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Monika Hennemann

Dr Monika Hennemann

Reader in Music/International Dean, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

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Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am Reader in Music at Cardiff University School of Music, the School’s Co-Director for International Engagement, a Co-Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research into Opera and Drama (CIRO), and Director of Admissions.

As a scholar, I am a musicologist, cultural historian, linguist and translator. My main interests are the music, literature, and art of the German- and English- speaking world from the late eighteenth century to the present day. Specialisms include 19th-century opera; Lieder, song, and performance-practice; and the music of Mendelssohn, Liszt and Webern. My recent monograph Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Opernprojekte im kulturellen Kontext der deutschen Opern- und Librettogeschichte, 1820-1850 (Felix Mendelssohn’s Opera Projects in the Cultural Context of German Opera and Libretto History from 1820-1850) has been described as “a groundbreaking study… rigorous in its scholarship, insightful in its interpretations.” I am currently working on the theatrical performance history of Liszt’s St Elizabeth and other oratorios, as well as concepts of adaptive intercultural theater based on Western opera performances in in the East.

I studied at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Germany, and at the Florida State University in the US. As a musician, I play the piano, violin and Baroque recorder, and, whenever my other duties allow, enjoy singing in choirs.

I have previously worked in both university Music and German departments, and in music conservatories. Before taking up my current role, I have held academic positions in Musicology at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati (US), the Florida State University (US) as Orpheus Endowed Scholar, and at Birmingham University (UK), as well as in German Studies/Translation at the University of Rhode Island (US) and in the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University.

In addition to my research interests, I have long experience as a professional translator. I am a fully qualified Goethe Institut examiner and DAAD Ortslektorin, and for several years offered postgraduate seminars on German for Musicologists at the Institute of Advanced Studies in London. I was recently interviewed for the magazine Der Spiegel about my experiences as a German living in Wales, and I work closely with the Welsh Government’s office in Berlin to promote Welsh culture to German audiences.

With my fellow Director for International Engagement at the School of Music, I negotiate and curate links with partner institutions overseas, and share responsibility for international student mobility and recruitment, and for international staff exchange. For over two decades, I have developed and maintained extensive contacts with Universities, Conservatories and Colleges in the US, Europe, China and South East Asia. I jointly oversee the School of Music’s partnership with South China Normal University, and work keenly to help our overseas students assimilate to Western methods of study and learning. I am the co-founder and Convenor of the Royal Music Association’s Southeast Asia Chapter, and undertake regular lectures in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. I have a particularly strong association with Singapore, where I have for many years enjoyed giving annual guest classes for young musicians at Raffles Institution and Raffles Girls School, and at Temasek Junior College.

I have presented numerous papers at the Annual Meetings of the American Musicological Society (AMS), the Royal Musical Association (RMA), and the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung in Germany. Recent engagements have included an AMS paper on musical politics and Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and keynote lectures for the Princess Galyani Institute in Thailand and Xiamen University in China. I have participated in the University of Macau’s Department of English Distinguished Lecture Series, and presented at many other institutions worldwide, including the University of California at Berkeley, Brown University, Duke University, the University of New Hampshire (US); Graz Universität (Austria); Opéra National de Paris, the Université de Rouen (France); the Royal Opera House, London, the Royal College of Music, London (UK); Heidelberg Universität, Bremen Universität, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (Germany); and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore).

My broadcast credits include a recent interview (2020) on the Austrian composer Anton Webern’s play Tot for ORF, work for BBC Radio 3 and for the BBC Proms, several programmes on the appreciation of Classical music for Chicago Public Radio, and the television broadcast “Mendelssohn in Scotland” (part of the series “Artists and Landscapes” for Deutsche Welle Germany/USA).

I welcome enquiries about postgraduate research/doctoral studies on interdisciplinary topics related to 19th- and 20th-century music and language; opera and oratorio; Lieder, song, and performance-practice; adaptation in music; and libretto studies.

Publication

2024

2020

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2005

  • Hennemann, M. 2005. Liszt’s Lieder. In: Hamilton, K. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Liszt. Cambridge University Press, pp. 192-205.

