Hugo Wolf composed the fifty-three songs of his Mörike-Lieder at a frenzied pace between February and November 1888. That year was the beginning of a productive period for the composer, with the Eichendorff- and Goethe-Lieder both completed by the following year, and the Spanisches Liederbuch begun later in 1889. It also marked the start of his mature period and a departure from the models of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. Wolf found ample space to grapple with questions of form and of shaping music to augment the meaning of the text in the selections he made from the poetry of Eduard Mörike. Within Mörike’s poems, Wolf found a variety of subjects that demanded of him a remarkable command of text painting, and a dark sense of humor that quite resembled his own.
In “Lebe wohl” (“Farewell”), the poet expresses the intense pain and heartache he experiences with the word “farewell,” and chides his audience for not understanding the depth of his torment, accusing them of speaking the word “with a confident face” and “a light heart.” Wolf sets the terse, two-stanza poem in the key of G-flat major. The extreme chromaticism of the harmony, however, often obscures the major tonality, and poignantly expresses the poet’s heartache at the sound of the tender word. The vocal melody begins with chromatically descending motif on “Lebe wohl,” mimicked by the movement of the inner voices of the accompaniment, which becomes the central idea of the song. The second stanza begins in a similar manner to the first, but the delay of the vocal melody’s entrance by a single measure affects a poignant build towards the song’s tormented climax. The tempo hastens and the dynamic rises to a dramatic fortissimo as the final line of the poem is approached, yet quickly fades away into the pianissimo coda provided by the piano. Curiously, the song comes to a close in the key of D-flat major.Joseph DuBose
Classical Music | Soprano
Hugo Wolf
Lebe wohl Play
Recorded on 08/11/2011, uploaded on 09/26/2011
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
Hugo Wolf composed the fifty-three songs of his Mörike-Lieder at a frenzied pace between February and November 1888. That year was the beginning of a productive period for the composer, with the Eichendorff- and Goethe-Lieder both completed by the following year, and the Spanisches Liederbuch begun later in 1889. It also marked the start of his mature period and a departure from the models of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. Wolf found ample space to grapple with questions of form and of shaping music to augment the meaning of the text in the selections he made from the poetry of Eduard Mörike. Within Mörike’s poems, Wolf found a variety of subjects that demanded of him a remarkable command of text painting, and a dark sense of humor that quite resembled his own.
In “Lebe wohl” (“Farewell”), the poet expresses the intense pain and heartache he experiences with the word “farewell,” and chides his audience for not understanding the depth of his torment, accusing them of speaking the word “with a confident face” and “a light heart.” Wolf sets the terse, two-stanza poem in the key of G-flat major. The extreme chromaticism of the harmony, however, often obscures the major tonality, and poignantly expresses the poet’s heartache at the sound of the tender word. The vocal melody begins with chromatically descending motif on “Lebe wohl,” mimicked by the movement of the inner voices of the accompaniment, which becomes the central idea of the song. The second stanza begins in a similar manner to the first, but the delay of the vocal melody’s entrance by a single measure affects a poignant build towards the song’s tormented climax. The tempo hastens and the dynamic rises to a dramatic fortissimo as the final line of the poem is approached, yet quickly fades away into the pianissimo coda provided by the piano. Curiously, the song comes to a close in the key of D-flat major. Joseph DuBose
More music by Hugo Wolf
Elfenlied, from Gedichte von Eduard Morike
Das Köhlerweib ist trunken
Wohl denk ich oft, from Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo
Alles endet, was entstehet, from Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo
Italian Serenade in G Major
Fühlt meine Seele, from Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo
Neue Liebe
Als ich auf dem Euphrat schiffte
Die Spröde
Das verlassene Mägdlein
Performances by same musician(s)
La Danza (Tarantella), from Serate Musicali
La Passeggiata
La Partenza, from Serate Musicali
La Promessa, from Serate Musicali
L’Invito (Bolero), from Serate Musicali
Das Rosenband, Op. 36, No. 1
Einerlei, Op. 69, No. 3
Neue Liebe
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