Classical Music | Soprano

Recorded on 12/04/2013, uploaded on 06/25/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Though Hugo Wolf today is lauded as one of the most greatest composers of German Lied during the late 19^th century (so much so that he is known almost exclusively for his songs), he struggled in vain during his lifetime to shed his reputation as a mere songwriter. His ultimate goal was to follow in the footsteps of his great idol, Richard Wagner, and become a successful opera composer. During his final days, before the ravaging effects of syphilis stripped away the last of his sanity, he worked frantically on an opera entitled Manuel Venegas, but managed only to complete fifty pages. Despite his failure at opera, Wolf did succeed at another type of large-scale composition, the Liederbuch, or songbook, of which he produced several during his career. Beginning in 1888, a violent outburst of creativity brought forth three of these collections before the end of the succeeding year. The Mörike-Lieder came first, followed by the Eichendorff-Lieder. On October 27, 1888, he began setting a collection of fifty-one poems by Goethe. Wolf composed at a breakneck pace, sometimes completing two songs a day. With the exception of “Die Spröde” which would be recomposed nearly a year later on October 21, 1889, the Goethe-Lieder was completed on February 12. It was published a year later in Vienna.

In the coquettish “Die Spröde,” a young and fair shepherdess walks and sings blithely through the countryside. Drawing the attentions and affections of men, she unabashedly flirts with them. The lively vocal melody of Wolf’s setting is matched by an equally energetic piano accompaniment. In C-sharp minor and compound meter, the music has a rustic feel, which is established in the motif of the piano’s introduction. This motif appears continually throughout the song, but gives way to a coy little idea at the close of each stanza. In a brief coda, the song comes to a close in the key of E major, relative major of the tonic C-sharp minor, as the shepherdess has spurned her would-be suitors and proceeds merrily on her way.     Joseph DuBose

_______________

Die Spröde

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

On the clearest spring morning

went the shepherdess singing,

young and pretty and worry-free,

so that it rang through the fields.

So lala! Lerallala!

Thyrsis offered her, for just one kiss,

Two, no, three lambs, on the spot,

Coyly, she looked at him for a while;

But then sang an laughed aloud:

So lala! Lerallala!

And another offered her ribbons,

And a third offered his heart;

But she jested with heart and ribbons

As she has done with the lambs!

So lala! Lerallala!

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.