Premiere of new song cycle by Seóirse Bodley at International Conference in Maynooth

An international, interdisciplinary conference, Music in Goethe’s Faust: Goethe’s Faust in Music is being held in the Department of Music, NUI Maynooth in association with the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures on 20-22 April 2012. This conference, which is being organized by Dr Lorraine Byrne Bodley and Professor Florian Krobb, will re-examine the musical origins of Goethe’s Faust and explore the musical dimensions of its legacy. It will seek to uncover the musical furore caused by Goethe’s Faust and consider why his polemical text was so resonant for the generations of composers that succeeded him.

The conference will contain a number keynote speakers complimented by many professional performances. The composer and Saoi of Aosdana, Seóirse Bodley, has written a new song cycle, Gretchen. Lieder aus Goethes Faust 1, for the conference which he will premiere with Sylvia O’Brien (soprano), Imelda Drumm (mezzo) and The Mornington Singers conducted by Orla Flanagan. The concert will also premiere unknown settings of Gretchen’s songs from Goethe’s Faust which Dr Byrne Bodley discovered in her work in the Faust-Archiv in Knittlingen, Germany, including the first setting of Goethe’s Faust 1 by Anton Radziwill (which has not been performed or recorded) as well as unknown settings by Mendelssohn, Hans von Bülow, Carl Loewe, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Hugo Wolf.

The conference will feature lectures in German and in English by established musicologists and Germanists. The full conference programme and registration details can be found at

http://music.nuim.ie/newsevents/conferences/goethesfaustinmusic