte Interpretationsforschung. Grundsätze, Desiderate und Grenzen, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2023).
Magdalena Brandauer: Construction of Femininity in the Songs of Ethel Smyth
This paper examines the song oeuvre of British composer Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) with a focus on the construction of femininity and the reflection of feminist perspectives in selected works. Five songs from three cycles are analysed: “Der verirrte Jäger” and “Schön Rohtraut” from “Lieder und Balladen”, Op. 3; “Tanzlied” from “Lieder”, Op. 4 (all composed c. 1877); and “The Clown” and” On the Road” from “Three Songs” (1913). Through a combined textual and musical analysis, interpreted in the light of Smyth’s biography and her involvement in the suffragette movement, the study traces the development of her engagement with questions of gender and women’s agency.
The findings suggest that although Smyth’s early songs predate her active feminist commitment, they already contain protofeminist elements, such as depictions of female figures resisting traditional roles or portraying structural oppression. In later works, these concerns become more explicit and politically charged: “On the Road” presents a militant collective of women, directly linked to the suffragette cause, while “The Clown” stages an individual act of defiance against external constraint. The analysis also identifies compositional strategies—form disruption, harmonic instability, motivic symbolism, and the dramaturgical role of the piano—that reinforce these narratives and place female experience at the centre. While Smyth’s operas and orchestral works have been studied extensively, her songs remain comparatively little researched. This paper highlights their relevance for gender-focused musicology and shows how they reflect the composer’s evolving feminist perspectives.
After completing school in 2019, Magdalena Brandauer began her studies in Vienna at the University of Music and Performing Arts and at the University of Vienna, pursuing teacher training in Music Education and German. The Bachelor’s degree was completed in 2023, with the Master’s degree scheduled for September 2025. She also pursued a degree in German Studies, graduating with a Bachelor’s in 2023 and currently working on the Master’s thesis. As part of this work, she has focused on the songs of Ethel Smyth, analysing their construction of femininity and feminist content.
Since 2023, she has been enrolled in Vocal Pedagogy at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Her passion for singing has grown to the extent that, starting in the autumn, she will continue her training in Bremen, undertaking a Bachelor’s degree in Early Music (Voice). Throughout her academic path, a particular focus has developed on gender inequality.
Chris van Rhyn: Finding the masculine and White African gay woman in Priaulx Rainier’s Art Songs
Priaulx Rainier (1903-1986) was born in Howick, in the Natal colony, now the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. She won a scholarship in 1919 to further her violin studies at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) and permanently settled in England. A car accident at thirty mandated her career change to composing. She studied with Nadia Boulanger in 1937 and came to prominence as a composer with her 1939 String Quartet. Rainier became a professor at the RAM in 1944. Rainier wrote seven art songs or song cycles for solo voice with accompaniment: Three Greek Epigrams (1937), Fair is the Water (1938), Dance of the Rain (1947), Ubunzima (1948), Bee Oracles (1969), Vision and Prayer (1973) and Prayers from the Ark (1947-75). Critics considered her music masculine, describing it in casually sexist terms: “not lady music” (San José Mercury News, 1962). William Walton remarked that she must be wearing “barbed-wire underwear”. Furthermore, Rainier suggested that Zulu music and the natural environment surrounding her childhood home significantly influenced her works. These influences are said to have unconsciously manifested in her compositions rather than being explicit emulations of Zulu music. Despite enjoying high-profile performances of her works during her lifetime by the likes of Peter Pears, Jacqueline du Pré, and Yehudi Menuhin, Rainier fell into relative obscurity following her death, leaving journalistic statements, self-characterisations, and the unspoken (she was gay) largely unexamined through scholarly inquiry. In this paper, I will unpack musical characteristics in Rainier’s songs that could potentially shed light on how these characterisations of her as a White African gay woman and masculine composer intersect, position her within a particular socio-historical and aesthetic landscape, and how it shaped her artistic choices and how others viewed them.
Chris van Rhyn is an associate professor of Music Theory and Composition, and the director of the research entity Musical Arts in South Africa: Resources and Applications, at North-West University, South Africa. He holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University. His research focuses on the works of South African and other composers of art music from Anglophone Africa, with a special interest in the British-South African composer Priaulx Rainier. Chris is also engaged in practice-based research in Composition. His works have been performed locally and abroad, including Harvard University’s Paine Hall and the ISCM World New Music Days in Johannesburg. Chris is the associate editor for Africa for the US-based journal Perspectives of New Music.
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AGiD Session 2
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