Ravinia 2024 Issue 5

Heinrich Hölty, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Matthias Claudius, Johann Mayrhofer, Wilhelm Müller, Heinrich Heine, and Ludwig Rellstab stimulated Schubert’s imagination. Three times, Schubert extended his musical poeticism over monumental, unified cycles of songs— Die schöne Müllerin , D. 795 (1823), Winterreise , D. 911 (1827), and the Rellstab and Heine group- ings in Schwanengesang , D. 957 (1828). 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. 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 the- ology, philosophy, and philology at the Univer- sity 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. Im Abendrot (In the Evening Glow), D. 799 , also turned to the gorgeous sunset poetry of Lappe, which Schubert clothed in a simple, yet affective musical setting, completed in January 1825. Schubert must have possessed a manu- script version of Lappe’s poem, since it was not published until 1836. The power of this Lied resides in the very simplicity of its musical sur- roundings—calm and gentle like the setting sun it portrays. GERALD FINZI (1901–1956) A Young Man’s Exhortation , op. 14 English composer Gerald Finzi set 50 or more poems by his countryman Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) for solo voice and piano. Hardy fa- vored regular verses, often with internal refrains, which he enlivened through an idiosyncratic ap- proach to meter, language, and rhyme. Once he had established a poetic structure, Hardy added stanzas expansively, sometimes creating poems of epic length. Individual lines, by contrast, fre- quently emerged from short, choppy, occasion- ally repetitive phrases: I said to Love, “Though art not young, though art not fair, No elfin darts, no cherub air, Nor swan, nor dove Are thine; but feathers pitiless, And iron daggers of distress,” I said to Love. —“I Said to Love” from Poems of the Past and the Present (1901) Some of his poetry dwelled on morose, satirical, fatalistic, and anti-religious topics, while others reveled in beauty, love, and optimism. Something essential attracted Finzi to Hardy’s poetry—“a kinship with him … his mental make-up”—as it addresses nature’s allure, the absurdity of war, unnecessary human suffering, loneliness, and the passage of time. These Thomas Hardy by W & D Downey qualities complemented Finzi’s own aesthetic, which tended toward the lyrical, direct, suc- cinct, and pastoral, often mirroring the simplic- ity of folksong or music of the Tudor era. This poetic and musical kinship converged won- drously in A Young Man’s Exhortation , op. 14, Finzi’s only true song cycle, composed between 1926 and 1929. Finzi set 15 Hardy poems (some scholars suggest 18) before settling on the 10 songs for tenor and piano published in 1933. The cycle is divided into two halves containing five songs apiece. Finzi opened each half with a brief quotation from Psalm 89:6, as found in the Vulgate, or Latin Bible. A phrase from the first part of the verse—“Mane floreat, et transeat” (In the morning, he shall flourish and pass away)— sets the context for Hardy’s initial five poems, which celebrate the exuberance and passion of youth. By the end, however, the specter of mor- tality appears in the form of a memorial temple to the singer’s beloved and the endless return of a comet, long after our death. Finzi prefaced Part II with a quotation from the second half of Psalm 89:6: “Vespere decidat, induret, et arescat” (In the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and with- er). These five songs are more reflective, focused on aging and the transitory nature of life. “And mourn not me / Beneath the yellowing tree; / For I shall mind not, slumbering peacefully.” English tenor Frank Drew and pianist Augustus Lowe gave the world premiere on December 5, 1933, in Grotrian Hall—the original Steinway Hall in London, later occupied by the German piano maker Grotrian-Steinweg. ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856) Liederkreis , op. 24 Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) belonged to a group of politically active literarians known as the “Young Germans.” Born to a Jewish family in Düsseldorf, Heine undertook banking and legal Gerald Finzi RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 63