Das Faszinosum Tier

In Goethe’s ballad “Der Sänger”, the travelling musician astounds his audience by prioritising artistic autonomy over a secure existence. He refuses the valuable golden chain that the King wishes to give him as a reward with the beautiful comparison: Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt, /Der in den Zweigen wohnet; Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt, / Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet. (I sing as the bird sings / that dwells in the branches; The song that bursts from my throat / Is its own rich reward.) To be able to fly and sing like a bird, to be allowed to be free and wild like an animal – this fascination with the fauna that surrounds us awakens longings – practical, visionary and artistic, because sharing in their endless riches opens the door to incomparable spaces of fantasy and refuge. Our sympathy with the animal kingdom is demonstrated not only in our desire to keep animals ourselves, not only in folktales and children’s stories, which are seldom without anthropomorphic metamorphoses of animals, but also in myths, religions and cultural practices all over the world. This fascination is even reflected in music, whether in the classical concert where programme music is a popular choice, or in musicals, animal operas or mood pieces. Such reflections also touch on the ecological considerations of our time and our concern with maintaining biodiversity and natural habitats. The aim of this collaborative project is to display the many facets of cross-boundary human=animal relationships and to examine them based on the examples of selected works.