UMS in the Classroom: Schubert’s Winterreise

By UMS

Interested in using a UMS performance in your university classroom? For each performance on the season, we provide suggested curricular connections, links to contextual material online, citations for scholarly material, and prompts for classroom discussion. For additional resources and individualized curricular support, please contact Shannon Fitzsimons Moen, UMS Campus Engagement Specialist, at skfitz@umich.edu or (734) 764-3903.

UMS is also committed to making our performances an affordable part of the academic experience. Our Classroom Ticket Program provides $15 tickets to students and faculty for performances that are a course requirement. Please email umsclasstickets@umich.edu to set up a group order.

Connect:

This performance may connect meaningfully with courses in the following schools and disciplines:

• Comparative Literature
• English Language and Literature
• Germanic Languages and Literatures
• History
• Music Education
• Music Theory
• Musicology
• Piano
• Voice

Explore:

• Ian Bostridge opens up his process in A Singer’s Notebook (2011, Faber and Faber), and takes a detailed look at the Winterreise, one of the signatures in his repertoire, in Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession (2015, Knopf).

Reflect:

• Look at some of the poems by Wilhelm Muller that form the text of the Winterreise. How does Schubert’s music modify, intensify or complicate their meaning?
• The Winterreise, which details an experience of unrequited love,  is typically performed in its 24-song entirety and is often compared to a theatrical monologue in its intensity. How does Bostridge convey this experience through his performance? What different approaches or strategies does he use to vary his performance throughout the evening?