Thesis submission ID 779 | created | last updated

Catrina Scullion, Expressionism and psychological disintegration in Schoenberg's 'Erwartung'
Other, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2013


Volumes, pp.: 1 (51pp)  
Supervisor(s): Paul McNulty
Repository (hard copy): DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama Library

General specialism: Musicology: Performance Studies

Abstract:
The aim of this MMus thesis is to discuss Arnold Schoenberg's opera Ewartung op.17 as a piece of Expressionist drama, a psycological case study and an example of modernist progress. Considered a masterpiece in atonal writing, it has been described as athematic. Through an examination of the libretto and the Freudian case studies which inspired it, I have explored the idea that despite being athematic in teh harmonic sense, the themes lie in the expressionistic interpretation of Pappenheim's text through music. I have drawn parallels between Freud and Schoenberg, both pioneers in their feilds and have concluded that more than an opera (or 'monodrama' as it is now known), 'Erwartung' is a psychodrama, chronicling the disintegration of both the Woman's mind and the tonal harmonic structure through the medium of Expressionism.
Thesis submission ID 779