Liederkreis: Towards a Pedagogical Insight

Abstract

The German term, Liederkreis, translated as a song cycle, refers to a group or cycle of individually completed songs, designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit. This paper employs a bibliographic strategy, seeking to trace the evolution of this musical genre, and determine its implication for music pedagogy, premised on the theory of contiguity. Saturated data, collected through document review, were subjected to thematic-textual analysis. Findings suggest that song cycles emerged, towards the end of the Classical period and rose to their highest point in the Romantic period, with Beethoven having the credit for pioneering the genre. The study also revealed that in Leiderkreis, key relationship is important and plays a coherent role by making the songs an organic, composite whole in a manner which could be either formal or dynamic. It was concluded that Liederkreis has rich pedagogical prospects due to its focus on the strengths, talents, abilities of every student. The study recommended deliberate and adequate use of Liederkreis in the music classroom. By doing so, students could learn to value each other’s uniqueness in strengths, abilities, and competencies thereby promoting a community of learners where music teaching and learning becomes simplistic and organic, allowing all to grow and bloom. Future research will examine the extent to which Liederkreis has been employed in various music instructional contexts.