June 8, 2015.Schumann’sDichterliebe.The great German composer Robert Schumann was born on this day in 1810.We write about him every year (for example, here and here in the past couple of years), so this time we’ll do something different: publish an article on the first eight songs of Dichterliebe.Schumann wrote more than 300 songs, but A Poet’s Love cycle contains some of his greatest.There are so many wonderful recordings of Dichterliebe that it was difficult to decide which one to use to illustrate the cycle.Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau alone made four different recordings, two of them with remarkable pianists: Alfred Brendel in 1985 and, live, with Vladimir Horowitz, in 1976.Gérard Souzay, a wonderful French baritone, also recorded it several times, once with Afred Cortot (and there’s another recording with Cortot, in which he accompanies Charles Panzéra).Hermann Prey made a tremendous recording, and so did the great German soprano Lotte Lehmann.Out of all of these and many more, we decided on Fritz Wunderlich – the beauty of his crystalline voice, his perfect diction, the natural, unpretentious manner devoid of any affectations make his interpretation, in our opinion, extraordinary.The recording was made live on August 19th of 1965 during the Salzburg Festival.Hubert Giesen was at the piano.♫
Schumann’s composed almost exclusively for his own instrument, the piano, during his early years as a composer. The 1830s saw the creation of some of his most well-known compositions, including Papillons, Kinderszenen, and the Fantasie in C. However, in 1840, with virtually no warning, Schumann composed no less than 138 songs. This remarkable creative outpouring has since become known as his “Liederjahr,” or “Year of Song.” Yet, this sudden change, nor the abundance of music written, was purely coincidental. Instead, it makes the culmination of his courtship of Clara Wieck, and their long-awaited and hard-won marriage.
Schumann and Clara first met in March 1828 at a musical evening in the home of Dr. Ernst Carus. Schumann was so impressed with Clara’s skill at the piano that he soon after began piano lessons with her father, Friedrich. During this time he lived in the Wieck’s household, and he and Clara quickly formed a close friendship. With time, their friendship blossomed into a romantic, although clandestine, relationship. On Clara’s 18th birthday, Schumann proposed to her, and she accepted. Friedrich, on the other hand, had less than a favorable opinion of Schumann, and refused to grant permission for Schumann to marry his daughter. This placed a great strain on their relationship, yet they remained devoted to each other by exchanging love letters and meeting in secret. For a moment’s glance of Clara as she left one of her concerts, Schumann would wait for hours in a café. The couple eventually sued Friedrich, and after a lengthy court battle, Clara was finally allowed to marry Schumann without her father’s consent. The wedding took place in 1840. (Continue reading here).Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) was one of the song cycles, along with the Liederkreis of Eichendorff and Frauenliebe und –leben, composed during the intense creative period concurrent with Schumann’s marriage to Clara. After the cycles of Franz Schubert, it holds a prominent position in the genre. Schumann chose the songs of Dichterliebe from Heinrich Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo, a collection of sixty-five poems prefaced by a prologue written in 1822-23, and published as part of his Das Buch der Lieder. The Lyrisches Intermezzo tells the story of a sad and lonely knight. During the day he sullenly remains in his home. However, at night, he is visited by his fairy bride, who dances with him until daybreak, when she vanishes and the knight is returned to his desolate life. By the end of the collection, the knight determines to put all of his dreams and suffering in a coffin, which will then be thrown into the sea by twelve giants. Originally, Schumann set twenty of Heine’s poems, but only sixteen were selected for publication. The first edition appeared in 1844.
In the opening song, “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” (“In the wonderfully beautiful month of May,” here), the poet reveals to his beloved his affection for her, and compares his ardent love to the sights and sounds of Spring: budding flowers (“als alle Knospen sprangen”) and singing birds (“als alle Vögel sangen”). Heine’s brief two stanza poem, however, leaves the reader to question whether the poet’s love is requited. Schumann’s setting even more poignantly expresses the uncertainty of the text. From the first chord, Schumann foreshadows the plight of the poet with an introductory passage in the piano that strongly suggests, though never confirms, the key of F-sharp minor. With the first line of text, the music effortlessly slips into the key of A major. Yet, even as it settles firmly into this key, there remains no sense of security. During the final two lines (“da ist in meinem Herzen / die Liebe aufgegangen”), the introduction of chromatic tones pull the music into B minor and then D major, as the vocal melody climbs longing up the A major scale to a flattened seventh scale degree. Closing the first stanza in such an unsettled manner, the music then shifts back into the ominous music of the introduction before presenting the second stanza in the same manner. Schumann was often keen to conclude the vocal melody on an unresolved chord, but he takes this penchant a step further in the brief three-measure codetta that follows. Returning again to the music of the opening, the song dies away on a disquieted dominant seventh in F-sharp minor, thus leaving the listener to ponder the fate of the poet.
