In other of Schumann's songs, the piano comments on the text by expressing ironic detachment or evoking the inner life of the poem. In the first song for instance the melodic line itself is a combination of the sung vocal line and the piano. In Schumann's songs, the accompaniment rises from its role to become an equal partner in the musical expression. After his second suicide attempt, Schumann was moved to a mental hospital where his only visitors were his wife, Clara, and his friend, the young composer, Johannes Brahms. Distraught, Schuman threw himself into the Rhein only to be saved by fishermen who brought him home. It is beleived that the first attempt stemmed from Schumann's unhappiness with his inability to become a concert pianist he had sustained an injury to his ring finger from a mechanical device whose purpose was to strengthen that finger. Later on, faced with a mental illness (likely a manic-depressive disorder) Schumann twice attempted to commit suicide. This was not the only tempestuous moment in Schumann's life. Eventually the courts intervened and Schumann won the legal right to marry Clara. Not wanting his young daughter to wed the composer, Clara's father used every means possible to stand in the way of their marriage. After composing primarily for the piano, in 1840 Schumann turned to the genre of song, composing nearly 150 songs during his liederjahr.Īround the time he was composing the Dichterliebe Schumann was having troubles in his burgeoning relationship with his future wife, the pianst Clara Wieck. Robert Schumann's song cycle Dichterliebe, or "Poet's Love" was composed in the final week of May 1840. Ian Bostridge's recording: at Columbia's online reserves here As the genre developed, through the work of Schubert and Schumann, the texts became more complicated, the accompaniment more intricate and the vocal lines more elegant.Īn excellent explanation of the lied can be found at Columbia's Sonic Glossary here. Set for voice and piano, the earliest of these were strophic melodies over a simple accompaniment. Seizing on this interest in vernacular literature and aiming to emulate the simplicity of the people, German composers began created numerous lieder, or songs, that were intended for home study and evening performce. In line with these early nationalist impulses was a new school of German Romantic literature particularly in the works of Goethe, Heine and Eichendorff. In literature this showed up in the numerous collections of folk literature that were published in the first half of the nineteenth century, such as Clemens Brentano's Des Knaben Wunderhorn ("The Youth's Magic Horn") the works of the Brothers Grimm and in England the apocryphal Tales of Ossian. This led composers to focus on genres that Beethoven had stayed away from: opera, tone poems (symphonic evocation sof the great works of literature), concertos, oratorios (sacred works for chorus, soloists and orchestra performed in a concert hall), and smaller forms, such as dances, piano miniatures and songs with piano accompaniment.Ĭoncurrently, there was a renewed interest in German society in the importance of the volk - "people" - and their unique heritage. To them, particularly those in German-speaking areas, Beethoven had spoken the final word in genres such as the Symphony and String Quartet. Composers of the 19th century were confronted by the enormous shadow cast over them by history.
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