Beyond Hollywood: A Multidimensional Examination of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto in D Major

Abstract

This thesis initiates musicological discussion regarding the Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35 (1945), by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Though most famously known outside of Continental Europe as a film composer in the golden age of Hollywood film scoring (1930s–40s), the last few decades have seen many of Korngold’s concert works increasingly being performed and recorded, a resurgence that is also mirrored by growing scholarly interest in those concert works and Korngold’s cultural and historical context more generally. The Violin Concerto, however, has received scant attention despite its status as the most popular of his works with violinists and audiences alike. In undertaking this musicological investigation, this thesis also has the dual aim of establishing a methodology of analysis and discussion that more accurately reflects the multifaceted concerns of music performers. Much discussion of music performance has arisen since the ‘performative turn’ affected the discipline of musicology in the 1990s, with the last decade in particular seeing an increase in ‘performer-analysts’ contributing written research to the field. This development has stimulated methodological innovation, while also demonstrating that flexibility is needed to continue to strive for meaningful research. By basing this methodology on phenomenological principles, initially devised by Edmund Husserl and later developed by music academics such as Lawrence Ferrara and philosopher Bruce Ellis Benson, the analysis is a synthesis of phenomenological, conventional and hermeneutic discourse. This facilitates a multidimensional discourse that considers formalistic features, historical and cultural significance both in the past and present, and interpretive and aesthetic observations, to lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of the Concerto.