Schubert's Instrumental Interpretation of His Lieder
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eat te rot an te aien Schubert’s nstrmental nterretation o His ieer atlin Harris Falty onsor Dr ott arose eartent of usi Euroe in the nineteenth entury laye host to one of the ost iortant intellectual an artisti oeents in ultural history Roantiis The oeent as a resonse to the influene of the ol an ehanial Inustrial Reolution an its fous as raati eotie expression hese notions of Roanticis first eere in literature an its expressie harateristis ere asore the onteorary usial stle in reaction to Classial music’s ehasis on the struture of usial oosition Coosers urin the omanti erio reate ors layere ith eotie ontet In oal usi the Roanti ualities ere eseciall realent in the erani reions of Euroe, here the eran Lied or in its lural for Lieder ecae the uintessential oal enre of the Roanti erio The ooser est non for his aster of Li was ran huert hoeer he also rote in instruental enres sin the thir oeent of the ao uin aor an the secon oeent of the S arte in or this analysis will eaine Schubert’s treatment of his sons in an instruental contet houh huert rote the instruental ensemle ors ineenent of his Lieder the stle in hih he treate orroe theati ontent as siilar Throuh his use of usial for an arefull lanne eiations fro the oriinal Lieder huert was ale to sucessfull transfer his interretie Lieder style to urel instruental eius Before iscussin the instruental orks of Schuert base on his Lieder it is iortant to unerstan his stle ithin the ontext of the erio huert rote a ast o of Lieder, ue in art to their oularit as a enre The eran Lied enre inole a sinle oal line ith iano accoanient an thouh the accoanient oul e simple or elaborate based on the composer’s wishes, the accompaniment was as critical and requiring of “artistic interpretation” as the vocal line.1 uh iortane as lace on interretation eause the lris to the Lieder were fro reeistin oetry often conteoraneous The revalene an ualit of erani oets lie oethe Mayrhofer an hiller all of who roie tets that huert inororate into his 1 Michael Kennedy, “Lied Lieder” in Th oncis o Dictonary o usic 3rd ed ondon for niersit Press 1980) 3. 34 Lieder, created an environment of rich source material that could be set to music. hus one reason that erman Lieder became integral to the omantic movement was that they represented the synthesis of Romanticism as both a literary and musical movement. Lieder were characteristically simple in terms of the vocal part, and the availability of piano for music-maing in the home enabled Lieder to be consumed by the public en masse.2 n terms of writing for voice, the simplicity of Lieder is a stylistic reaction to the eorbitant ornamentation and improvisation that was in vogue for the operatic singing style that had dominated the lassical period. The simplicity of Schubert’s vocal parts did not mean Schubert limited himself to writing simplistically in the piano parts some of them are demanding of the pianist while others are performable by amateur pianists. is variety of difficulty can be seen in comparing the piano accompaniments to Di orelle and Der To n as ädchen.3 Exampe .1 Schubert Die ree 1-2.4 Exampe Schubert Der u s Mche, m 10.5 The accompaniment to Di orll beginning in the first measure, though rhythmically repetitive, is highly involved in the contet of the song: it mimics the rippling of the water the trout swims in. De od, on the other hand, has accompaniment beginning in m. that serves mainly to advance the song rhythmically while also offering harmonic support to the vocalist. 2 “Schubert’s Lieder: Settings of Goethe’s Poems,” Openearn Free earning from the pen University, 017. http//www.open.edu/openlearnhistory-the-arts/history/history-art/ schuberts-lieder-settings-goethes-poemscontent-section-0 (30 January 016). 3 he Lieder titles translate to The out and Death a he Maden, respectively. 4 Franz Schubert, D orelle in Fa Schubert's Weke er X Sämtlh stimm und Gesänge eipzig reitopf & rtel, . 5 Franz Schubert, Der o n a Mädchen (Vienna iabelli, . 