Master of Creative Arts (Music) January 2009
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Love and Death in Art Song and Opera from 1810 to 1947 Vivienne Margaret Powell Dip Teaching Grad Dip Ed Studies (Primary Music) Master of Creative Arts (Music) January 2009 The thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Vivienne Margaret Powell Acknowledgements To Assoc Prof Michael Ewans, for his expert guidance, direction and unfailing support, thank you. To Maryleigh Hand, for her knowledge, expertise and encouragement in the preparation of the repertoire, her skills with the languages and her sensitive and beautiful accompanying, thank you. To my family and friends for their encouragement and belief in me, thank you. CONTENTS Introduction to Love and Death 1 Romanticism 3 Recital 1 Introduction 13 Frauenliebe und Leben 26 Conclusion 41 Recital 2 Introduction 43 Les nuits d’été 58 Conclusion 74 Recital 3 Introduction 77 Wesendoncklieder 94 Conclusion 109 Recital 4 Introduction 111 Cuatro madrigales amatorios 112 Siete canciones populares Españolas 119 Conclusion 136 Conclusion to Love and Death 139 Bibliography 141 Discography 144 Appendix: Recital Programs 146 SYNOPSIS The study of Love and Death in Art Song and Opera is all- encompassing, threading the study of music with the other arts – literature, especially poetry and drama, and the visual arts, especially painting – and linking the study of philosophy and history, to provide a reference point for the societal attitudes of the time in which my repertoire was written. As the themes of love and death began to be expressed in literature and the arts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, my exploration of this theme has grown into a journey through some of the most beautiful, expressive and well- known vocal music of the Romantic era, and into the twentieth century. The Romantics were intimately concerned with the expression of individual emotions, providing me with many opportunities to study repertoire relating to the many aspects of both love and death. It was interesting to discover how musical expression changed within the different national schools I studied – German, French, Spanish, and some Italian arias. I began my study in 1810 with the songs of Franz Schubert. As the master who revolutionized the German Lied, I felt it appropriate to open my first recital, indeed the first two recitals, with a set of Schubert Lieder. I also studied the works of Robert Schumann in the first two recitals, the only composer whose Lieder I studied as single songs and as a song cycle, the well-loved Frauenliebe und Leben. In Recital 2 I turned my attention to French repertoire, with the study of the magnificent song cycle of Hector Berlioz, Les nuits d’été. In the first two recitals I also studied bel canto and French arias. In the third recital I decided to continue my exploration of French Romantic music in relationship to love and death with a set of songs by Gabriel Fauré. My attention turned back to German repertoire - very different, however, from the works of Schubert and Schumann, in the famous song cycle by Richard Wagner, Wesendoncklieder. Two French songs completed this recital. My final recital featured an all- Spanish program, in which I explored my theme in two song cycles, Spanish opera and zarzuela. Introduction to Love and Death Love: amour, Lieb, amore, amor, cariño - love of: one's lover, one's children, one's parents, oneself, one's country - love of life, love of beauty, love of music, love of the divine, love of friends, love of community, love of art and creativity, love of freedom, love of nature; caring, compassion, kindness, devotion, purity, trust, companionship, selflessness, joy, forgiveness, redemption, intimacy, passion, eroticism - and the lack of love: betrayal, hate, jealousy, bitterness, suspicion, vindictiveness, revenge, animosity, obsession, fear, loneliness, rejection, abandonment, failure, grief, desolation, pain, despair, loss; and the hope of starting again. Death: of the loved one, the relationship, the earthly body, the life as it once was, the child, the parent, of all that we hold dear, of the person we once were, as a metaphor for loss and starting again, the death of love. Over the course of my candidature I studied many varying facets of love and death, as expressed in my chosen repertoire. My focus, of course, was on the music and the way in which it, and the text, manifested these themes. Also of interest, I believe, are the personal circumstances of the composers at the time of writing the works, the contemporary political climate, societal attitudes and values, and comparable themes and beliefs being expressed in other art forms, such as visual arts and literature. I find the theme of Love and Death so fascinating because it encompasses the journey of every human being, from every culture, race and religion. It is universal - there is no human experience without it. It weaves through the life experience of us all - the momentous and the miniscule. This theme can be treated purely on a surface level, that of romantic love and physical death of the body. Or it can be considered on a deeper level as well, exploring it metaphysically, spiritually and symbolically, as did the great poets and composers of the works I studied. 1 The modern writer, Sarah Ban Breathnach eloquently describes our many experiences of death. Every day we experience death. The death of dreams, misconceptions, illusions. The death of vibrancy and enthusiasm. The death of hope. The death of courage. The death of confidence. The death of faith. The death of trust. More often than any of us ever expect, life stuns us with the sudden wrenching away of a loved one, a devastating diagnosis, a conversation that begins with the chilling words, „There‟s something I‟ve got to tell you.‟ We feel as if life is over, and we are right. Life as we knew it is over.1 My repertoire was chosen predominantly for the way in which the texts express different aspects of love and death, and the way in which the music works in partnership with it. I looked for texts that I considered to be fine poetry. I considered the melody and the setting of the song musically, how the voice and the piano interrelate, and how the piano expresses the theme and the emotion of the character in the song. I looked for songs which I would enjoy singing, with contrasting moods and emotions. I also considered my love of performing repertoire in my chosen languages; German, French, Italian and Spanish. I decided that I would like to incorporate a major song cycle into each recital. I consider that a song cycle has the capacity to explore my theme more fully and in greater depth than solely using a collection of individual songs (no matter how well chosen they are). As well as choosing works that fit into my theme of love and death, I also elected to choose song cycles that I have for some time wanted to study and perform. As the time line for my repertoire over the four recitals encompasses the Romantic Period in the arts, I consider it pertinent to undertake a brief exploration of this era. 1 S. Ban Breathnach, Something More, Warner Books, New York, 1998, p.69. 2 ROMANTICISM I quote the words of Jan Swafford, which, I believe, provide a fitting introduction to a discussion of nineteenth century Romanticism. The eighteenth century exalted ancient Greece and created placid neoclassic architecture and geometric gardens. The nineteenth century exalted medieval Gothic and preferred its castles in ruins, overtaken by nature. The designation Romantic comes from the medieval romance, the kind of fanciful knights-and- ladies tale satirized in Don Quixote. Where the enlightenment stressed reason and disinterested discourse, the Romantics loved legends, folk songs, the fantastic, irrational, and idiosyncratic. 2 The Romantic period emphasized the self, creativity, imagination and the value of art. It was, to a large extent, a reaction against the Classical philosophy of the Enlightenment, and its belief in the supremacy of reason. In the nineteenth century, especially in German speaking lands, the term was first applied to literature, then to music and art. The roots of Romanticism can be found in the eighteenth century writings of Jean- Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Philosophers and writers associated with the Romantic period include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749- 1832), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775-1854), and George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) in Germany; Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), William Blake (1757-1827) and William Wordsworth (1770-1850) in Britain. In France, the movement found expression in the nineteenth century paintings of Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) and Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), the plays, poems 2 J. Swafford, The New Guide to Classical Music, Vintage Books, New York, 1992, p. 196. 3 and novels of Victor Hugo (1802-1885, such as Les Miserables and Ninety-Three), and the novels of Stendhal (1783-1842). In Spain, Francisco Goya (1746-1828) depicted the horrors of war, along with aristocratic portraits. Prominent Spanish writers included José de Espronceda (1808-1842), Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870) and José Zorrilla (1817-1893). The early Romantic period coincided with the effects of upheavals in political, economic and social traditions, arising in particular from the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution of 1789-1794 (with its ideals if Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité).