Ravinia 2019, Issue 5, Week 10

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828) Six songs Changing political, economic, and social con- ditions in early-19th-century Vienna spawned new opportunities for young artists like the diminutive, bespectacled Franz Schubert. His music appealed to a rising middle class of mu- sical consumers, mostly younger and nourished on a steady diet of Romantic literature and art. His German songs for solo voice with piano accompaniment particularly communicated to this new generation via a sophisticated yet sim- ple musical language and approachable yet inex- haustibly rich poeticism. This humble son of a schoolteacher rose to the pantheon of Romantic composers by fusing music and poetry into a completely integrated art form. Sound derived its very substance from the rhythms, inflections, and characterizations in the text, while the poet- ry gained indefinable potency from its transfor- mation into music. Nachtstück (Nocturne), D. 672, depicts the pas- sage toward death with a serenity quite differ- ent than the violent defiance of Schubert’s Der Erlkönig . Johann Mayrhofer’s poem evokes a misty evening as an old man tells the night of his impending eternal rest. Schubert matches this hazy, dramatic scene with nebulous tonality (wavering between minor and major), descend- ing chromatic lines, and a multi-section ballad form that traverses several emotional states. Karl Gottlieb Lappe (1773–1843), the poet of Der Einsame (The Solitary Man), D. 800, grew up in Pomerania, the son of a local clergyman. Fol- lowing his father’s death, Lappe attended school in Wolgast, where Ludwig Gotthard Kosegar- ten—another lesser-known poet favored by Schubert—served as principal. Studies in theol- ogy, philosophy, and philology at the Universi- ty of Freifswald led to a teaching career, which poor health curtailed in 1817. In this poem, Lappe explored the idyllic, comforting state of solitude that coursed through early Romantic literature. Ständchen : “Leise flehen meine Lieder” (Sere- nade: “Gently Fly My Songs”) belongs to a group of seven songs based on texts of Ludwig Rellstab (1799–1860) that were published posthumously as part of Schwanengesang , D. 957. According to Felix Schindler, the Rellstab texts came in manu- script form to Schubert from Beethoven’s estate in 1827. Schubert probably composed his Rell- stab songs (10 in all) in March and April 1828 with the intention of assembling another song cycle. Unfortunately, illness and eventual death left his project unfulfilled. In the mid-1820s, Schubert discovered the po- etry of his short-lived contemporary Ernst Schulze (1789–1817), inspiring ten Lieder and an unrealized opera based on the verse-romance Die bezauberte Rose (The Enchanted Rose). The literary source of his song texts was Schulze’s Poetisches Tagebuch (Poetic Diary), published posthumously in 1822. Poems are given dates, rather than titles. Schubert’s Im Frühling (In Springtime), D. 882, draws from the entry for March 31, 1815, during the period of Schulze’s unsuccessful courtship of Adelheid Tychsen following the death of her sister (and Schulze’s fiancée) Cäcilie. Schubert’s song setting, orig- inating in March 1826, shares Schulze’s sweet melancholy of lost love. Schubert discovered the text for his Frühlings- glaube (Faith in Spring), D. 686, in a collection of “spring songs” by Ludwig Uhland, published in 1820 but written eight years earlier. As a scholar, Uhland specialized in medieval legends and lore. His own folk-like verses exerted con- siderable influence on Romantic poets, especial- ly Wilhelm Müller. Ironically, Schubert set only one of Uhland’s poems—“Frühlingsglaube.” The composer obviously cherished this song, for he revised and transcribed it twice before allowing its publication in 1822. Im Abendrot (In the Evening Glow), D. 799, also turned to the gorgeous sunset poetry of Lappe, which Schubert clothed in a simple, yet affec- tive musical setting, completed in January 1825. Schubert must have possessed a manuscript ver- sion of Lappe’s poem, since it was not published until 1836. The power of this Lied resides in the very simplicity of its musical surroundings— calm and gentle like the setting sun it portrays. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) An die ferne Geliebte , op. 98 Who was the “distant beloved” that Beethoven addressed in his 1816 song cycle An die ferne Ge- liebte ? Scholars frequently equate this unknown woman with the equally mysterious “immortal beloved” who reciprocated the composer’s affec- tions one blissful summer. Maynard Solomon, a noted biographer of Beethoven and Mozart, has made a convincing case that Antonie Brentano was the “immortal beloved.” She and Beethoven met several times between Vienna and Prague during July 1812. The film The Immortal Beloved portrayed Beethoven’s sister-in-law Johanna as the mystery woman, though historical evidence does not support this theory. Beethoven may have intended his song cycle for Antonie or an- other of his countless amours , women hopeless- ly above his social station or already married. We may never know for certain. Beethoven chose six romanticized poems by the young Alois Jeitteles, a native of Brünn studying medicine in Vienna. The text bears an overrid- ing sense of resignation, which (as some mod- ern writers have suggested) may indicate that Beethoven finally acknowledged the incompat- ibility of his musical activities and marriage. An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved) mer- its historical significance as the first significant, through-composed song cycle. Regrettably, Bee- thoven left this cycle without a successor. All six songs are performed continuously and, in fact, cannot be separated without disfiguring the mu- sic. Cyclic unity is further reinforced by the reap- pearance of the opening theme in the final song. Beethoven dedicated An die ferne Geliebte to his patron Prince Lobkowitz, who died later in 1816. JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–97) Zigeunerlieder , op. 103 Hugo Conrat (1845–1906; originally Hugo Cohn) belonged to a prominent Jewish family in Vienna that had converted to Protestantism. A manag- ing clerk at the river transport company E. Kohn & Mittler, Conrat also was an amateur poet and translator of Hungarian folksongs. According to Brahms biographer Max Kalbeck, the Conrat family’s Hungarian-born nanny, Fräulein Witzl, had translated a number of Hungarian folksongs into German, which Conrat then turned into poetic verse. The Hungarian composer Zoltán Nagy arranged these folksongs, accompanied by Conrat’s German verses, for medium voice and piano as the Ungarische Liebeslieder , which he published in Budapest and Leipzig around 1887. Brahms selected 11 of Conrat’s texts for his own Zigeunerlieder (Gypsy Songs), op. 103, a song collection containing mostly original melodies. Scored for vocal quartet and piano, these songs combined the exotic charm of his 21 Hungarian Dances, WoO 1, with the vocal quartet scoring of his two sets of Liebeslieder-Walzer (Love Song Waltzes), opp. 52 and 65. “Just as the Liebeslieder find inexhaustible inspiration in the 3/4 lilt of the Ländler and waltz,” observed Brahms schol- ar Lucien Stark, “so do the Zigeunerlieder exalt the 2/4 csárdás.” N. Simrock published op. 103 for vocal quartet and piano in October 1888 in Berlin. (Brahms later arranged the Zigeunerlieder for solo voice and piano in April and May 1889, omitting nos. 8, 9, and 10.) These songs elicited glowing reactions from the composer’s closest friends. Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, an amateur pianist Franz Schubert AUGUST 5 – AUGUST 11, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 91