Classical Music | Tenor

Recorded on 12/31/1969, uploaded on 06/20/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Leaving the passive resignation of “Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen,” “Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet” (“I wept in my dream”) returns to the bleaker tone of some of the earlier songs in the cycle. The poet’s despair now plagues him even in sleep. In the poem’s three stanzas, he describes three dreams: in the first, his beloved has passed away and lies in her grave (“Mir träumte, du lägest im Grab”); in the second, she has abandoned him (“Mir träumt', du verließest mich”); lastly, in the third, she has remained faithful to him. In each case, he awakes from the dreams with tears. Schumann’s setting remarkably captures the powerful emotions of Heine’s poem with minimal means. The vocal melody of the first two stanzas is virtually unaccompanied—its phrases are punctuated by either isolated chords or a short funereal motif. Yet the melody, moving gloomily about in the key of E-flat minor in a quasi-recitative manner, poignantly reflects the poet’s gloom. The third stanza, in which the poet awakes having dreamed his beloved has remained faithful to him, begins similarly as the previous two, though now the piano provides sustained chords beneath the vocal melody. Though the dream was pleasant, the brutal remembrance of reality is portrayed in the slow ascent of chromatic chords leading to the heartrending climax in A-flat minor. Schumann poignantly interjects a full measure of silence before the brief coda allotted to the piano, in which the funereal motif returns to close the song.     Joseph DuBose

Recorded live on August 19th of 1965 at the Salzburg Festival.

courtesy of YouTube