35 The importance of both the accompaniment an the vocal parts helped istinguish Schubert’s Lieder in ho thoroughly the music serves the overall meaning of the source tet The emphasis placed on the text, which served as the base for Schubert’s lyric selection, reflecte the nature of the Romantic movement, hich as not isolate to music alone, but also branche into literature an philosophy6 German literature, poetry in particular, truly began to flourish in the th Century, which coincie ith the Romantic perio7 This meant that Schubert an his contemporaries ha access to a vast array of poetic orks from which songs coul be create The creative process as not limite to the choice of poem for tet setting, but as epane to inclue interpretation of the text via the text setting—the musical accompaniment Schubert’s poetic interpretations ere one meticulously, an he pai attention to the minute etails ithin a tet, such as passing phrases or even a single ord.8 These etails were then incorporate into the lyrics, which ere often irect uotations of the poems, an into the music Schubert rote, either in a meloy, musical accents, a harmony, or even the rhythmic figures of the accompaniment Measures –32 of orelle present one of the best eamples of this thorough interpretation The following musical eample is from mm 29 an since it features the important segments that occur throughout the larger section Exampe Schubert Die ree, mm. 9-30.9 Though the vocal line is significant for avancing the story tol through the tet, the musical interpretation of the accompaniment is of greater importance in this section Partly, this has to o with Schubert’s propensity for finding the best rhythm or figure to create the esire moo or effect10 In m of orelle, the piano part becomes busy, with constant arpeggiation of chords t replaces the lilting, lacaaisical flo of the accompaniment up through m The significance of this shift lies in its parallel to hat 6 Lisa eureig, Schubert’s Lieder and the Philosophy of German Romanticism arnham: shgate Publishing imite, , 2. 7 Germany as a country id not exist in Schubert’s time and oul not until however, the Germanic cultural heritage as recognizable through much of Europe, an any reference in this paper to Germany refers to the Germanic regions. 8 rian ewboul, Schubert: he usi and the an ereley: University of alifornia Press, 199, 147. 9 Schubert, D orelle. 10 “Franz Schubert: usic for Solo oice Piano,” FarSchubert.com, n. http://www franpeterschubert.com/solovoice__pianohtml 22 January 2016). 36 is happening to the trout. The lyric “Er macht das bchlein tcisch trbe” translates to “[the fisher makes the little brook muddy,” which would cause the trout to swim in panic.11 This development explains why the piano accompaniment becomes more frantic: it represents both the muddying of the water and the panic of the trout. This passage is only one example of how Schubert took care to interpret a text completely, but it is this level of dedication to the source text that makes his Lieder so notable. Even though Schubert is known for his numerous Lieder, he also wrote substantial instrumental works. n some of these pieces, Schubert revisited themes composed for his Lieder. This reuse of themes raises questions about how he treated the thematic material in a different medium, and in order to answer these questions, this analysis examines the Piano Quintet in and the Strin uartet in minor. oth of these pieces have been given famous epithets because of their inclusion of thematic material from Schubert’s Lieder. The Quartet in minor is referred to as the “Death and the Maiden Quartet” because of Der Tod’s appearance in the second movement, and the Piano uintet is referred to as the “Trout Quintet” due to ie orelle’s presence in the third movement. Each instrumental work was written and published after its corresponding Lied. This sequence allowed time for the songs to work into public circulation, establishing widespread familiarity with these Lieder. n fact, ie orelle was the Lied chosen for the Quintet because it was requested by the patron who commissioned the Quintet.12 Though this explains the Quintet, the question of the Quartet’s inclusion of er od remains unanswered. Schubert was by no means short on thematic material, as indicated by his large body of work, but his inclusion of themes that would have been relatively well known to a large number of people is curious. This familiarity could have been a tactic to sell more music. owever, this hypothesis is unlikely for several reasons. The first has to do with how music was sold by utiliing the relationships between musicians, composers, and amateur musicians.13 Though music was designed to include a familiar theme, the inclusion would not be enough on its own, and the enthusiasm of other people was vital to popularie a new piece. The other reason that the inclusion of familiar themes would not have been a marketing ploy has to do with the names of the actual pieces. oth the Quartet and the Quintet follow a pattern of generic labeling of a piece with its genre and key signature, and the more individualied epithets by which the Quartet and the Quintet are known today arose after they were performed.