Medieval Project with Benjamin Bagby

The Cosmopolitan: Oswald von Wolkenstein (1377-1445)

July 6-13, 2025

Muhlenberg College
2400 W Chew St
Allentown, PA 18104
United States

Tuition:

$730

Instructors:
Benjamin Bagby - (course director) voice
Lisa Solomon - voice
Lawrence Rosenwald - language, pronunciation, rhetoric, interpretation

Repertoire: Songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein
Audition due date April 15

Open to advance-level vocalists by audition (deadline April 15). There are a maximum of two spots open to high level vielle or medieval harp players by audition (deadline April 15). Non-participating auditors are welcome as space permits.

Explore the songs of the amazingly prolific Tirolean poet and adventurer, Oswald von Wolkenstein. During a long career, he managed to travel throughout Europe (and according to him, as far as Persia) in the service of kings and emperors. His adventures are recounted in a large body of monophonic song, preserved in several magnificent manuscripts which we can access today. He made himself (or his poetic persona) the center of his work and through his songs we experience his political battles, his love affairs, his family life, and his enormous ego. But he also had a tender side, vulnerable and self-ironic, a love of languages (he tells us he speaks ten of them), and a curiosity about musical composition and polyphony.

In addition to Oswald's many monophonic songs, all in German or a smattering of other languages, there are polyphonic pieces, for which he readily borrowed the musical settings from Italian and French models, adding his new texts. This most versatile and mercurial of all poet-musicians was unmatched in his omnivorous understanding of European musical traditions at the end of the Middle Ages.

Course participants should be trained vocalists at an intermediate to advanced level. Prior experience with medieval music is not necessary, but excellent pitch control and a good rhythmic sense are essential skills. We will try to work from the original notation, but transcriptions will also be provided. A knowledge of German is helpful but not essential.

More on Oswald's Creative Side

To give an example of Oswald von Wolkenstein's creative side stimulated by his environment: During the Council of Constance (1415-17), he joined the throngs of dignitaries, churchman, nobles and grifters who descended on that tranquil lakeside city, amusing his friends and admirers with clever songs about living conditions in the overcrowded inns, thronged as they were by diplomats, theologians, princes and their courts, opportunists, hangers-on, thieves, prostitutes and street rabble. He sang about overpriced taverns, the bad quality of food and drink, and the hard-headed business sense of the local sex workers. But he also made songs about current political scandals and was not shy about naming names, especially his own. He sang of shameless innkeepers, bad wine, high prices and the dubious romantic encounters which made his life miserable. With evident self-irony, Oswald sings an allegorical and political song about the heretical Hussites (here presented as nasty geese). He also delights us with a sung formal debate between a rich burgher of Constance and a vain but impoverished courtier, with an ancient brothel madame appointed as judge. The theme up for debate: who has more luck with women, a boring burgher with a heavy sack of coins, or a good-looking, blond pretty boy who dances well but cannot pay?