Classical Music | Soprano

Recorded on 10/06/2010, uploaded on 02/28/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes
Heiss mich nicht reden ("Don't ask me to speak"), the first solo song of Schubert's op. 62, is one of the poems of the character Mignon in Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. Here, Mignon is duty-bound to keep her secret. She implores that see not be asked to speak and says that she is not even able to find comfort in the arms of a trusted friend. The gravity of Mignon's oath is keenly felt in Schubert's setting. The plaintive E minor melody with which the song begins sounds almost like a funeral march, suggesting an inseparable bond between the protagonist and fate. Composed in a loose tripartite form, the outer stanzas of Goethe's poem begin with similar music while the middle stanza offers the necessary contrast. During the middle stanza, in which Mignon says that at the appropriate time the "sun will dispel the dark night" and all will be known, the music changes from the mournful tonic key of E minor to a glowing C major. With a subtle mode change from E minor to E major, the first two lines of the final stanza are set to similar music as heard at the beginning. The confiding touch of a would-be trusted friend is felt in the warm, but distant, E major tonality. However, when Mignon states that only a god could wrench her secret from her lips, the music returns to the dark E minor of the opening. Here, too, both accompaniment and vocal melody change. Full chords are heard in the piano while the vocal melody takes on a quasi-recitative character. The drama subsides and the song closes with the poignant cadence of the piano's introduction.    Joseph DuBose_______________________________________________________
Don't ask me to speak - ask me to be silent, for my secret is a [solemn] duty to me. I wish I could bare my soul to you, but Fate does not will it.

At the right time, the sun's course will dispell the dark night, and it must be illuminated. The hard rock will open its bosom; and ungrudgingly, the earth will release deep hidden springs.

Others may seek calm in the arms of a friend; there one can pour out one's heart in lament. But for me alone, a vow locks my lips, And only a god has the power to open them

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.