A Selective Study of the Art Songs of Franz Lehár Amy Nielsen
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University of Northern Colorado Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC Dissertations Student Research 12-2018 A Selective Study of the Art Songs of Franz Lehár Amy Nielsen Follow this and additional works at: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Nielsen, Amy, "A Selective Study of the Art Songs of Franz Lehár" (2018). Dissertations. 546. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/546 This Text is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © 2018 AMY NIELSEN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO Greeley, Colorado The Graduate School A SELECTIVE STUDY OF THE ART SONGS OF FRANZ LEHÁR A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Arts Amy Nielsen College of Performing and Visual Arts School of Music Vocal Performance and Opera Directing December 2018 This Dissertation by: Amy Nielsen Entitled: A SELECTIVE STUDY OF THE ART SONGS OF FRANZ LEHÁR. Has been approved as meeting the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Arts in the College of Performing and Visual Arts in the Department of Music. Accepted by the Doctoral Committee ________________________________________________ Derek Chester, D.M.A., Research Advisor _______________________________________________ Carissa Reddick, Ph.D., Committee Member _______________________________________________ Brian Clay Luedloff, M.F.A., Committee Member _______________________________________________ William Wilson, M.M., M.B.A., Committee Member _______________________________________________ David Caldwell, Ph.D., Faculty Representative Date of Dissertation Defense_______________________________________________ Accepted by the Graduate School _______________________________________________ Linda L. Black, Ed.D. Associate Provost and Dean Graduate School and International Admissions Research and Sponsored Project ABSTRACT Nielsen, Amy. A Selective Study of the Art Songs of Franz Lehár. Published Doctor of Arts dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2018. Though best known for his operetta output, German composer Franz Lehár (1870- 1948) wrote over one hundred lieder, including at least six cycles. This is the first formal study available on the art songs of Franz Lehár. The opening chapter provides a short biography. Subsequent chapters seek to provide specific musical cues and idioms to describe Lehár’s musical style, along with insights into his compositional technique and musical aesthetic as they are employed in his art songs. Chapter III begins with an overview of the historical importance of Franz Lehár, including a brief discussion of the musical trends and composers of the time. Analysis of Lehár’s compositional style includes discussion of general stylistic traits, along with formal structures, use of harmony and keys, rhythmic devices, melody and text, and piano accompaniment. Musical examples from his art song output are provided to illustrate these various points. Chapters IV-VI offer a brief musical and textual analysis of 24 song selection from his four published art song volumes. The analyses include historical background on the song's composition and poet, the song’s style sheet, followed by a rendering of the text with English translations. The concluding chapter offers a summary of Lehár’s compositional style, a generalized style guide chart, and brief insight as to the possible motivations behind the composition of the art songs. This dissertation comprises a research guide that applies a iii musical-analytical methodology to Lehár’s art songs (a topic that until now has been woefully neglected). Thus, it aims to strengthen the current body of research that is available in Lehár’s scholarship. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank all the people who helped and supported me with writing this research project. First, I would like to thank the members of my family for the support and encouragement they have given me throughout this endeavor. Without their love and support, completion of this dissertation would never have been possible. Second, I would like to thank my doctoral committee for their feedback and for helping me through to completion of the project. I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Carissa Reddick, for her help and support, particularly in terms of the harmonic analysis of the art songs. Last, I would like to thank all those who helped with the English translations of the art songs including: Whitney Hobson (German Art Song translation and German biographies translation), Philippe and Marjolaine Hall (French Art Song translation), and most especially Cameron Alldredge and Brandon Nabrotzky (Hungarian Art Song translation), and Beate Pendleton (German Art Song translation), who translated the requested art songs gratuitously. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………… 1 Statement of the Topic Significance Incidence Review of Source Material Methodology Delimitations II. THE LIFE OF FRANZ LEHÁR………………………………………….. 14 First Creative Period Second Creative Period Third Creative Period III. FRANZ LEHÁR’S COMPOSITIONAL STYLE………………………… 32 Introduction Historical Significance Description of Lehár’s Musical Style Preface Overview of Lehár’s Art Songs Formal Structures Harmony and Keys Melodic and Rhythmic Devices Additional Devices Piano Accompaniment Text IV. SELECTED GERMAN ART SONGS……………………………..…….. 54 Art Song Introduction Selected German Art Songs V. SELECTED FRENCH ART SONGS…………………………………….. 103 Introduction Selected French Art Songs VI. HUNGARIAN ART SONGS…………………………………………….. 124 Introduction Instrumental Styles Rhythmic Gestures vi Melodic Gestures Harmonic Gestures Hungarian Art Songs VII. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………… 148 Generalized Style Sheet for Franz Lehár BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………. 151 Books Dissertations Music Scores Websites APPENDIX A. QUICK VIEW ANALYSIS CHARTS…………………………………… 159 Table Table A1. Volume I – Song Cycles Table A2. Volume II – Individual Songs (1890-1917) Table A3. Volume III – Individual Songs (1921-1928) Table A4. Volume IV – Individual Songs (1928-1942) B. QUICK VIEW SONG LISTS…………………………………………….. 172 Duets from Volumes I-IV Waltzes from Volumes I-IV Other Dances from Volumes I-IV Marches from Volumes I-IV C. ART SONG SCORE EXTRACT PERMISSIONS……………………..... 177 vii LIST OF TABLE ELEMENTS1 MELODY Melodic Contour Phrase Length Range and Tessitura Chromaticism Motives Vocal Articulation Text Painting HARMONY Texture Tonality Tonal/Atonal Dissonance/Consonance Key Scheme/Modulations/Cadences Contrasts of Major and Minor Harmonic Text Painting RHYTHM Tempo Metric Organization Rhythmic Patterns Unifying Rhythms/Ostinato Rhythms that Reinforce the Text ACCOMPANIMENT Texture Predominant Accompaniment Figures Preludes, Interludes, Postludes Shared Material with the Voice Use of motives Text Illustration TEXT Form Choice of text/Type of text/Prosody Composers response to poem 1 This list of Table Elements is taken from Carol Kimball’s book, Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature (2006), 1-21. viii List of Table Elements, continued SECONDARY FACTORS Unifying Elements Influences ix LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE Figure 1.1, Pitch Number Reference 12 Figure 2.1, Quotation and Musical excerpt 17 Figure 3.1, Signature of Franz Lehár 37 Figure 3.2, Chromaticism ex., “Chant et danse d’Arequipa” 46 Figure 3.3, Chromaticism ex., “Dir sing’ ich mein Lied” 46 Figure 3.4, “Dorela” motive in the prelude 48 Figure 3.5, “Dorela” motive 48 Figure 3.6, “Dorela” motive with alternate text 48 Figure 3.7, Single-note w/chords ex., “Wo Mag mein Johnny wohnen?” 51 Figure 3.8, Thirds ex., “Vorüber” 51 Figure 3.9, Octaves ex., “Ich liebe dich!” 52 Figure 3.10, Oom-pa-pa ex., “Möcht’s jubelnd…” 52 Figure 3.11, Oom-pa-pa ex., “Die treulose Anna” 52 Figure 3.12, Arpeggiation ex., “Die du mein Alles bist!” 53 Figure 3.13, Rolled chords and Staccatos ex, “À Versailles” 53 Figure 3.14, Extended Cadential Passage ex., “Wenn ein schöne Fraubefiehlt…” 54 Figure 3.15, Tremolo ex., “Es ist so schön…” 54 Figure 3.16, Tremolo ex., “Gigolette” 54 Figure 3.17, Tremolos within a Song ex., “Fieber” 55 Figure 3.18, Glissando ex., “Mein Schatz…” 55 Figure 3.19, Octave ending ex., “Ich hold’ dir…” 55 Figure 3.20, Octave ending ex., “Morgen, vielleicht!?” 56 Figure 6.1, Parallel thirds and sixths. 126 Figure 6.2, The choriambus. 127 Figure 6.3, The Hungarian anapest. 123 x List of Figures, continued Figure 6.4, The alla zoppa. 128 Figure 6.5, Decorative triplets. 128 Figure 6.6, Song #27, Vol. 1, m. 4. 129 Figure 6.7, Song #28, Vol. 1 m. 6. 129 Figure 6.8, Song #30, Vol. 1, mm. 1-4. 126 Figure 6.9, Augmented Fourth. 131 Figure 6.10, Augmented Fourth. 131 Figure 6.11, Song #30, Vol. 1, mm. 1-4. 132 Figure 6.12, Embellishments. 134 Figure 6.13, Embellishments. 134 Figure 6.14, Embellishments. 134 Figure 6.15, Chromatic dissonance. 136 xi LIST OF TABLES TABLES Tables A1-A4, Quick View Analysis Charts 171 Table 3.1 - Art Song Languages (Volumes I – IV) 40 Table 3.2 - Art Songs with Additional Texts 41 Table 3.3 - Art Songs with Obbligatos 43 Table 3.4 - Length of Preludes, Interludes, Postludes 44 Table 4.1 - List of Presented German Lieder 61 Table 4.2 - Aus eiserner Zeit, Song Cycle 61 Table 4.3 - “Trutzlied” / #11 / Volume 1 68 Table 4.4 - “Ich hab’ ein Hüglein im Polendland,”