While harmonic resolution follows with the first chord of the succeeding song, “Aus meinen Thränen spriessen” (“From my tears sprout forth,” here), the listener is still left to wonder if the poet’s love will be returned. Blooming flowers sprout from his tears and the song of the nightingale from the sighs of his heart, which he offers humbly to his beloved. In a scant seventeen measures, Schumann eloquently captures Heine’s text, and the A major music of the song radiates the innocent devotion of the poet. Beneath the restrained vocal melody, the piano presents a simple motif that descends through the tones of the scale, followed by a heartfelt sigh and a brief, sprightly descending third that calls to mind the sounds of birds. This latter motif also closes each of the song’s four phrases, concluding the vocal melody’s unresolved cadence.
Even more brief is “Die Rose, die Lillie” (“The Rose, the Lily,” here). Though the poet’s beloved and her intentions are still, as of yet, unrevealed, he is nonetheless undeterred in his fervent declaration of his love. He calls her the source of all love, and compares her to the rose (“die Rose”), the lily (“die Lilie”), the dove (“die Taube”), and the sun (“die Sonne”). The poet’s feverish excitement exudes from the animated melody and sprightly accompaniment. Indeed, the vocalist relents from his excited pace only twice in the song. A brief ritardando, accompanied by a crescendo (the only change in dynamic indicated by Schumann), at the words “sie…ist Rose und Lilie und Taube und Sonne,” and likewise again upon “die Eine,” as the vocal melody comes to a close.
The poet struggles in the fourth song, “Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’” (“When I gaze into your eyes,” here), to cope with outward show of love from his beloved. Her gaze and kiss fill the poet with comfort and strength. Yet, when she says, “I love you” (“Ich liebe dich”), he senses the emptiness of the words, and weeps bitterly. Schumann’s setting of this brief two-stanza poem could not be more contrasted to the previous song. The vocal melody takes on an almost recitative character, while the accompaniment either echoes its slow, rhythmic pulse or follows it closely with full-voiced chords. With such simple means, Schumann’s word-painting is subtle, yet impactful. The triumph of her kiss and the vigor it gives the poet is wonderfully heard in the sudden crescendo and equally unexpected F-major chord, precipitating a modulation from the tonic of G major into the triumphal key of the subdominant. With the beginning of the second stanza (“Wenn ich mich lehn’ an deine Brust”), the tone turns reverent as the music of the opening measures is transformed into pious E minor, reflecting the poet’s associations of comfort and heaven. Yet, the sinking feeling of his heart when faced with her hollow declarations of affection is heard in the descending tones, though a diminished seventh chord, beneath the word “sprichst.”
In the fifth song, “Ich will meine Seele tauchen” (“I want to plunge my soul,” here), Heine recalls the imagery of the lily in “Die Rose, die Lillie.” From it will sound an unsung song—the echo of a kiss once given. Taking his cue for Heine, Schumann likewise recalls the fleeting music of the third song. Even the key of B minor (the relative minor of D major), reflects with sadness the earlier song. The strophic vocal melody, wonderfully contained with the range of a diminished fifth, is enchantingly beautiful. However, it is the piano that is perhaps the most interestingly feature of the song. The outer voices, with their gentle pulse and opposing motion, mesmerizingly encase the vocal melody as rippling arpeggios fill out the inner harmony. As the vocal melody concludes, the piano enters with its own melody, shadowed by the bass. The melody is fleeting, just as the beloved’s kiss, and ultimately fades into the final repetitive chords that close the song.
