Sabine Koch
I am interim Professor of Library and Information Studies at the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences as well as an enthusiastic library professional and music librarian with a Master’s degree in library and information science. My experience in working with library collections and archives spans activities as a faculty member, researcher, and library assistant. I am committed to enhancing the use of library collections by making them available and searchable online through retrospective cataloguing and open access initiatives, and I am dedicated to engaging with professionals from the heritage and other sectors alike.
Previously, I served as coordinator of the Specialised Information Services for Musicology (Fachinformationsdienst Musikwissenschaft), managing its open access repository musiconn.publish and music performance database musiconn.performance. I have also been involved in the retrospective conversion of library collections by clearing rights for digital publications for the Saxon State and University Library Dresden. In addition, I have been responsible for cataloguing bibliographic and descriptive data from printed sources.
I began my career in Germany, studying piano at the Vogtlandkonservatorium “Clara Wieck” in Plauen and appearing as a soloist and orchestral pianist at local festivals and concerts. In 2006 I graduated with a first class Magister Artium degree in Historical Musicology from the University of Leipzig. In 2014, I was awarded a PhD in music aesthetics / music philosophy. My thesis considered Mendelssohn’s aesthetic and religious beliefs against the background of nineteenth-century Kunstreligion and benefited from funding awarded by the FfWG (Funds for Women Graduates) and financial assistance provided by the University of Edinburgh.
My areas of expertise and interest as a musicologist are in i) the history of music, ii) nineteenth-century music, iii) music philosophy and aesthetics, iv) music and religion, v) music and thought, and, more recently, v) musical listening and sound studies. My research and conference output in these fields has mainly been text-based, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, relying on archival work and exploring: the music and writings of Peter Warlock’s generation (Master’s thesis, 2006); European philosophy and religion in their long-term impact on music production and reception (conference presentations and publications, 2008-2014); nineteenth-century tenets of Kunstreligion and their influence on Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s and his contemporaries’ aesthetic thought (conference presentations and PhD thesis, 2008-2014); as well as the involvement of Greek composers with Western art music, with particular focus on Camille Marie Stamaty’s, Dimitrios Lalas’ and Emilios Riadis’ interactions with French- and German-speaking composers (Post-doctoral research, 2015). The overarching theme that has guided my academic research to date has been the question of how individuals of diverse areas and backgrounds approach European art music professionally and subjectively as composers, performers and listeners.
Previously, I served as coordinator of the Specialised Information Services for Musicology (Fachinformationsdienst Musikwissenschaft), managing its open access repository musiconn.publish and music performance database musiconn.performance. I have also been involved in the retrospective conversion of library collections by clearing rights for digital publications for the Saxon State and University Library Dresden. In addition, I have been responsible for cataloguing bibliographic and descriptive data from printed sources.
I began my career in Germany, studying piano at the Vogtlandkonservatorium “Clara Wieck” in Plauen and appearing as a soloist and orchestral pianist at local festivals and concerts. In 2006 I graduated with a first class Magister Artium degree in Historical Musicology from the University of Leipzig. In 2014, I was awarded a PhD in music aesthetics / music philosophy. My thesis considered Mendelssohn’s aesthetic and religious beliefs against the background of nineteenth-century Kunstreligion and benefited from funding awarded by the FfWG (Funds for Women Graduates) and financial assistance provided by the University of Edinburgh.
My areas of expertise and interest as a musicologist are in i) the history of music, ii) nineteenth-century music, iii) music philosophy and aesthetics, iv) music and religion, v) music and thought, and, more recently, v) musical listening and sound studies. My research and conference output in these fields has mainly been text-based, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, relying on archival work and exploring: the music and writings of Peter Warlock’s generation (Master’s thesis, 2006); European philosophy and religion in their long-term impact on music production and reception (conference presentations and publications, 2008-2014); nineteenth-century tenets of Kunstreligion and their influence on Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s and his contemporaries’ aesthetic thought (conference presentations and PhD thesis, 2008-2014); as well as the involvement of Greek composers with Western art music, with particular focus on Camille Marie Stamaty’s, Dimitrios Lalas’ and Emilios Riadis’ interactions with French- and German-speaking composers (Post-doctoral research, 2015). The overarching theme that has guided my academic research to date has been the question of how individuals of diverse areas and backgrounds approach European art music professionally and subjectively as composers, performers and listeners.
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PhD Thesis by Sabine Koch
Mendelssohn’s Kunstreligion was very practically oriented. Reflecting his belief that music was a religious language of feelings and proclamation, his performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and subsequent compositions manifested a concern to serve educative purposes related to historicism as well as religious edification and instruction. An analysis of how he viewed these activities in his correspondence reveals that comparisons of concerts with church sermons were not only meant metaphorically but point to objectives that he hoped to accomplish as a man and an artist. His reflections on attributes of the ‘human’ and the ‘divine’ elsewhere suggest a belief that artists were blessed by God and that superior works of art were either God’s creation or deserved to be described as ‘divine’ in the sense of ‘excellent.’ As these overlapping religio-aesthetic concepts and meanings indicate, in Mendelssohn’s writings, Kunstreligion could be both a form of religion that was associated with Schleiermacher’s theology and an eclectic verbal language that was creative, often qualitative, sometimes ironic, and, to that effect, typically Mendelssohnian.
