Schubert: Lied Edition 20 - Poets of Sensibility, Vol. 3
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Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) Poets of Sensibility, Volume 3 The Gottinger Hainbund: Settings of poems by Matthias Claudius, Ludwig Holty and Leopold...
Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828)
Poets of Sensibility, Volume 3
The Gottinger Hainbund: Settings of poems
by Matthias Claudius, Ludwig Holty and
Leopold Graf zu Stolberg
The unique quality of Schubert as a song composer was
largely associated with the appearance of the two great,
inspired Goethe settings, Gretchen am Spinnrade
(1814) and Erlkonig (1815). The astounding originality
of these two compositions became the revolutionary
start of a whole epoch, initiating the setting of poems
with new standards and means, in which the strophic
form was entirely abandoned and the hitherto secondary
musical 'accompaniment' was set free and given equal
importance with the poem. The exceptional nature of
the two songs is undisputed, but this is a one-sided way
of looking at it. Many song-composers before Schubert
had already gone far in a similar direction, and above
all the ballad compositions of Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg,
highly prized by Schubert and taken up with great
enthusiasm, had done much to prepare the way.
At the same time there was, in Schubert's early
career, a group of poets of signal importance in his
development as a song-composer. These were the poets
of Empfindsamkeit, as well as those poets who, rooted
in the Pietist tradition, in the middle of the eighteenth
century, as a sign of newly awakened bourgeois selfawareness,
created a new form of prose and poetic
writing. Individual feeling, personal sensibility beyond
dogmatic guidelines and points of view, the reaction of
the soul in face of all aspects of life and death, stood at
the centre of their writing. With this they were not
opposed to the Enlightenment's ideal of reason, but saw
it as a necessary completion of the self. Understanding
and feeling should be brought together, united in the
true sensibility of the heart. Stemming from England,
the movement found considerable scope in Germanspeaking
regions. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was its
forerunner, Friedrich Matthisson its most prominent
representative.
In the university town of Gottingen in about 1772
some poets came together, giving their association the
name Hainbund after an ode by Klopstock, Der Hügel
und der Hain (The Hill and the Grove). Among their
number were Ludwig Holty, Johann Heinrich Voss, the
brothers Stolberg and others. Close to them stood,
together with Klopstock himself, Matthias Claudius and
the ballad writer Gottfried August Bürger. It was
particularly the simple, folk-style poems of the group
that Schubert chose for his settings. With their
individual basic attitude, always striving for emotional
and intellectual truth, they were personally near to him.
Yet also in stylistic and technical approach they are
important for Schubert as a song-composer. In his
'training' as a composer of the apparently simple form
of the strophic or varied strophic song, he developed a
commanding technique which, in his various writings,
established him alongside the 'revolutionary' songcomposers
mentioned at the beginning.
The many songs, particularly those of the early
years between 1813 and 1817, settings of poets of
'sensibility', could be counted, as it were, as the soil on
which the great, inspired early Goethe settings grew.
Yet it is certainly wrong to see these only as first steps.
Many of them, included here and on the earlier
recordings, are valuable in themselves, finished works
and the creation, even in their apparent simplicity, of
the genius of the greatest song-composer that the world
has produced.
The song Der Tod und das Madchen, D531, (Death
and the Maiden), a setting of Claudius, has a central
position in Schubert's creative work. The thematic
spectre 'Death' with his various aspects, fear of death,
premature death, death as comforter and saviour, as the
ruling authority over human existence, is present in the
little poem, and in Schubert's setting two elements
appear, structural components that recur in other works:
the legendary metrical dactyl (long-short-short,
accented note - unaccented - unaccented), the rhythm of
the wanderer, of death, of the perpetual journey into the
uncertain, and the idea of the 'perpetuum mobile', here
in the 'endless loop' so characteristic in its harmony
and melody, and the overlapping periodic structure in
which the first chords of the second, fourth and sixth
bar sound simultaneously as the end and the beginning
of a musical semi-phrase. Here we can experience an
example of Schubert's unique art, producing with the
most sparing means the greatest expressive power.
Framed by Death's almost continuous opening and
closing music, the anxiously rising and yet again
artlessly falling song of the maiden serves only as a
short, unimportant intermezzo in Death's infinite ocean.
