translating lieder: theory and practice

TRANSLATING LIEDER: THEORY AND PRACTICE
Dr Alex Lloyd |St Edmund Hall & Magdalen College | [email protected]
Nur nicht lesen! immer singen! (Goethe)
Overview
These lectures will consider the relationship between poetry, song, and translation with reference to German Lieder.
The course has three aims: (1) to explore theories of translation, particularly of poetry and song; (2) to compare existing
translations of German Lieder texts and examine theory in practice; (3) to reflect on the relationship between language
and song in the period. In this way, the lectures will appeal to students working on poetry and culture in the lateeighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and those with a particular interest in the theory and mechanics of translation.
Week One provides an introduction to Lieder, and an overview of translation theory, including vocal translation. Each
subsequent lecture will focus on a particular text. We will explore the context, poetic language, and adaptation of the
works, and compare different translations, considering issues of poetics and performance.
Week Five | Translating Lieder: A Theoretical Introduction
Introduction to the poetry and performance of nineteenth-century Lieder, and an outline of critical approaches to
translation and, more specifically, to vocal translation.
Week Six | Translating Song Worlds
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn?’
Week Seven | Translating Melancholy
Wilhelm Müller, ‘Der Leiermann’
Week Eight | Translating Tone(s)
Heinrich Heine, ‘Du bist wie eine Blume’
Suggested Reading
Ian Bostridge, Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession (Faber & Faber, 2015)
Dinda L. Gorlée (ed.), Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal Translation (Rodopi, 2005)
Rufus Hallmark (ed.), German Lieder in the Nineteenth Century (Schirmer Books, 2010)
Susanne K. Langer, Feeling and Form (Routledge, 1953)
Helen Julia Minors (ed.), Music, Text and Translation (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012)
Jonathan Retzlaff and Cheri Montgomery (eds.), Exploring Art Song Lyrics: Translation and Pronunciation of the Italian,
German & French Repertoire (OUP, 2012)
Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Translation Spectrum: Essays in Theory and Practice (State University of New York Press, 1981)
Deborah Stein and Robert Spillman, Poetry Into Song: Performance and Analysis of Lieder (OUP, 1996)
Lawrence Venuti (ed.), The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd edition (London, 2012)
Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson, Translation – Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader (Oxford, 2006)
The Oxford Song Network, sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, will be convening a series of
events this year, including workshops exploring translation and song, http://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/oxford-songnetwork. See also the Oxford Lieder Festival, http://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk.

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