Understanding Viktor Ullmann Through His Liederbuch des Hafis

The Liederbuch des Hafis is an enjoyable, complex, well-thought-out set of songs that feature a variety of musical styles, which are composed with a variety of compositional methods. The songs provide interesting and rewarding challenges to singer and pianist alike and are enjoyable to hear as an audience member. They are important because they are great examples of Viktor Ullmann’s skill as a song composer, and they also have great potential for concert programming as each song is distinct, and the set contrasts well with other repertoire. This is also an excellent set of songs for bass-baritones, who lack a large volume of repertoire written especially for their voice type. The primary goals of this monograph are to set Ullmann’s life and music into a historical context, to discover the characteristics of Ullmann’s musical style as represented in his Liederbuch des Hafis, and to identify the challenges this music presents to performers. This monograph traces Ullmann’s life, his connection to Schoenberg at the beginnings of the development of post-tonal music and his death in Auschwitz; explores his interest in and commitment to Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy, and how the philosophy influenced his life and compositions; studies Ullmann’s musical style and the challenges his music presents to performers; examines Hafez and his influence on German Romantic poets; provides a musical and textual analysis of each song from the perspective of a performer; and offers suggestions to singers and pianists about performing each song. The music analysis is from a post-tonal and, where applicable, functional theory perspective. These findings are then interpreted to offer practical suggestions and observations for performers. Further, the structures that Ullmann creates are complex. Poetic structures, like meter and the number of syllables, are translated into musical artifacts, like pitch and rhythm. These structures guide his skilled text-setting and provide unity to the songs as a set