Here the closest connection between the structure of the
text, musical form and expression predominates. The
melodic progressions in the first five bars of the song
move in small steps, rising at the word 'jung' to the
high point of the melody, the arch falling downwards
again at 'ich bin noch ...', the futility of pleading for
mercy truly reflected in the music. In the following line
'und rühre mich an', which Schubert repeats, the
harmony changes for the first time to the major. Here is
heard the despairing heart of one who seeks to convert
his mortal enemy into a friend. The repetition of the
line, falling into the minor, and finally the downward
movement of the piano postlude shows that the maiden
is already lost. Death starts his song in the minor, taking
up again the motif of the beginning, but nevertheless
not the melodic upward and downward movement of
the piano prelude, but in steady, simultaneously
soothing and unyielding repetition of the note over six
long bars. At the words 'Sei gutes Muts' the harmony
changes to the subdominant, the point of the deepest
range of the musical cadence. It is thus suggested that
the best way to face death is as a release, while the
melody, rising to the upper fifth of the harmony and
staying there in a repeated note over four bars, retains
the inviting character of Death's words. With the
continuation at the words 'sollst sanft' nevertheless
something sinister happens: the bass, in the preceding
bars moving in a soothing, lilting line, changes with two
minute semitone steps towards a chasm. At the word
'sanft' the harmony moves to an E major second chord,
which stands at the greatest possible distance from the
preceding subdominant, B flat major, an interval of a
tritone, the sharpest dissonance in the tonal system.
Circling twice round this point of deepest suspense, the
music finally draws to a close in the major at the word
'schlafen'; whether this shift is to redemption or
dissolution into nothing remains open. In the last bar
Schubert writes a fermata over the last pause, notation
that prolongs the stillness at the end of the song, as it
were into infinity. The importance of the theme and the
musical idea for Schubert is shown by his return to it
again in his famous String Quartet in D minor, written
in March 1824, seven years after the song.
The authorship of the poem Der Leidende, D432,
(The Sufferer), that Schubert himself ascribes to Holty,
is a puzzle, as it is not listed among the latter's poems.
Besides, Schubert is very free with the text; one may
compare the differences in the two versions here
included, different in this respect from all other Holty
settings, where the textual changes for Holty's original
are from revisions by Johann Heinrich Voss. Walther
Duerr, in the New Complete Schubert Edition, presumes
the possibility of an original Schubert text in the style of
Holty. Compared with the other few poems written by
Schubert (one set to music by himself, others to be
found in his diaries) this seems not unlikely; a certain
weariness with life, which today easily seems to us
sentimentality, in Schubert's life always has real
causes, is always present. That the subject occupied him
intensively is shown by the two versions, which are also
musically divergent: the second is in extended parts a
melodic reversal of the first. Where one goes up, the
other goes down, and the reverse. Listening to them it
will be noticed how temporary moods differ, without
the great emotional 'arch' of the song changing.
In Holty's Totengraberlied, D44, (Grave-digger's
Song), Death is surprisingly replaced by the dead body.
Claudius's poem sings in cheerful sarcasm of the
'armen Schluckers' ('poor wretch') who holds in his
hands the bones as evidence that every skull, however
beautiful and rich its owner may have been in life, looks
the same ... and Schubert uses this sarcasm in his music
with the greatest audible amusement. The serious
recitative of 'Grabe, Spaten, grabe' ('Dig, spade, dig')
is followed by a drastically blunt melody, a surprising
and rare example in Schubert of this kind of Viennese
association with the dark side of life.
In stark contrast stands the following song,
Lied/Die Mutter Erde, D788, (Mother Earth), a setting
of Stolberg. At the beginning of 1823 Schubert began to
suffer from syphilis, and even if this was not the direct
occasion for the choice of this text, when he set it in
April of the same year the words must have gone right
through him. Perhaps at this point he could only choose
a subject that represented death a priori as saviour. His
music is, in the initial representation of the
sensuousness of life, serious and weighty, at the change
to 'des Todes Atem' ('the breath of death') it becomes
bright, moving and, as it were, weightless. Over almost
the whole song spins a rocking, wide-ranging melodic
figure, symbol of Mother Earth, embracing all in death.
