GERST 3642

Dealing with the Devil: Music's Faustian Bargain with Literature

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2022-2023.

What would you be willing to give up in exchange for infinite knowledge? (Just think—no more required readings, no more memorization, no more Saturday nights spent studying for prelims!) For one student, the title character of Goethe's 1806 drama Faust, no price is too high: when the devil offers him erudition beyond belief, Faust signs away his soul without a second thought. This cautionary tale of scholarly folly captured the musical imagination of the nineteenth century, giving rise to myriad musical adaptations of the Faust legend. Through engagement with literary, musical, and scholarly texts (ability to read music not required, though previous musical experience is recommended), this seminar explores the interaction between music and text in compositions by Schubert, Berlioz, Liszt, and Mahler, asking: what happens when literature becomes song, opera, or symphony, and crucially, what is at stake in the process of transformation? As music and text cleave inextricably to one another, what is the price each pays in order to gain new life—in other words, what is the Faustian bargain they make?

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (ALC-AS, LA-AS)

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