Schubert's Song Sets

Michael Hall

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138724334
• eBook ISBN: 9781351755337
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

This title was first published in 2003. From 1821 until his death, Schubert compiled or specially composed for publication 42 song sets, yet during his own lifetime, and until now, their integrity and importance as sets have been virtually ignored. In this book, Michael Hall asserts that these songs sets are not arbitrary collections, as so often assumed, but highly integrated works in their own right. Approaching these songs as sets the book throws light on Schubert's largely undiscussed intellectual preoccupations. They reveal that he was au fait with most of the philosophical concerns of his time, especially those which touched on Romanticism. But although the sets reflect Romanticism in their topics, Hall maintains that they are the epitome of classical balance. In encouraging students and performers to approach these songs as sets, this study aims to alter perceptions of this important repertory.

Part One
Sets with opus numbers assigned by Schubert

Opus 3

Four songs to poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Published on commission by Cappi and Diabelli, 29 May 1821. Dedicated 'with high regard' to Ignaz, Edler von Mosel.

1. Schäfers Klagelied (Shepherd's Lament), D121 (version b, 30 November 1814)¹
2. Meeres Stille (Calm Sea), D216 (21 June 1815)
3. Heidenröslein (Wild Rose), D257 (19 August 1815)
4. Jägers Abendlied (Huntsman's Evening Song), D368 (?early 1816)

Although the decision to launch the publication of Schubert's songs by drawing on the volume Spaun sent to Goethe in 1816 may have been made for commercial reasons by Leopold von Sonnleithner and the friends who clubbed together to finance the venture, the selection and arrangement of those songs into sets was unquestionably the responsibility of the composer. They bear his stamp and no one else could have compiled them.

Most of Schubert's sets progress from a state of stress to one of tranquillity. Those containing four songs are divided into pairs, each pair consisting of contrasting songs. In this set the storm the distressed shepherd is sheltering from contrasts with the eerie calm of the sea; the destructive liveliness of the boy plucking the rose contrasts with the tranquillity of the huntsman. But since the calmness of the sea produces anxiety, the first pair completes the progression only in terms of the external circumstances. As in other four-song sets, the progression takes place in two phases, the state of inner calm being reserved for the final song.

Op. 3 is unusual in that it lacks a clear topic, but images in the first song - travelling over the sea, aimlessly picking flowers, going grimly through the countryside - are followed up in the other songs.

Texts

1. Da droben auf jenem Berge. Six quatrains.
   1. I have stood a thousand times on yonder hill, leaning on my staff and looking down into the valley.
   2. I have followed the grazing flock watched over by my dog, and have come down here without knowing how.
   3. The whole meadow is full of lovely flowers. I pick them without knowing to whom I shall give them.
   4. I shelter under the tree from rain, storm and tempest. The gate over there stays closed, but alas it is all a dream.
   5. It looks as if a rainbow were standing over that house. But she has moved away to distant regions.
   6. To distant regions and beyond, perhaps even over the sea. Move on, you sheep, move on. Your shepherd is so wretched.
2. Tiefe Stille herrscht im Wasser. Two quatrains.
   1. A deep calm reigns over the waters, the sea is motionless, and the sailor looks anxiously at the glassy surface all around him.
   2. No breeze from any quarter! A fearful, deathly stillness! No wave stirs in the vast expanse.
3. Sah ein Knab ein Röslein stehn. Three seven-line stanzas each ending with the refrain: 'Wild rose, wild rose, wild rose red, Wild rose in the heather.'
   1. A boy saw a wild rose growing in the heather, as young and lovely as the morning. He ran swiftly to see it more closely, and what he saw gave him joy.
   2. Said the boy, Ί shall pluck you, wild rose in the heather'. Said the rose, Ί shall prick you so that you will always remember me. I will not suffer'.
   3. The rough boy plucked the rose, and the rose pricked the boy. But her cries were of no avail. She had to suffer.
4. Im Felde schleich ich still und wild. Three quatrains.
   1. As I stalk through the fields, grim and silent, gun at the ready, your sweet image hovers brightly before me.
   2. Perhaps you too are wandering gentle and silent through the field and lovely valley. Does my fleeting image appear to you at all?
   3. When I think of you it is as if I were gazing at the moon. A peaceful, inexplicable tranquillity descends on me.

