Poem and music in the German lied from Gluck to Hugo Wolf [Noten

Most lied analyses, even in the few instances where critical attention is paid to the words, are written from the point of view of the music. My approach has been from the poem, in the conviction that this change of direction provides new insights. In discussing both poems and music, I have tried to keep the interested nonspecialist in mind. Musical illustrations are indispensable, but they have been made as uncomplicated as possible, and I have avoided technical terminology as much as I could. As a result, music specialists may on occasion find explanations and descriptions that could have been taken for granted, just as the literary scholar may sometimes come across explicit elaborations that to him seem self-evident. The thoroughness with which the different lieder are treated, as well as the proportionate attention given to words or music in each instance, varies greatly, in part to avoid monotony and repetitiousness, but chiefly to bring out what I considered most essential. The lied—or art song—is a synthesis of two arts, poetry and music. The ideal musical setting for a poem is one that enhances its essence and thus creates a second work of art as great or even greater than the original poem. Students of literature, however, have always tented to study the poem alone and to leave analysis of the song to musicologists. Jack Stein here combines a unique familiarity with both arts to produce an engaging and balanced study of the lied’s evolution in Germany between 1750 and 1900. He discusses the problems inherent in the lied as an art form, devoting separate chapters to the songs of Shubert, Shumann, Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. His analyses of major lieder, which couple literary exegesis with musical analysis, shed new light on the type of synthesis that represents the highest achievement of the lied. Preface Contents Introduction Chapter I Problems of Combining Poem and Music Chapter II The Lied before Schubert Chapter III Franz Schubert Chapter IV Robert Schumann Chapter V Johannes Brahms Chapter VI Hugo Wolf A Note on Recordings Bibliography Notes Index of Titles and First Lines of Poems and Songs General Index