With “Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome” (here), the focus turns to the beautiful Rhine and the city of Cologne. Mirrored in the waves of the river (“da spiegelt sich in den Well’n”) is the great Cologne Cathedral. After the lush Romanticism of the previous songs, the Baroque-like austerity of “Im Rhein” is a sudden change, yet matches the imagery of Heine’s text perfectly. The ponderous bass, consisting entirely a half and whole notes, which save for a brief interruption persists through the song’s entirety, instantly conjures up the sound of organ pedals in the great cathedral. Atop this stern bass, descending arpeggios evoke the Rhine itself. The vocal melody, at least at first, is equally firm, mirroring the progression of the bass with stately rhythms. The focus narrows in the second stanza to a painting of the Virgin Mary kept in the cathedral. Here, the music softens, not only in dynamics but with the addition of fuller harmonies. The poet then compares the facial features (“die Augen, die Lippen, die Wänglein”) to those of his beloved, noting that they match exactly. The tenderness of the vocal melody during this last stanza is thwarted by it closure on the leading tone, leaving the piano to bring about its resolution as the austere music of the opening returns to form the song’s lengthy coda.
The deception of his beloved now revealed, the poet is faced with the reality of his unrequited love, and takes up a defiant tone in the seventh song, “Ich grolle nicht” (“I bear no grudge,” here). He accepts the coldness of his beloved’s heart (“Es fällt kein Strahl in deines Herzens Nacht”), and contrasts it with the outward radiance of her beauty (“Wie du auch strahlst in Diamantenpracht”). By the end of the poem, he even pities her (“Ich sah, mein Lieb, wie sehr du elend bist”). Yet, as the cycle progresses, this turns out to be only a manifestation of his fleeting resolve. In a firm C major, an expressive vocal melody unfolds against a steadfast accompaniment of repeated chords over an octave bass. Though Schumann set the two stanzas of Heine’s poem to similar music, and they certainly begin in the same manner, they are not identical. In the first stanza, the coldness of the woman’s heart is effected by a strikingly modulation from a modally inflected A minor into the remote key of B minor. In the corresponding section of the second stanza, the tonic key is maintained while the vocal melody leaps upward to form the song’s climax. Against the descending harmonies of this passage, Schumann brings the vocal melody to its conclusion, terminating it with two repetitions of the opening phrase (“Ich grolle nicht”). The latter defiantly descends from the dominant to the tonic, as the piano takes off with a short codetta of reiterated chords.
The defiant resolve with which “Ich grolle nicht” concluded quickly fades with “Un wüssen’s die Blumen, die kleinen” (“And if the blooms – the small ones – knew,” here). The brooding poet dwells heavily upon the rending pain of his heart caused by his unrequited love (“Sie hat ja selbst zerrissen, / Zerrissen mir das Herz”). If it was known to the world, the flowers would weep (“Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen…Sie würden mit mir weinen”), the nightingales would sing (“Und wüßten's die Nachtigallen…Sie ließen fröhlich erschallen / Erquickenden Gesang”), and the stars would descend to comfort the poor poet (“Und wüßten sie mein Wehe…Sie kämen aus ihrer Höhe, / Und sprächen Trost mir ein”). Yet, only the one who has caused his pain knows of it. Against an anxious accompaniment of measured tremolandi, Schumann sets Heine’s lyric to a vocal melody weighted down by the burdened of its grief. Two descents through a perfect fifth, the first beginning on the dominant and the second a semitone higher, poignantly capture the poet’s dejected state, after which the following phrase emphasizes the A minor tonality with a cadential figure that hovers gloomily about the tonic. The first three stanzas are set in a rather strophic manner. Only minute differences are found. The last stanza, however, is significantly changed. With the subtle inclusion of a C-sharp, the first descent of the vocal melody suggests a move towards D minor. Yet, the start of the second descent on the subdominant initiates a modulation into F major. The tonic key is quickly regained, but the modulation sets up the woeful chromatic turn about the tonic (B flat-A-G sharp-A) as the vocal melody comes to a close. At the same moment, the piano breaks free from its accompanimental role, accenting the final notes of the vocal melody with full-voiced chords, and then concluding the song with an agitated coda.
Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Part I
June 8, 2015. Schumann’s Dichterliebe. The great German composer Robert Schumann was born on this day in 1810. We write about him every year (for example, here and here in the past couple of
years), so this time we’ll do something different: publish an article on the first eight songs of Dichterliebe. Schumann wrote more than 300 songs, but A Poet’s Love cycle contains some of his greatest. There are so many wonderful recordings of Dichterliebe that it was difficult to decide which one to use to illustrate the cycle. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau alone made four different recordings, two of them with remarkable pianists: Alfred Brendel in 1985 and, live, with Vladimir Horowitz, in 1976. Gérard Souzay, a wonderful French baritone, also recorded it several times, once with Afred Cortot (and there’s another recording with Cortot, in which he accompanies Charles Panzéra). Hermann Prey made a tremendous recording, and so did the great German soprano Lotte Lehmann. Out of all of these and many more, we decided on Fritz Wunderlich – the beauty of his crystalline voice, his perfect diction, the natural, unpretentious manner devoid of any affectations make his interpretation, in our opinion, extraordinary. The recording was made live on August 19th of 1965 during the Salzburg Festival. Hubert Giesen was at the piano. ♫
Schumann’s composed almost exclusively for his own instrument, the piano, during his early years as a composer. The 1830s saw the creation of some of his most well-known compositions, including Papillons, Kinderszenen, and the Fantasie in C. However, in 1840, with virtually no warning, Schumann composed no less than 138 songs. This remarkable creative outpouring has since become known as his “Liederjahr,” or “Year of Song.” Yet, this sudden change, nor the abundance of music written, was purely coincidental. Instead, it makes the culmination of his courtship of Clara Wieck, and their long-awaited and hard-won marriage.
Schumann and Clara first met in March 1828 at a musical evening in the home of Dr. Ernst Carus. Schumann was so impressed with Clara’s skill at the piano that he soon after began piano lessons with her father, Friedrich. During this time he lived in the Wieck’s household, and he and Clara quickly formed a close friendship. With time, their friendship blossomed into a romantic, although clandestine, relationship. On Clara’s 18th birthday, Schumann proposed to her, and she accepted. Friedrich, on the other hand, had less than a favorable opinion of Schumann, and refused to grant permission for Schumann to marry his daughter. This placed a great strain on their relationship, yet they remained devoted to each other by exchanging love letters and meeting in secret. For a moment’s glance of Clara as she left one of her concerts, Schumann would wait for hours in a café. The couple eventually sued Friedrich, and after a lengthy court battle, Clara was finally allowed to marry Schumann without her father’s consent. The wedding took place in 1840. (Continue reading here).Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) was one of the song cycles, along with the Liederkreis of Eichendorff and Frauenliebe und –leben, composed during the intense creative period concurrent with Schumann’s marriage to Clara. After the cycles of Franz Schubert, it holds a prominent position in the genre. Schumann chose the songs of Dichterliebe from Heinrich Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo, a collection of sixty-five poems prefaced by a prologue written in 1822-23, and published as part of his Das Buch der Lieder. The Lyrisches Intermezzo tells the story of a sad and lonely knight. During the day he sullenly remains in his home. However, at night, he is visited by his fairy bride, who dances with him until daybreak, when she vanishes and the knight is returned to his desolate life. By the end of the collection, the knight determines to put all of his dreams and suffering in a coffin, which will then be thrown into the sea by twelve giants. Originally, Schumann set twenty of Heine’s poems, but only sixteen were selected for publication. The first edition appeared in 1844.