Music

Musical factors were also important in the choice of these songs for this set. Schubert would have seen that he could make from them a structure resembling the composite instrumental design of a symphony, string quartet or sonata: dramatic movement in sonata form, slow movement, scherzo and finale. The only difference from this pattern is that to be suitable for the home the finale had to reflect the calm, intimate atmosphere of the circumstances.

Of particular significance is the way one song enhances the character of the next. This means that, apart from the first, the songs are more vivid in the context of the set than they are when performed individually. The first song, a quasi-sonata form movement in C minor, contrasts with the second, a through-composed slow movement in C major, not only in its form, tempo and key, but because of the insistence on the note Eb throughout its course, it throws in relief the following song's equally insistent use of E natural.

1. Schäfers Klagelied

C minor. Moderate 6/8 (♪ = 120).

The music for the six stanzas is arranged in the pattern A¹-B¹-C-D-B²-A², A being the equivalent of a first subject in the tonic, Β a second subject starting in the relative major (E♭), and C and D a dramatic development moving from A♭ major to A♭ minor (via D♭ major/minor), then, for the climax of the song, when the shepherd alludes to the rain, storm and tempest, to C♭ major. The recapitulation is unorthodox in that the second subject comes before the first, and it is not transposed to the tonic. But this reversal is essential for the drama Schubert imposes on the text. Throughout the exposition and development he gives the impression that everything is in a state of change. For instance, the two phrases used for the first two lines of stanza 1 (Cm) come back in varied form for the first two lines of stanza 2 (E♭) and then with even greater variety for the first two lines of stanza four (C♭). But the prospect that change may continue to take place is dashed in the recapitulation. By reversing the first and second subjects Schubert returns the music to its starting point. In effect the music mirrors the shepherd's dashed hopes when he sees that the door of his sweetheart's house remains locked, and all he can do is to tell his sheep to move on.

Eb is present in the tonic chords of all the principal keys touched on. Schäfers Klagelied was not originally intended to precede Meeres Stille, but, as the only significant difference between its last chord and the next song's first is the shift from E♭ to E, the connection is remarkably smooth.

2. Meeres Stille

C major. Very slow, anxiously 2/2 (♪ = 72).

As Lawrence Kramer points out in his analysis of the song (Frisch, p. 210), Goethe's poem seems to have two narrative styles. In the first stanza the voice seems to be that of an impersonal narrator, in the second an anxious sailor. Schubert ignores the stanzaic division and writes a through-composed song reflecting Goethe's observation of the scene from different perspectives by dividing it into four four-bar phrases, each being rhythmically a variant of the durational pattern of the first. He therefore personalizes the text, makes it seem the voice of someone who also experiences extreme anxiety. That this is fear of death becomes clear when for the words, 'No breeze from any quarter! A terrible, deathly stillness!', Schubert introduces his death motif, a descending chromatic scale in the bass.

As Kramer notes:

Meeres Stille is music that barely moves. Schubert's tone painting of Goethe's calm sea involves immobility in every expressive dimension. Both the vocal line and the accompaniment are depressed in register; the highest note in the song is c. There is no change in dynamic level and, in the accompaniment, no change in rhythm; the voice suspends itself over dull arpeggios, one to a measure, in steady pianissimo. Even the words fail to move in the usual sense; the singer's long notes make taffy of the text at the tempo indicated. Only the harmony is not static, but while the arpeggios vary in tonal function their sonority is monotonous, an almost unbroken succession of close-position chords and octave basses. (Frisch, p. 210)