Only once is the consolatory, soothing process
interrupted. At the words 'Es scheint der Mond, es fallt
der Tau/aufs Grab ...' ('The moon appears, dew falls
on the grave ...') the hitherto strictly observed
arrangement of one line of verse to one melodic phrase
is interrupted and with the repetition of 'aufs Grab' the
regular musical periodic structure is destroyed. Thereby
the predetermined verse rhyme clashes and becomes
completely inaudible. Suddenly we find ourselves for a
short, terrible moment, no longer in dispassionate
consideration of general consolation, but experiencing
the heart-rending, lamenting, terrified point of view of
one doomed to death.
In 1815, the year of Holty's Die Nonne, D208, (The
Nun), ballad setting played a great part in Schubert's
song-writing, and his musical adjustment to the style of
his texts is especially careful. Holty's folk-style ballad
made different demands from those of the Schiller
ballads written in 'high style' (such as Der Taucher/
The Diver) or the gloomy, picturesque Ossian songs. A
narrative basis, change between different speakers,
ironically distanced style of narrative and dramatic
recitative intensification, strophic rounding off in
individual, related passages, result in a patchwork that
is always exciting and easily understandable. The
bloodthirstiness is not far removed from many horror
films of our own time.
Taglich zu singen, D533, (To sing daily), by
Claudius, is a little strophic song in the style of Bach's
Schemelli songs [Bach's contribution to the Schemelli
Gesangbuch of 1736], written strictly in three parts,
expressing the joy in life of one who knows how to live
in happy moderation.
Diametrically opposite is the anonymous lament
Trauer umfließt mein Leben, D371, (Sadness surrounds
my life), of the melancholic, weary of life, set in solemn
chorale style, steeped in painful dissonances, while in
Stimme der Liebe, D412, (Voice of Love), by Stolberg,
a hymn-like song of incredible harmonic and cantabile
expanse grants us a glimpse of the unending melody of
the high romantic. Much the same happens in Holty's
An die Apfelbaume, wo ich Julien erblickte, D197, (To
the apple-trees where I saw Julia), while his Seufzer,
D198, (The Sigh) again, in a simpler setting, takes up
the lonely sadness of Klage, D371. An eine Quelle,
D530, (To a Spring), by Claudius, shows with gentle
musical humour the shy young lover, Holty's Die frühe
Liebe, D430, (Early Love) the adolescent who seems
quite disinclined to self-restraint.
The next five songs, Holty's An den Mond, D193,
(To the Moon), Claudius's Abendlied, D499, (Evening
Song), another lament, Holty's Klage an den Mond,
D436, (Lament to the Moon) and two versions of his
Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall, D201, D399, (On the
Death of a Nightingale), of which the first fragment
survives, stand at the very heart of empfindsamer
poetry. For each of the poems Schubert finds a new,
individual musical look, remote from every cliche.
Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D774, (To be sung on
the water), has become the most famous setting of a text
by Count Leopold zu Stolberg. The symbolic
representation of 'changing time' in the 'splashing'
figuration of the piano, turning in every direction, never
ending and yet always changing, the working together
of the vocal part and accompaniment in this semiquaver
motion, until finally, at the end of each verse and of the
whole work, the song, in a phrase of truly infinite beauty
is set free from this changing time and vanishes - this is
no longer setting to music, but creating a new whole, in
which each verbal and musical level becomes part of an
integral artistic form.
The last songs, Lied in der Abwesenheit, D416,
(Song in Absence), by Stolberg, a fragment, as are the
four settings of Holty, Der Liebende, D207, (The
Lover), Minnelied, D429, (Love Song), Der Traum,
D213, (The Dream) and Seligkeit, D433, (Happiness),
show the Empfindsamkeit poets and their composer
from a completely worldly side, an aspect in which they
affirm the sensuous pleasure of life, something not
foreign to one or the other.