2004

2003

2002

1997

Articles

Book sections

Books

Research

My monograph Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Opernprojekte im kulturellen Kontext der deutschen Opern- und Librettogeschichte, 1820-1850 (Felix Mendelssohn’s Opera Projects in the Cultural Context of German Opera and Libretto History from 1820-1850) has recently appeared with Wehrhahn Verlag (2020).  Other significant publications include the first edition of Anton Webern’s drama “Tot”, accompanied by an analytical essay, in Webern_21 (Boehlau 2009); “Much Ado about The Tempest: London Opera Politics, Intercultural Incomprehension and Felix Mendelssohn” (Journal of Musicological Research, 2010); “Musikalische Souvenirs von Mendelssohns Schottlandreise” in Musiker auf Reisen: Beiträge zum Kulturtransfer im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (2011); “The Phantom of Mendelssohn’s Opera: Fictional Accounts and Posthumous Propaganda” in Mendelssohn Perspectives (2012); „A Most Extraordinary Mania“–Händel und die englische Aufführungstradition des 19. Jahrhunderts“in Händels Weg von Rom nach London(2013); the chapter “Operatorio”–on the theory and practice of dramatic stagings of oratorios–in The Oxford Handbook of Opera (2014), as well as chapters on Mendelssohn and Liszt in the respective Cambrigde Companions.

PUBLICATIONS:

Book Chapters and Journal Articles:

“Operatorio?“  Oxford Handbook of Opera, ed. Helen Greenwald.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2014, 74-91.

“‘A Most Extraordinary Mania’: Händel und die englische Aufführungspraxis des 19. Jahrhunderts.”  Händels Weg von Rom nach London, eds. Chr.-H. Mahling and Wolfgang Birtel (Mainz: Are, 2013), 85-110.

“The Phantom of Mendelssohn’s Opera: Fictional Accounts and Posthumous Propaganda.”  Mendelssohn Perspectives, ed. Nicole Grimes and Angela Mace (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012), 177-196.

“Musikalische Souvenirs von Mendelssohns Schottlandreise (1829).” Musiker auf Reisen: Beiträge zum Kulturtransfer im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Chr.-H. Mahling (Augsburg: Wissner, 2011), 187-203.

“Much Ado about The Tempest: London Opera Politics, Intercultural Incomprehension and Felix Mendelssohn.”  Journal of Musicological Research2-3/29 (2010), 86-118.

“Anton Weberns Bühnenspiel Totals Schlüssel zu seinen Kompositionen.”  webern_21, ed. Dominik Schweiger (Vienna: Böhlau, 2009), 117-134.  Supported by a Music & LettersResearch Grant.

“Mendelssohn and the Stage.”  Mendelssohn in Performance, ed. Siegwart Reichwald (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008), 115-146.  Volume shortlisted for a Ruth A. Solie Award of the American Musicological Society.

“Liszt’s Songs.”  Cambridge Companion to Liszt, ed. Kenneth Hamilton (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 192-205.

“Mendelssohn’s Works for the Stage: From Liederspiel to Lorelei.”  Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn, ed. Peter Mercer-Taylor (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 206-229.

“‘Ritter Berlioz’ und ‘Prophet Mendelssohn’ in der Rezeption ihres Zeitgenossen Griepenkerl.”  Berlioz, Wagner und die Deutschen, ed. Sieghart Döhring, Arnold Jakobshagen and Gunther Braam (Köhl: Dohr, 2003), 271-287.

“‘So kann ich es nicht componiren’: Mendelssohn, Opera, and the Libretto Problem.”  The Mendelssohns–Their Music in History, ed. John Michael Cooper and Julie Prandi (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 181-201.

“Mendelssohn and Byron: Two Songs almost without Words.”  Mendelssohn-Studien 10 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1997), 131-156.  Supported by a Music & LettersResearch Grant.

Monograph:

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Opernprojektein ihrem kulturellen Kontext: Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Opern- und Librettogeschichte zwischen 1820 und 1850. (Braunschweig: Wehrhahn, 2020).
"Lied and Song Cycle," "Oratorio,""Felix Mendelssohn"

Oxford Companion to Music, ed. Alison Latham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002):       
"Conti, Francesco," "Corradini, Francesco," "Courcelle, Francesco," "Kalabis, Victor," "Kittl, Jan Bedřich," "Kvapil, Jaruslav," "Menuhin, Yehudi," "Nebra, José de," "Ordoñez, Carlo d’," "Royer, Joseph-Nicolas," "Valls, Francisco"

Academic Translations:  

Numerous articles (in Mendelssohn-Studien,The Mendelssohn Companion, and others), prefaces (for Schott, Mainz and London), dictionary entries (for Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart), and program notes.

