»Musik zum Lesen«

Is it music? Is it literature? Music–literature hybrids are both and yet neither at the same time—and they are blind spots in previous studies on 'music and literature'. Their specificity becomes clear in the production and reception of various 20th century works that can be classed as ‘music to read’: Satie's piano album ‘Sports & Divertissements’, Cage's ‘Lecture on Nothing’, Schnebel's book ‘Mo-No’ and Bachmann's novel ‘Malina’. After presenting general reflections on 'music' and 'literature', this study adds detailed analyses based on specially developed criteria to explorative 'readings'. Using an unusual research corpus, the author then adopts an interdisciplinary and innovative approach to a traditional field of research.