Yet although the song is through-composed and only the harmony gives the impression of movement, the opposing pole of attraction to the key's tonic is not the dominant but the mediant, E minor or E major. In other words, Schubert avoids a strong harmonic dialectic. Halfway through the song he cadences ephemerally on the sub-dominant. The episode quoted above which follows it indicates that it is actually part of a progression towards the dominant of the mediant. Since a progression to a key a third away is considered weak in tonal music, E minor, E major and A minor, the other keys he veers towards, offer no real challenge to the authority of the tonic. Ultimately the listener comes to realize that the harmony also floats in stillness. As in the first song, the sense that change is taking place is unfulfilled. Consequently it is perhaps appropriate that the last words of the poem, 'reget keine Welle sich' (not a wave stirs) should be intoned on one note.

The other pair of songs, the structure's scherzo and finale, are both in repetitive, non-developing strophic form so that musically they too are fundamentally changeless.

3. Heidenröslein

G major. Lieblich (lovingly, charmingly) 2/4 (♩ = 69).

The key is C major's dominant which had been scarcely touched on in the previous song. Although Goethe is primarily concerned with the distress and plight of the rose, Schubert reflects the light-hearted mood of the boy. As in Meeres Stille, he personalizes the text, making it seem like the voice of the boy flirting with the rose (hence the instruction 'lovingly'). The first bar of the song sounds as if the boy were cheekily picking up the quasi-liturgical chant at the end of Meeres Stille. Later, in the refrain, the slowing down of the tempo during his rising scale suggests he is teasing the rose before 'deflowering' it.

The last four notes of that scale when the boy is most loving will throw new light on a recurring figure in the accompaniment of the last song.

4. Jägers Abendlied

D♭ major. Very slow, gently 2/4 (♪ = 63).

Goethe's poem actually consists of four stanzas. Schubert's simple strophic setting omits the third stanza because in it the huntsman suspects that his sweetheart will think him ill-humoured and peevish for leaving her, and this would disturb the sense of inner peace the composer wanted to establish. John Reed (SSC, p. 287) reminds us that the sliding sixths in the accompaniment have usually been thought to represent the huntsman 'slinking' through the fields, but in the context of the set, having just heard the boy sing the words 'Röslein rot' to a rising four-note scale, these rising four-note sixths will strongly suggest that, behind his opening words, the huntsman has his sweetheart in mind.

¹ The dates of the songs are those given in the Second Edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, eds S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell, London: Macmillan, 2001.

Opus 4

Published on commission by Cappi and Diabelli, 29 May 1821 (the same day as Op. 3). Dedicated 'with respect' to Johann Ladislaus von Pyrker, Patriarch of Venice.

1. Der Wanderer (The Wanderer) Georg Philipp Schmidt, D489 (version c, c. 1816)
2. Morgenlied (Morning Song) Zacharias Werner, D685 (1820)
3. Wandrers Nachtlied I(Wanderer's Night Song) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, D224 (5 July 1815)

Der Wanderer was second only to Erlkönig in popularity during Schubert's lifetime. This alone would have been reason enough for the composer to give it prominence in a set he wanted to be a commercial as well as an artistic success. He also needed something to justify ending the set with Wanderers Nachtlied I, one of the songs sent by Spaun to Goethe in 1816.

The figure of the Wanderer has had a long history in European literature, and has meant different things to different writers. Schmidt came from Lübeck in what is now Schleswig-Holstein, and it was there in 1542 that the Bishop of Schleswig claimed to have met the Wandering Jew, the man who, according to legend, had been condemned to wander endlessly through the world, lonely and homeless, for urging Christ to walk faster to Calvary. Doubtless this woul...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part One Sets with opus numbers assigned by Schubert
• Part Two The Heine set
• Select bibliography
• Index of Schubert's music cited
• Index of poets cited
• General index