Brahms and Beyond

In collaboration with TORCH and the Oxford Song Network, this promises to be a fascinating afternoon of talks by Natasha Loges, Laura Tunbridge, Sophie Fuller and Jennifer Ronyak. Inspired by Natasha Loges's new book, Brahms and His Poets (Boydell, 2017), as well as celebrating the hundredth anniversary of women's suffrage and falling just one day after International Women's Day, these talks will explore various facets of gender, society, and the song tradition, from Schumann's settings of female poets, to Brahms' approach to female characters in song poetry, Fanny Hensel’s Heine settings in English translations by Mary Alexander, and the salon world of Maude Valérie White.

2pm: Introduction and Welcome (Philip Ross Bullock)

2pm - 3pm SESSION ONE: Alex Lloyd (Chair)

Natasha Loges (Royal College of Music, London): ‘Hearing Women’s Voices in Brahms’s Solo Songs’

Laura Tunbridge (Oxford): ‘Robert Schumann’s Frauenleben’

3pm - 3.30pm BREAK

3.30pm - 4.30pm SESSION TWO: Alex Lloyd (Chair)

Jennifer Ronyak (Graz): ‘Two Women, Three Poems, and Two Private Acts of Translation: Fanny Hensel’s Three Songs After Heinrich Heine from Mary Alexander’

Sophie Fuller (Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance): ‘Songs and the Late Victorian and Edwardian Salon: The Case of Maude Valérie White (1855-1937)’

4.30pm - 5pm CONCLUDING DISCUSSION AND Q&A