The song book Lieder mit Pianoforte-Begleitung componirt von Annette von Droste-Hülshoff appeared in 1877, 29 years after Droste’s death. Ever since the book’s publication, scholars have studied her compositions, mostly focusing on their compositional merit relative to her recognized literary achievements. Regarding the assessment of her skill, the form and accompaniment of her most used form, the strophic song, provoke the harshest criticism. This essay argues that the hitherto disregarded problem of performance is key to the strophic form and therefore inextricable from any proper evaluation of Droste’s compositional skills. Droste’s contemporaries, who described her as a highly original virtuoso, rarely worked with her compositions—they heard Droste perform. This pivotal point underpins the book-historical and performance studies approach taken here, which understands Lieder mit Pianoforte-Begleitung as a document of Droste’s musical practice. Attempting to understand Droste’s performance allows us to recognize and set aside conventionally applied assessment criteria and find new avenues into her musical work.
Therese Shire (Fri,) studied this question.