The electronic and optical properties of semiconductors around the band edge are dominated by the Coulomb interaction between electrons and holes. An outline of a corresponding microscopic material theory for the coherent optical emission valid on ultrashort time and length scales is given. Combining the calculated emission characteristics with Maxwells equations for the field, experimental observables such as optical transmission through semiconductor structures can be calculated. The presented theory is applied to conventional plane wave pulse propagation phenomena in bulk as well as to excitation of nanostructures with nanometric light sources.