14. Allnächtlich im Traume (Nightly in my dreams) — he dreams of her each night, but forgets again each morning

15. Aus alten Märchen (From Fairy Tales of Old) — he yearns for the land of fairy tales, but it is unattainable

16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (The bad old songs) — he calls for a giant coffin to bury his poems and his grief Singers & Pianists: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau / (1–4, 15) Class 8 Geoffrey Hahn / Renate Rohlfing / David Paul (4, 7, 9, 16) / Leo Schwartz (6) / (1–16) The Poet’s Peter Pears / (14) / Leonard Hokanson (7) Thomas Quasthoff/ Robert Szidon (9) Love Timothy Ridout (viola) / Jonathan Ware (1, 12) / Hubert Giesen (11) November 3, 2020

Names & Dates: (1770–1827), Carl Blechen (1798– 1840), Benjamin Britten(1913 –76), Adalbert von Chamisso (1781–1838), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925–2012), Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), Hans Hotter (1909–2003), Jonas Kaufmann (b.1969), Stefan Lochner (c.1410–51), Gerald Moore (1899–1987), Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827), Peter Pears (1910–86), Hermann Prey (1939–98), Andreas Roller (1805–80), Thomas Quasthoff (b.1959), (1797–7828), Robert Schumann (1810–56), Carl Spitzweg (1808–85), Fritz Wunderlich (1930–66)

http://www.brunyate.com/romanticmind/ [email protected] The Poet’s Love The Songs in the Cycle: Items in bold will be studied in the first half

A single work, Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love), the cycle of 1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the wondrous month of May) sixteen songs made by Robert Schumann to the poetry of — he declares his love Heinrich Heine. Thought by many to be the greatest of 2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (From my tears there will spring) German song-cycles, Dichterliebe is also the perfect — he promises her flowers and a choir of nightingales exemplar of Romanticism. Or is it? Does not Heine’s 3. Die Rose, die Lilie (Rose, Lily, Dove, Sun) tendency as poet to distance himself from the emotional — all his favorite things are eclipsed by his love for her agonies of the lover—and to use Romantic tropes in doing 4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (When I look into your eyes) so—not make it equally a critique of Romanticism? — her eyes heal his woes, but the words “I love you” make him cry 5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (Let me bathe my soul) Some Background: — he bathes in her kisses as in the chalice of a lily When Schumann wrote Dichterliebe in his “Year of Song” (1840), 6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (In the Rhine, the holy river) he had already written one song-cycle that told a story, Frauenliebe — a Madonna in Cologne Cathedral makes him think of her und –Leben (Woman’s Life and Love). In selecting 16 of the 70 7. Ich grolle nicht (I bear no grudge) poems in Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo of 1823, he merely focused — he will not complain, even though his heart is breaking a general shift of tone in the arrangement of the original, from new love to despair. This makes the cycle superficially akin to the two 8. Und wüßten's die Blumen (If the little flowers knew) composed by Franz Schubert to the poetry of Wilhelm Müller: Die — if the flowers and birds knew of his grief, they would join in schöne Müllerin (1823) and (1827). By contrast, the 9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (What a fluting, what a scraping!) earliest cycle in the German repertoire, Beethoven’s An die ferne — he hears the band playing for the dance at her wedding Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved), is shorter and ends in hope. While Heine used many common Romantic tropes—springtime 10. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen (When I hear the little song) love, talking flowers and singing nightingales, dreams, and fairy — her favorite song makes him seek solitude in the mountains tales—his tendency is primarily ironic: by asserting his identity as a 11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (A boy loves a girl) poet, to distance himself from the full impact of his emotion. It is — the old, old story of a girl who marries another the genius of Schumann to have preserved that irony, yet still have the passion in the music shine forth loud and clear. 12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (One bright summer morning) — he goes into the garden, where flowers chide his meanness Additionally, there is a curious obliquity to the whole cycle, a feeling that all but a few songs are fragments, approached 13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet (I wept in my dream) tangentially, then veering off on a separate existence. — he weeps to dream her dead, but even more when she loves him