Articles by Sabine Koch
Chapters by Sabine Koch
Talks by Sabine Koch
The current study addresses the dearth of previous research, focusing on Dimitrios Lalas (1844-1911) and Emilios Riadis (1880-1935). While Lalas’ artistic achievement has sometimes been narrowed down to that one of a Wagner epigone, Riadis’ fame widely rests on an alleged association with French impressionists on the one hand, and the creation of a genuinely national and ‘modern’ style of composition, on the other.
This paper puts such points of view into perspective through a close examination of contemporaneous writings. At the same time, revealing light is thrown on the question of why past attempts of enriching indigenous music culture with Western models proceeded rather conscientiously in Thessaloniki, hampering Lalas’ and Riadis’ own artistic development and delaying a fair recognition of their work.
Η τρέχουσα μελέτη τοποθετεί τέτοιες απόψεις σε προοπτική, εξετάζοντας το πώς τα μουσικά έργα και οι δραστηριότητες του Λάλα παρελήφθησαν στις γερμανόφωνες περιοχές τον δέκατο ένατο αιώνα μέσω μιας προσεκτικής εξέτασης των σύγχρονων πηγών. Οι πηγές που έχουν εξεταστεί είναι: γερμανικές θεατρικές επετηρίδες και περιοδικά, η βιογραφία του ηθοποιού Raoul Aslan, οι επιστολές του Richard Wagner, τα ημερολόγια της Cosima Wagner, καθώς και αρχειακό υλικό που σχετίζεται με τον Λάλα το οποίο εντοπίστηκε ύστερα από μια διεθνή έκκληση που στάλθηκε σε βιβλιοθήκες της Αυστρίας, της Γερμανίας και του Λιχτενστάιν.
Αυτές οι πηγές δίνουν πολύτιμες πληροφορίες για τις μουσικές σπουδές του Λάλα στο Μόναχο, της θητείας του στο Μπαϊρόιτ, τη Βιέννη και το Σάλτσμπουργκ, ενώ παράλληλα αναπτύσσουν μια απεικόνιση ενός εκλεκτικού συνθέτη, μαέστρου και καθηγητή που διακατεχόταν από ταλέντο, έμπνευση και επιμέλεια.
Mendelssohn’s Kunstreligion was very practically oriented. Reflecting his belief that music was a religious language of feelings and proclamation, his performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and subsequent compositions manifested a concern to serve educative purposes related to historicism as well as religious edification and instruction. An analysis of how he viewed these activities in his correspondence reveals that comparisons of concerts with church sermons were not only meant metaphorically but point to objectives that he hoped to accomplish as a man and an artist. His reflections on attributes of the ‘human’ and the ‘divine’ elsewhere suggest a belief that artists were blessed by God and that superior works of art were either God’s creation or deserved to be described as ‘divine’ in the sense of ‘excellent.’ As these overlapping religio-aesthetic concepts and meanings indicate, in Mendelssohn’s writings, Kunstreligion could be both a form of religion that was associated with Schleiermacher’s theology and an eclectic verbal language that was creative, often qualitative, sometimes ironic, and, to that effect, typically Mendelssohnian.
The current study addresses the dearth of previous research, focusing on Dimitrios Lalas (1844-1911) and Emilios Riadis (1880-1935). While Lalas’ artistic achievement has sometimes been narrowed down to that one of a Wagner epigone, Riadis’ fame widely rests on an alleged association with French impressionists on the one hand, and the creation of a genuinely national and ‘modern’ style of composition, on the other.
This paper puts such points of view into perspective through a close examination of contemporaneous writings. At the same time, revealing light is thrown on the question of why past attempts of enriching indigenous music culture with Western models proceeded rather conscientiously in Thessaloniki, hampering Lalas’ and Riadis’ own artistic development and delaying a fair recognition of their work.
Η τρέχουσα μελέτη τοποθετεί τέτοιες απόψεις σε προοπτική, εξετάζοντας το πώς τα μουσικά έργα και οι δραστηριότητες του Λάλα παρελήφθησαν στις γερμανόφωνες περιοχές τον δέκατο ένατο αιώνα μέσω μιας προσεκτικής εξέτασης των σύγχρονων πηγών. Οι πηγές που έχουν εξεταστεί είναι: γερμανικές θεατρικές επετηρίδες και περιοδικά, η βιογραφία του ηθοποιού Raoul Aslan, οι επιστολές του Richard Wagner, τα ημερολόγια της Cosima Wagner, καθώς και αρχειακό υλικό που σχετίζεται με τον Λάλα το οποίο εντοπίστηκε ύστερα από μια διεθνή έκκληση που στάλθηκε σε βιβλιοθήκες της Αυστρίας, της Γερμανίας και του Λιχτενστάιν.
Αυτές οι πηγές δίνουν πολύτιμες πληροφορίες για τις μουσικές σπουδές του Λάλα στο Μόναχο, της θητείας του στο Μπαϊρόιτ, τη Βιέννη και το Σάλτσμπουργκ, ενώ παράλληλα αναπτύσσουν μια απεικόνιση ενός εκλεκτικού συνθέτη, μαέστρου και καθηγητή που διακατεχόταν από ταλέντο, έμπνευση και επιμέλεια.