Vorwort

Peter Cornelius was not only a composer, poet, translator and critic, but also a teacher of music theory at the Königlich Bayerische Musikschule (Royal Bavarian Music School) in Munich. For the first time, this volume brings together his writings on music theory, reconstructing them and contextualising them in several specialist articles. Exciting insights are here provided into the reality of teaching at a German-speaking conservatory in the mid-nineteenth century – an environment often riven by aesthetic conflict. In addition to offering courses in harmony and modulation, Cornelius also taught a composition course based on Haydn’s string quartets in which he commented on the work of his students and provided his own solutions.