Teaching

My teaching at Cardiff University has included:

Undergraduate Modules:
· Repertoire Studies
· Women in 19th-Century Music
· Italian Opera
· Practical Musicanship I
· Practical Contribution Portfolio I

· Introduction to German History and Culture
· German Drama
· German Poetry
· German Culture in Context
· The GDR in Literature and Visual Culture
· German for Professional Purposes
· Translation for Final-Year Students
· Translation into English for Erasmus Students
· Specialised Translation
· Advanced Translation Practice
· Translation as a Profession

· Dissertation Supervision (Musicology, German and Translation Studies)

Contributions to the
· MA in Music
· MA in Translation Studies
· MA in European Studies
· MA in Global Cultures and Creativity

I have also taught the following:

For the Deutsche Sommerschule am Atlantik (University of Rhode Island)
· all levels of German language instruction

Undergraduate and Postgraduate modules:·
· Theory and Practice of Phonetics
· German for Musicians
· Language Pedagogy Seminar for Teachers Integrating Poetry into Language Teaching
· “Frauenpower”: Women in German History, Culture, and Politics

For Birmingham University (modules and lectures)
· Women in 19th-Century Music
· Art Music in the Movies
· The Piano and its Music in Cultural Context, 1700-1820
· Music Reception in Nineteenth-Century Britain
· Music, Culture, and Literature in fin-de siècle Vienna
· The Lied, 1800-1920

· “Gender and Music”
· “19th-century Virtuoso Culture”
· “German Opera from Weber to Wagner”
· “The Lied”·“Musical Self-Quotations”
· “Puccini’sIl Trittico
· “The 19th-century Bach Revival”
· “Felix Mendelssohn”
· “Franz Liszt”
· “Musical Currents in Vienna around 1900”
· “Handel in the 19thCentury”

For the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (modules)
· Undergraduate Survey of Music History
· Undergraduate Survey of Music History to 1750
· Graduate Survey of Music History
· Romanticism in Music I (1800-1850); Romanticism in Music II (1850-1900)
·
Survey of Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Literature
· Graduate Research and Writing

For the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of London
· German for Musicologists (postgraduate module)

For the Université de Rouen
· Berlioz Reception in Britain (postgraduate module)

Biography

I am Reader in Music at Cardiff University School of Music, the School’s Co-Director for International Engagement, a Co-Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research into Opera and Drama (CIRO), and Director of Admissions.

I studied at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Germany, and at the Florida State University in the US. As a musician, I play the piano, violin and Baroque recorder, and, whenever my other duties allow, enjoy singing in choirs.

I have previously worked in both university Music and German departments, and in music conservatories. Before taking up my current role, I have held academic positions in Musicology at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati (US), the Florida State University (US) as Orpheus Endowed Scholar, and at Birmingham University (UK), as well as in German Studies/Translation at the University of Rhode Island (US) and in the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University. For several years, I was Programme Director of the University of Rhode Island’s Deutsche Sommerschule am Atlantik.

I have organised the following conferences, symposia and workshops:

· “Commemorating WW1: Creativity & Conflict, Cardiff University”, May 2016-November 2018; multi-disciplinary series of study days, lectures, concerts, film screenings and community engagement events in collaboration with the National Museum of Wales, Welsh National Opera, KU Leuven, Heidelberg University and Brown University (with Dr Clair Rowden, Cardiff); http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/commemorating-wwi-conflict-and-creativity

· Public Workshop and Discussion on “RALPH: The Life and Adventures of an Enemy Alien (guest speaker: Sophie Rashbrook; playright, dramaturg and translator), 20 March 2018, (with Dr Carlo Cenciarelli, Benjamin Davies, Dr Cristina Marinetti and Prof Loredana Polezzi)

· Public Workshop and Roundtable on “Opera Creation, Translation and Surtitling” in conjunction with Welsh National Opera’s performance of Frank Martin’s Le vin herbé, Wales Millenium Centre, 16 February 2017 (with Dr Clair Rowden, Cardiff)

· “International Artistic Creation during World War I: Interdisciplinary Symposium”, Reardon Smith Theatre, National Museum Cardiff, 11-12 November 2016

· Interdisciplinary Symposium at King’s College, London: “Teutonic Enthusiasms and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes: Cultural Conflict, Transfer and Assimilation in London's Musical Life, c.1800-1850” (funded by Prof Roger Parker’s ERC Advanced Grant “Music in London, 1800-1851”), 8-9 July 2016              

· Symposium of the RMA South-East Asia Chapter “West meets East: Intercultural Transfers in Performance”, Singapore, Raffles Institution, 2 April 2016 (with Dr Ruth Rodrigues, Singapore)

· Inaugural Symposium of the RMA South-East Asia Chapter “West meets East: Intercultural Transfers in Music”, Singapore, Raffles Institution, 4 April 2015 (with Dr Ruth Rodrigues, Singapore)

· Interdisciplinary International Symposium “Translation in Music”, Cardiff University, 25-26 May 2014 (with Dr Clair Rowden and Dr Cristina Marinetti)

Supervisions

I welcome enquiries about postgraduate research/doctoral studies on interdisciplinary topics related to 19th- and 20th-century music and language; opera and oratorio; Lieder, song, and performance-practice; adaptation in music; and libretto studies.