Dichterliebe | |
---|---|
Song cycle by Robert Schumann | |
English | A Poet's Love |
Opus | 48 |
Text | poems from Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine |
Composed | 1840 |
Dedication | Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient |
Published | 1844 |
Movements | 16 |
Scoring |
|
Dichterliebe, A Poet's Love (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann ( Op. 48). The texts for its 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as part of Heine's Das Buch der Lieder. Along with the song cycles of Franz Schubert ( Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise), Schumann's form the core of the genre in musical literature.
Author of the sarcastic Die Romantische Schule, Heine was a vocal critic of German romanticism, though he is often described as a quintessentially Romantic writer. In some of his poetry, and notably in Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (1844), romantic lyrical conventions are used as vessels to deploy biting, satirical nature. Dichterliebe was composed before Heine's Deutschland and does not appear to portray this ironic dimension: scholarship is divided as to what extent Schumann intended to express it.
Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo consists of a verse Prologue and 65 poems. The Prologue (Es war 'mal ein Ritter trübselig und stumm – There once was a Knight, woeful and silent) tells of the sorrowful knight who sits gloomily in his house all day, but by night is visited by his fairy ( nixie) bride, and dances with her until daylight returns him to his little poet's room (Poeten-stübchen). The 65 poems follow, of which the 16 of the Dichterliebe are a selection. The conclusion of it is that he is going to put the old bad songs and dreams, all his sorrowful love and suffering, into a huge coffin that 12 giants will throw into the sea. This catastrophe is slightly reminiscent of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, in which the hero ends by drowning himself in the brook he has followed through the cycle.
Das Buch der Lieder was given its second edition, with preface from Paris, in 1837, the songs were composed in 1840, and the first edition of Dichterliebe was published in two volumes by Peters, in Leipzig, in 1844. In the original 1840 version with the 20 songs (originally dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy), the cycle had the following, longer title: "Gedichte von Heinrich Heine – 20 Lieder und Gesänge aus dem Lyrischen Intermezzo im Buch der Lieder ("Poetry by Heinrich Heine – 20 Lyrics and Songs from the Lyric Intermezzo in the Book of Songs")". [1] Though Schumann originally set 20 songs to Heine's poems, only 16 of the 20 were included in the first edition. Dein Angesicht (Heine no. 5) is one of the omitted items. Auf Flügeln des Gesanges, On Wings of Song (Heine no 9), is best known from a setting by Felix Mendelssohn.
The famed introduction to the first song, Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, is a direct quotation from Clara Wieck-Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor (1835). It comes from the third beat of measure 30 through the second beat of measure 34 of the second movement. Robert uses the same key, same melodic pattern, similar accompaniment textures, tempo and rhythmic patterns in measures 1 through 4 of the opening to Dichterliebe. [2]
The poems' very natural, almost hypersensitive affections are mirrored in Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy tales.[ citation needed] Schumann adapts the poems' text to his needs, sometimes repeating phrases and often rewording a line to supply the desired cadence. Dichterliebe is therefore an integral artistic work apart from the Lyrisches Intermezzo, though derived from and inspired by it. Schubert's selection of lyrics for his Heine songs sought different themes.
Although often associated with the male voice, Dichterliebe was dedicated to the soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, [3] so the precedent for performance by female voice is primary. The first complete public recital of the work in London was given by Harry Plunket Greene, accompanied from memory by Leonard Borwick, on 11 January 1895 at London's St James's Hall. [4]
(The synopses here are made from the Heine texts.)
These are some landmarks among the many recordings of Dichterliebe:
Dichterliebe | |
---|---|
Song cycle by Robert Schumann | |
English | A Poet's Love |
Opus | 48 |
Text | poems from Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine |
Composed | 1840 |
Dedication | Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient |
Published | 1844 |
Movements | 16 |
Scoring |
|
Dichterliebe, A Poet's Love (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann ( Op. 48). The texts for its 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as part of Heine's Das Buch der Lieder. Along with the song cycles of Franz Schubert ( Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise), Schumann's form the core of the genre in musical literature.
Author of the sarcastic Die Romantische Schule, Heine was a vocal critic of German romanticism, though he is often described as a quintessentially Romantic writer. In some of his poetry, and notably in Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (1844), romantic lyrical conventions are used as vessels to deploy biting, satirical nature. Dichterliebe was composed before Heine's Deutschland and does not appear to portray this ironic dimension: scholarship is divided as to what extent Schumann intended to express it.
Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo consists of a verse Prologue and 65 poems. The Prologue (Es war 'mal ein Ritter trübselig und stumm – There once was a Knight, woeful and silent) tells of the sorrowful knight who sits gloomily in his house all day, but by night is visited by his fairy ( nixie) bride, and dances with her until daylight returns him to his little poet's room (Poeten-stübchen). The 65 poems follow, of which the 16 of the Dichterliebe are a selection. The conclusion of it is that he is going to put the old bad songs and dreams, all his sorrowful love and suffering, into a huge coffin that 12 giants will throw into the sea. This catastrophe is slightly reminiscent of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, in which the hero ends by drowning himself in the brook he has followed through the cycle.
Das Buch der Lieder was given its second edition, with preface from Paris, in 1837, the songs were composed in 1840, and the first edition of Dichterliebe was published in two volumes by Peters, in Leipzig, in 1844. In the original 1840 version with the 20 songs (originally dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy), the cycle had the following, longer title: "Gedichte von Heinrich Heine – 20 Lieder und Gesänge aus dem Lyrischen Intermezzo im Buch der Lieder ("Poetry by Heinrich Heine – 20 Lyrics and Songs from the Lyric Intermezzo in the Book of Songs")". [1] Though Schumann originally set 20 songs to Heine's poems, only 16 of the 20 were included in the first edition. Dein Angesicht (Heine no. 5) is one of the omitted items. Auf Flügeln des Gesanges, On Wings of Song (Heine no 9), is best known from a setting by Felix Mendelssohn.
The famed introduction to the first song, Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, is a direct quotation from Clara Wieck-Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor (1835). It comes from the third beat of measure 30 through the second beat of measure 34 of the second movement. Robert uses the same key, same melodic pattern, similar accompaniment textures, tempo and rhythmic patterns in measures 1 through 4 of the opening to Dichterliebe. [2]
The poems' very natural, almost hypersensitive affections are mirrored in Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy tales.[ citation needed] Schumann adapts the poems' text to his needs, sometimes repeating phrases and often rewording a line to supply the desired cadence. Dichterliebe is therefore an integral artistic work apart from the Lyrisches Intermezzo, though derived from and inspired by it. Schubert's selection of lyrics for his Heine songs sought different themes.
Although often associated with the male voice, Dichterliebe was dedicated to the soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, [3] so the precedent for performance by female voice is primary. The first complete public recital of the work in London was given by Harry Plunket Greene, accompanied from memory by Leonard Borwick, on 11 January 1895 at London's St James's Hall. [4]
(The synopses here are made from the Heine texts.)
These are some landmarks among the many recordings of Dichterliebe: