Celebration of Learning Spotlight: Mahler as Editor, the 1899 Vienna Hofoper Production of Bärenhäuter

Posted by Carly Byer on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 in Commentary.

On February 13, 2020, the Center for Teaching held a Celebration of Learning, an exhibition of students as producers. The event featured students from all over campus sharing what they learned, created, designed, and discovered.

Chet Humphries’ project examines archival sources he worked with in Vienna (Mahler’s performance materials from the 1899 production of Siegfried Wagner’s Bärenhäuter) and tries to establish a revision history for the opera, and assess to what extent Mahler’s aesthetic sensibilities are imprinted on the opera as a result of his involvement. The score examples are encoded using MEI and rendered in Verovio, which allows the reader to interact with the score and view an excerpt at any point in its revision history. Through this project, Chet was able to learn MEI, HTML, Verovio, archival research techniques, and more about Mahler’s creative process as an editor and opera conductor.

Chet added, “As a prospective musicologist, this was my first time getting to do real hands-on research in the field, and it revolves around Mahler, who is a composer of special interest for me.”