Ulrich Eisenlohr
English version by Keith Anderson
Der Tod und das Madchen, Op. 7, No. 3, D. 531 (more info)
Performed by:
Studio orchestra
Composed by:
Franz Schubert
Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
Nathan Berg,
Ulrich Eisenlohr, piano
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
Jeno Jando, piano
Julius Drake, piano
Rosa Ponselle, soprano
Igor Chichagov, piano
Dalton Baldwin, piano
Gerard Souzay, baritone
Tamara Takacs, mezzo-soprano
Mitsuko Shirai, soprano
Hartmut Holl, piano
Recording date: 1-8 October 1991
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Der Tod und das Madchen, D. 531 - 2:02
Der Leidende, D. 432b (more info)
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Der Leidende (3rd setting), D. 432c - 1:48
Totengraberlied, D. 44 (2nd setting) (more info)
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Totengraberlied, D. 44 - 2:03
Lied, D. 788, "Die Mutter Erde" (more info)
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Lied, "Die Mutter Erde" (Des Lebens Tag...), D. 788 - 3:50
Der Leidende, D. 432a (more info)
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Der Leidende (2nd setting), D. 432b - 1:44
Die Nonne, D. 208 (more info)
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Die Nonne, D. 208 - 8:25
Taglich zu singen, D. 533 (more info)
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Taglich zu singen D. 533 - 1:38
Klage (Trauer umfliesst mein Leben), D. 371 (more info)
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Klage (Trauer umfliesst mein Leben), D. 37 - 2:49
Stimme der Liebe, D. 412 (more info)
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Stimme der Liebe, D. 412 - 1:54
Seufzer, D. 198 (more info)
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Seufzer, D. 198 - 1:09
An eine Quelle, Op. 109, No. 3, D. 530 (more info)
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An eine Quelle, D. 530 - 1:52
An die Apfelbaume, wo ich Julien erblickte, D. 197 (more info)
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An die Apfelbaume, wo ich Julien erblickte, D. 197 - 2:38
Die fruhe Liebe, D. 430 (more info)
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Die fruhe Liebe, D. 430 - 2:04
An den Mond (Geuss, lieber Mond), D. 193 (more info)
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An den Mond (Geuss lieber Mond), D. 193 - 3:06
Abendlied, D. 499 (more info)
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Abendlied (Der Mond ist aufgegangen), D. 499 - 2:53
Klage (Dein Silber schien durch Eichengrun), D. 436 (more info)
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Klage (Dein Silber schien durch Eichengrun), D. 436 - 1:41
Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall, D. 201 (1st setting) (more info)
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Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall (1st setting) - fragment, D. 201a - 1:08
Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall, D. 399 (2nd setting) (more info)
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Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall (2nd setting), D. 399b - 4:28
Auf dem Wasser zu singen, Op. 72, D. 774 (more info)
Composed by:
Franz Schubert
Edwin Fischer, piano
Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
Ulrich Eisenlohr, piano
Frida Leider, soprano
Elisabeth Schumann, soprano
Karita Mattila, soprano
Graham Johnson, piano
Felicity Lott, soprano
George Reeves, piano
Michael Raucheisen, piano
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano
Jeno Jando, piano
Lyne Fortin, soprano
Micheal MacMahon, piano
Rudolf Jansen, piano
Edith Wiens, soprano
Tamara Takacs, mezzo-soprano
Ilmo Ranta, piano
Recording date: 7th September, 1936
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Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D. 774 - 3:55
Lied in der Abwesenheit, D. 416 (fragment) (more info)
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Lied in der Abwesenheit - fragment, D. 416 - 1:43
Der Liebende, D. 207 (more info)
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Der Liebende, D. 207 - 1:41
Minnelied, D. 429 (more info)
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Minnelied, D. 429 - 1:54
Der Traum, Op. 172, No. 1, D. 213 (more info)
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Der Traum, D. 213 - 2:03
Seligkeit, D. 433 (more info)
Composed by:
Franz Schubert
Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
Ulrich Eisenlohr, piano
Elisabeth Schumann, soprano
Karita Mattila, soprano
George Reeves, piano
Peter Hill, piano
Lynda Russell, soprano
Rudolf Jansen, piano
Edith Wiens, soprano
Ilmo Ranta, piano
Recording date: 10th March, 1937
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Seligkeit, D. 433 - 2:12