Postmodernity's Musical Pasts covers topics from classical to popular and neo-traditional musics to concerns of the disciplines of musicology. These provide insights how the progression of time and history can be conceptually understood after 1945. Postmodernity's Musical Pasts relies on an extensive and varied spectrum of topics, from both the centre and the periphery of the musicological canon, that mirror the eclectic and diverse nature of the postwar era itself. The first section, 'Time and the (Post)Modern', investigates how to understand manifestations of the past in musical composition with regard to time, on the one hand, and with regard to genre, style, and idiom, on the other. The second section, 'Manifestations of History', shows how time and history manifest themselves in art music. A third section, 'Receptions of the Past', takes the contrasts and transitional moments of post-1945 practices further by looking at the temporality of reception from different angles. A final part investigates questions of nostalgia and the temporalities of belonging. The volume subverts the understanding of temporality as linear progression of past, present, and future. It offers new avenues of conceptual thinking relevant for those engaged in the study of music history and culture and for the humanities at large.

The role of Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782) in the 18th century has hitherto been largely defined in terms of its significance for the history of music. As one of the foremost libretto-writers he centrally influenced the course taken by contemporary musical production, notably for the stage. Aside from the plentiful scholarly literature on his libretti, little research has been done on his importance in an area that, outwardly at least, appears to have little to do with the courtly dramma per musica: the bourgeois strongholds of Enlightenment thinking in Northern and Central Germany. This interdisciplinary volume is a first attempt at a detailed study of his significance in this respect, with implications for the history of reception and institutions, music and literature, and the aesthetic culture of the 18th century.

The book attempts a fundamental conceptualization of an epoch in musical history that has received relatively little attention and is usually referred to with makeshift designations like "Sturm und Drang" borrowed from other disciplines. The studies draw on numerous new sources and are limited to the situation in Northern and Central Germany. They take account of the socio-historical context, new aesthetic paradigms and the direct connection between these and the history of composition. Analyses are made of individual works and typical genre features (Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, Rolle, Gluck etc.).

Richard Wagners Werke erleben seit ihren Urauffuhrungen eine unentwegte Buhnenprasenz. An ihnen messen sich Sanger und Sangerinnen, Instrumentalisten, Dirigenten sowie Regisseurinnen und Regisseure. In der Fulle der Wagner-Literatur bietet das Handbuch einen aktuellen UEberblick: Einzelbesprechungen fuhren durch alle musikalischen Werke, weitere Beitrage geben ein Bild von Wagner als Schriftsteller, Dichter, Briefschreiber, Regisseur, Dirigent und Organisator. Auch das politische, kulturgeschichtliche und musikalische Umfeld wird eingehend behandelt. Mit ausfuhrlicher Chronik und Werkregister.

Where previous accounts of the Renaissance have not fully acknowledged the role that music played in this decisive period of cultural history, Laurenz Lutteken merges historical music analysis with the analysis of the other arts to provide a richer context for the emergence and evolution of creative cultures across civilizations. This fascinating panorama foregrounds music as a substantial component of the era and considers musical works and practices in a wider cultural-historical context. Among the topics surveyed are music's relationship to antiquity, the position of music within systems of the arts, the emergence of the concept of the musical work, as well as music's relationship to the theory and practice of painting, literature, and architecture. What becomes clear is that the Renaissance gave rise to many musical concepts and practices that persist to this day, whether the figure of the composer, musical institutions, and modes of musical writing and memory.

Richard Strauss is an outlier in the context of twentieth century music. Some consider him a composer of the late romantic period, while others declare him a traitor of modernity for his role in National Socialism. Despite the controversy surrounding him, Strauss's works-even beyond his most well-known operas Elektra and Rosenkavalier-are present in the repertories of concert halls worldwide and continue to enjoy large audiences. The details of the composer's life, however, remain shrouded in mystery and gossip. Laurenz Lutteken's Strauss presents a fresh approach to understanding this elusive composer's life and works. Dispensing with stereotypes and sensationalism, it reveals Strauss to be a sensitive intellectual and representative of modernity, with all light and shade of the turn of the twentieth century.

For an up-and-coming court musician of the early 18th century, as is also the case with Handel, it would have been obvious to turn to Italy. Contact with a French-influenced court musician would also have recommended a stay in Paris; in the German-speaking area, stays in Dresden, Wolfenbuttel or Vienna would also have been conceivable. A trip to London, on the other hand, was not completely isolated, but unusual enough. It was the aim of last year's Handel Symposium to further narrow down and sharpen these music-specific requirements. The new volume contains all contributions as well as the lecture and, as always, is supplemented by the bibliography on Handel's literature and the communications of the Goettingen Handel Society.

The number of eponymous female characters in Handel's work is remarkable, from the first opera Almira (1705) to the last melodramma Deidamia (1740), supplemented by Esther, Deborah and Athalia. In the contributions of the GHB 2016, the female figure is traced in the music of Handel's time, guided by the central aesthetic terms 'sensitive', 'heroic' and 'sublime'. In addition, there are studies by Hans Joachim Marx and Ton Koopman, in addition to the usual bibliography and communications from the Goettinger Handel Society. V.

Ein Sinn, der verborgen oder enthullt werden kann, ist eine der zentralen Denkfiguren der Neuzeit. Das betrifft auch die Frage, was Musik eigentlich sei. Je starker man daruber nachgedacht hat, desto bruchiger, changierender ist die Annahme von einem substantiellen Wesenskern der Musik geworden. In diesem Buch geht es nicht um asthetische oder theoretische UEberlegungen dazu, sondern um die Frage, ob und auf welche Weise komponierte Musik sich selbst zum Gegenstand macht und so moeglicherweise etwas von ihrem Kern preisgibt. Die optischen Metaphern von Verhullung und Enthullung erweisen sich dabei als ebenso hilfreich wie anschaulich. In einer Reihe von Beispielen, die vom 17. bis in die Gegenwart reichen, wird das Phanomen in seiner ganzen Vielfalt beschrieben. Dabei geht es nicht nur um Opern von Mozart bis Strauss, sondern auch um Monteverdis Vokalmusik, Haydns "Schoepfung", die Sinfonien Bruckners oder Ligetis Etuden.