One Life With Two Artistic Interpretations.a Comparative Analysis On Das Marienleben By Paul Hindemith

Lied is one of the most historical and influential music genres in the West, with German and Austrian Lieds as the important symbols. Different from the opera which connotates the dramatic contents in the lyrics, lied is a kind of art with subtle aesthetic implications. The major attributes of lied are as follow:1.perfect combination of poem and music;2. Delicate structure and exquisite emotion;3. In forms of duet integrated with songs and accompaniment;4.great requirement on the artistic cultivation of the artists. Since the domestic and foreign studies on Lieds restrict within the masters and their works before the20th century, based on the advantageous conditions of artistic guidance acquired during the author’s personal study experience in Germany, this thesis selects Das Marienleben, a lieder spiel created by German composer Paul Hindemith as the object, conducts a comparative analysis on the two different versions of this work from the multiple perspectives of philosophy, literature and aesthetics, and makes a clear map on the evolution of creative thoughts of Paul Hindemith.The whole thesis is consisted by four chapters which put forward the arguments from horizontal and vertical aspects------to carry out vertical study on the development of Lied and horizontal study on the two elements of lyrics and music: furthermore, to research the transitional change of humanistic thoughts in the vertical perspective and to select the manifestation modes of philosophical and aesthetic formation in the horizontal perspective. The first three chapters describe the creative resources and thoughts on Das Marienleben. The fourth chapter, the key part of the thesis, presents the three categories of the lieder spiel in line with the different characteristics displayed from varied angles by abandoning the description ways of analyse the traditional Lied, and makes comments on the similarities of each category, all chapters echo with each other, outlining a vivid portrait on Das Marienleben.The final chapter makes a conclusion on the reason to revise Das Marienleben, combs the evolutionary process of Paul Hindemith’s creative thoughts and finds out his new music style which is conservative as well as innovative, so as to lays solid foundation to study other works produced by Paul Hindemith.