In the opening song, “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” (“In the wonderfully beautiful month of May,” here), the poet reveals to his beloved his affection for her, and compares his ardent love to the sights and sounds of Spring: budding flowers (“als alle Knospen sprangen”) and singing birds (“als alle Vögel sangen”). Heine’s brief two stanza poem, however, leaves the reader to question whether the poet’s love is requited. Schumann’s setting even more poignantly expresses the uncertainty of the text. From the first chord, Schumann foreshadows the plight of the poet with an introductory passage in the piano that strongly suggests, though never confirms, the key of F-sharp minor. With the first line of text, the music effortlessly slips into the key of A major. Yet, even as it settles firmly into this key, there remains no sense of security. During the final two lines (“da ist in meinem Herzen / die Liebe aufgegangen”), the introduction of chromatic tones pull the music into B minor and then D major, as the vocal melody climbs longing up the A major scale to a flattened seventh scale degree. Closing the first stanza in such an unsettled manner, the music then shifts back into the ominous music of the introduction before presenting the second stanza in the same manner. Schumann was often keen to conclude the vocal melody on an unresolved chord, but he takes this penchant a step further in the brief three-measure codetta that follows. Returning again to the music of the opening, the song dies away on a disquieted dominant seventh in F-sharp minor, thus leaving the listener to ponder the fate of the poet.
While harmonic resolution follows with the first chord of the succeeding song, “Aus meinen Thränen spriessen” (“From my tears sprout forth,” here), the listener is still left to wonder if the poet’s love will be returned. Blooming flowers sprout from his tears and the song of the nightingale from the sighs of his heart, which he offers humbly to his beloved. In a scant seventeen measures, Schumann eloquently captures Heine’s text, and the A major music of the song radiates the innocent devotion of the poet. Beneath the restrained vocal melody, the piano presents a simple motif that descends through the tones of the scale, followed by a heartfelt sigh and a brief, sprightly descending third that calls to mind the sounds of birds. This latter motif also closes each of the song’s four phrases, concluding the vocal melody’s unresolved cadence.
Even more brief is “Die Rose, die Lillie” (“The Rose, the Lily,” here). Though the poet’s beloved and her intentions are still, as of yet, unrevealed, he is nonetheless undeterred in his fervent declaration of his love. He calls her the source of all love, and compares her to the rose (“die Rose”), the lily (“die Lilie”), the dove (“die Taube”), and the sun (“die Sonne”). The poet’s feverish excitement exudes from the animated melody and sprightly accompaniment. Indeed, the vocalist relents from his excited pace only twice in the song. A brief ritardando, accompanied by a crescendo (the only change in dynamic indicated by Schumann), at the words “sie…ist Rose und Lilie und Taube und Sonne,” and likewise again upon “die Eine,” as the vocal melody comes to a close.
The poet struggles in the fourth song, “Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’” (“When I gaze into your eyes,” here), to cope with outward show of love from his beloved. Her gaze and kiss fill the poet with comfort and strength. Yet, when she says, “I love you” (“Ich liebe dich”), he senses the emptiness of the words, and weeps bitterly. Schumann’s setting of this brief two-stanza poem could not be more contrasted to the previous song. The vocal melody takes on an almost recitative character, while the accompaniment either echoes its slow, rhythmic pulse or follows it closely with full-voiced chords. With such simple means, Schumann’s word-painting is subtle, yet impactful. The triumph of her kiss and the vigor it gives the poet is wonderfully heard in the sudden crescendo and equally unexpected F-major chord, precipitating a modulation from the tonic of G major into the triumphal key of the subdominant. With the beginning of the second stanza (“Wenn ich mich lehn’ an deine Brust”), the tone turns reverent as the music of the opening measures is transformed into pious E minor, reflecting the poet’s associations of comfort and heaven. Yet, the sinking feeling of his heart when faced with her hollow declarations of affection is heard in the descending tones, though a diminished seventh chord, beneath the word “sprichst.”
In the fifth song, “Ich will meine Seele tauchen” (“I want to plunge my soul,” here), Heine recalls the imagery of the lily in “Die Rose, die Lillie.” From it will sound an unsung song—the echo of a kiss once given. Taking his cue for Heine, Schumann likewise recalls the fleeting music of the third song. Even the key of B minor (the relative minor of D major), reflects with sadness the earlier song. The strophic vocal melody, wonderfully contained with the range of a diminished fifth, is enchantingly beautiful. However, it is the piano that is perhaps the most interestingly feature of the song. The outer voices, with their gentle pulse and opposing motion, mesmerizingly encase the vocal melody as rippling arpeggios fill out the inner harmony. As the vocal melody concludes, the piano enters with its own melody, shadowed by the bass. The melody is fleeting, just as the beloved’s kiss, and ultimately fades into the final repetitive chords that close the song.
