Brahms and his Poets

What makes a poem suitable for song setting? Or, asked more provocatively, how is it that 'bad' poems have engendered so many 'good' songs? The research project 'Brahms and his Poets' aims to answer these questions, through an exploration of the texts of Johannes Brahms's solo Lieder. Brahms's large and outstanding song oeuvre provides a thought-provoking and rich field for this enquiry because he notoriously shunned canonical poetry, preferring instead texts by numerous virtually forgotten figures, often with limited literary status. This suggests that the criteria for a good 'song-poem' are somehow different from those which are usually applied to define poetic 'quality' or 'greatness'.

This project, inspired by the enduring significance of this vocal repertoire, works towards a definition of these criteria, and explores the implications for practitioners. The song recital remains one of the most compelling and popular concert formats for singers. Song also forms a central plank of vocal training, with most conservatoires running specialized Lied interpretation classes. Brahms's songs feature heavily in both training and professional repertoire. My aim is to encourage a deeper, more nuanced critical engagement with Brahms's texts. Since one strand of the project involves comparing Brahms's responses to poets with those of his contemporaries, the research also draws attention to much other high-quality and lesser-known repertoire of the era, thereby encouraging more adventurous recital programming.

As a first step, I ask who these poets were. Most would be completely forgotten, were it not for Brahms's settings, but a large number of them were well regarded in their day, reflecting many facets in 19th-century Vienna's kaleidoscopic cultural life. Others also worked as novelists and critics, and their forgotten writings reflect individual, detailed viewpoints within a complex society in a constant state of flux. Several were known personally to Brahms. Interestingly, Brahms usually set only a handful of poems by each figure - even when their output was substantial - and this selection can be understood as a preliminary interpretative act. Following this contextualization, attention is then focussed on a wide range of settings by composers including Brahms, to build up the fullest possible picture of what composers may have sought from these poets, and the impact their settings may have had on our perceptions of these texts.

For the academic community, there are important implications of this study in terms of Brahms scholarship. Song represents a substantial part of Brahms's compositional output, formed the basis for his teaching, and was a constant feature in his career as a pianist. As such, its significance to him cannot be overestimated. Furthermore, song was vastly important throughout the century, spanning domestic performance by amateurs and concert-giving by operatic stars, ranging from the simplest folk-model to the most virtuosic multi-sectional work. No composer's life was untouched by song, so a study of this sort, centring on one of its most important exponents but embracing numerous works by other figures, can provide a panoramic view of the genre.

The Fellowship will enable work to take place towards the completion of a monograph in ten chapters and the preparation and delivery of a lecture-recital series. The musical scope of the research addresses songs composed over two centuries, so the monograph is necessarily substantial. The lecture-recitals will complement the monograph and broaden its impact by disseminating its findings practically. They will focus on different groups of poets, and combine Brahms settings with those of his contemporaries. The Royal College of Music, with its community of Lieder scholars, its world-class vocal department, its dedicated audience, and its strong links to London's concert scene, provides an outstanding location for this project.

The research project has two outputs: a monograph, 'Brahms and his Poets', to be published by Cambridge University Press, and a series of lecture-recitals presenting aspects of the monograph, to be given initially at the Royal College of Music.

The central figure of this research is a canonical composer with enormous and enduring appeal whose music remains both a magnet for scholarship and a core part of the sung repertoire. The academic beneficiaries were detailed in the previous section. Further to these beneficiaries, the project is also designed to appeal to practitioners, including teachers and students of singing and accompaniment, and professional performers. Interpretative commentary on the songs will be aimed towards this community. Along similar lines, the project will include many complete examples of repertoire by Brahms's contemporaries, in order to encourage a more adventurous approach to programming. Full English translations of German texts and sources will be included, in order to make the volume as practically usable as possible without diluting its contextual content.

My position at the Royal College of Music provides excellent access to relevant communities through whom research findings can both be tested and disseminated. The College's vocal faculty has an international reputation for excellence; it is from this group that I will draw the singers and (when I do not play myself) the pianists for the lecture-recital series. Also, the Royal College of Music enjoys an exceptionally strong profile of public engagement. Through events like pre-concert talks and educational activities, I can ensure the broadest possible dissemination of research.

There are several other means of disseminating my research within the RCM's academic community. One route is through the Grove Forum series, in which staff members can present research to other staff, students and the public. These presentations are given a generous time allocation so that research can be presented in depth; furthermore they are widely advertised, both through the building and online through a Facebook site, in order to attract the greatest possible audience. The RCM holds regular videoconferences with conservatoires across the globe including the Peabody Institute (Baltimore), the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY), the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore) and the Auckland University School of Music. A videoconference with the Vancouver International Song Institute, which hosts an 'Art Song Lab', would be another means of dissemination. Finally, the RCM has developed a strong online presence with live-streaming of concerts and podcasts, for which the content of my lecture-recitals can be adapted.

The College hosts a community of Lieder scholars, ranging from pure academics to coaches and singers, who together constitute the 'Song and Singing Research Group', to be launched in autumn 2011. Two of my doctoral students are undertaking research in related fields, namely Brahms's vocal quartets (AHRC-funded) and Schoenberg Lieder, and contact with them enables further informal dissemination.

In terms of the wider public, the audience for German song remains large; the continuing appeal of star singers in recital and the tendency for these singers to concentrate on nineteenth-century repertoire means that study of this repertoire is still relevant to audiences. I regularly give talks and have performed at the Oxford Lieder Festival, which attracts large and informed audiences who engage with the scholarly literature, and attend talks, discussions and masterclasses.