Music as a Universal Bond and Bridge Between the Physical and the Divine: Transcultural and Medieval Perspectives

This article accepts the challenge to reflect on the cultural history of music as a transcultural and universally human phenomenon, particularly in the medieval context. To what extent has music played the same or at least similar function in endless cultural contexts all over the world from the past to the present? We know for sure that music has always been present at all age groups, in all ethnic groups, among all genders, and throughout time. There have always been local, ethnic types of music (folklore), and universally accepted manifestations of music (esp. classical music). The emphasis here rests, after an extensive study of music in global cultural-historical terms, on comments about music in medieval philosophy, mysticism, and literature because here we discover fundamental notions about music being the medium to connect the individual with the cosmic harmony, hence with the divine. In literary texts, above all, music was identified as the critical expression of identity, love, and religion. Keywords: Transcultural music; classic music; music in cultural-historical terms; The Beatles; Martianus Capella; Boethius; Gottfried von Strassburg; Jörg Wickram; Hermann Hesse

Der ›Weg‹ der Erzählung

How do narrators of courtly romance use the semantics of ›Weg‹ (path, journey)? Building on numerous publications on the Weg-topic, this study ›The Path of Narration. Observations on Hartmann von Aue and Courtly Literature‹ discusses how authors, particularly Hartmann von Aue, use ›Weg‹ as code for storytelling. This can be linked to forms of semantic usage which reflect the process of reception, particularly in the case of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and those which describe a change in the semantics of value, particularly in the case of Gottfried von Straßburg.

Stabreimende Wortpaare in Wolframs “Willehalm”, “Titurel” und in seiner Lyrik

This study presents a first-time complete accounting and analysis of the alliterating word-pairs in Wolfram’s “Willehalm,” “Titurel,” and his poetry, representing the completion of a project to survey Wolframs’ complete oeuvre. Each pair is described philologically within the work in which it appears, relevant earlier or parallel occurrences are noted, and on occasion the further life of the pair is discussed. A complete listing integrates the 98 pairs from “Parzival.” This rounds out studies of the major Middle High German classical works of courtly literature, cataloguing Wolfram’s use of the rhetorical device following similar studies of Hartmann von Aue and Gottfried von Strassburg.

Handschrift W Gottfrieds von Strassburg und das stabreimende Wortpaar — ii

A long-term project tracing the history of the alliterating word-pair in the earliest recorded stages of German returns to Gottfried von Straßburg on the occasion of a new edition of manuscript W. For the first time, each and every such pair is documented and analysed within the context of Tristan, including comprehensive findings in recent studies on alliterating word-pairs in Old High and Early Middle High German, and in comparison with Ranke’s edition. Gottfried’s use of the pair consitutes a major factor within his rhetorical arsenal. Related yet different phraseological phenomena are also addressed in the context of philological research on Gottfried’s work.