With “Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome” (here), the focus turns to the beautiful Rhine and the city of Cologne. Mirrored in the waves of the river (“da spiegelt sich in den Well’n”) is the great Cologne Cathedral. After the lush Romanticism of the previous songs, the Baroque-like austerity of “Im Rhein” is a sudden change, yet matches the imagery of Heine’s text perfectly. The ponderous bass, consisting entirely a half and whole notes, which save for a brief interruption persists through the song’s entirety, instantly conjures up the sound of organ pedals in the great cathedral. Atop this stern bass, descending arpeggios evoke the Rhine itself. The vocal melody, at least at first, is equally firm, mirroring the progression of the bass with stately rhythms. The focus narrows in the second stanza to a painting of the Virgin Mary kept in the cathedral. Here, the music softens, not only in dynamics but with the addition of fuller harmonies. The poet then compares the facial features (“die Augen, die Lippen, die Wänglein”) to those of his beloved, noting that they match exactly. The tenderness of the vocal melody during this last stanza is thwarted by it closure on the leading tone, leaving the piano to bring about its resolution as the austere music of the opening returns to form the song’s lengthy coda.
The deception of his beloved now revealed, the poet is faced with the reality of his unrequited love, and takes up a defiant tone in the seventh song, “Ich grolle nicht” (“I bear no grudge,” here). He accepts the coldness of his beloved’s heart (“Es fällt kein Strahl in deines Herzens Nacht”), and contrasts it with the outward radiance of her beauty (“Wie du auch strahlst in Diamantenpracht”). By the end of the poem, he even pities her (“Ich sah, mein Lieb, wie sehr du elend bist”). Yet, as the cycle progresses, this turns out to be only a manifestation of his fleeting resolve. In a firm C major, an expressive vocal melody unfolds against a steadfast accompaniment of repeated chords over an octave bass. Though Schumann set the two stanzas of Heine’s poem to similar music, and they certainly begin in the same manner, they are not identical. In the first stanza, the coldness of the woman’s heart is effected by a strikingly modulation from a modally inflected A minor into the remote key of B minor. In the corresponding section of the second stanza, the tonic key is maintained while the vocal melody leaps upward to form the song’s climax. Against the descending harmonies of this passage, Schumann brings the vocal melody to its conclusion, terminating it with two repetitions of the opening phrase (“Ich grolle nicht”). The latter defiantly descends from the dominant to the tonic, as the piano takes off with a short codetta of reiterated chords.
The defiant resolve with which “Ich grolle nicht” concluded quickly fades with “Un wüssen’s die Blumen, die kleinen” (“And if the blooms – the small ones – knew,” here). The brooding poet dwells heavily upon the rending pain of his heart caused by his unrequited love (“Sie hat ja selbst zerrissen, / Zerrissen mir das Herz”). If it was known to the world, the flowers would weep (“Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen…Sie würden mit mir weinen”), the nightingales would sing (“Und wüßten's die Nachtigallen…Sie ließen fröhlich erschallen / Erquickenden Gesang”), and the stars would descend to comfort the poor poet (“Und wüßten sie mein Wehe…Sie kämen aus ihrer Höhe, / Und sprächen Trost mir ein”). Yet, only the one who has caused his pain knows of it. Against an anxious accompaniment of measured tremolandi, Schumann sets Heine’s lyric to a vocal melody weighted down by the burdened of its grief. Two descents through a perfect fifth, the first beginning on the dominant and the second a semitone higher, poignantly capture the poet’s dejected state, after which the following phrase emphasizes the A minor tonality with a cadential figure that hovers gloomily about the tonic. The first three stanzas are set in a rather strophic manner. Only minute differences are found. The last stanza, however, is significantly changed. With the subtle inclusion of a C-sharp, the first descent of the vocal melody suggests a move towards D minor. Yet, the start of the second descent on the subdominant initiates a modulation into F major. The tonic key is quickly regained, but the modulation sets up the woeful chromatic turn about the tonic (B flat-A-G sharp-A) as the vocal melody comes to a close. At the same moment, the piano breaks free from its accompanimental role, accenting the final notes of the vocal melody with full-voiced chords, and then concluding the song with an agitated coda.