As a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment, artists of the late 18th century began to create works that were reflections of their ideals of free expression. This was the beginning of the Romantic movement, a movement that was guided by numerous influences, with the emphasis on emotion. The emotion most often represented was love, which sometimes took the form of unrequited love that ended in the violent end of one or both the parties involved.
Mizra Shafi Vazeh
Another influence on the Romantics was the exoticism of different lands and peoples. These were often expressed as crude stereotypes such as the Janissary music imitated by Mozart in the third movement of his Piano Sonata In A Major K.331. But exoticism also exerted an influence through artists that were natives of those far away places. One of those artists was a poet from Azerbaijan, Mirza Shafi Vazeh, who continued the tradition of Azerbaijani classic poetry. He was also fluent in the Persian language and some of those poems were collected by one of his devoted German disciples Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt. Mirza Shafi Vazeh was literate but seldom wrote down his poems. Bodenstedt wrote some of them down in the original Persian, translated them to German and in 1851 published them in a book titled Die Lieder des Mirza Schaffy. Anton Rubinstein chose twelve poems from this book to set to music for his opus 34 12 Lieder des Mirza-Schaffy, also known as Persian Love Songs.
Friedrich von Bodenstedt
Rubinstein was second only to Liszt in his ability to play the piano. His repertoire was vast, his stamina legendary, he also became a conductor and founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory. But he also had ambitions as a composer and wrote a huge amount of music in all the forms of the day. His 4th Piano concerto was once a staple of the repertoire, but despite a modern resurgence of interest, his music is rarely heard. Persian Love Songs has been recorded a few times and although the text Rubinstein set was in German, they are usually sung in Russian translation. The 9th song in the set, 'Swirling Waves', was a favorite of the Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin, whose interpretation of the song has become somewhat of a tradition. The video below has a recording sung by Boris Shtokolov, one of the most famous Russian bass singers of the modern era. His interpretation adds some of the falsetto singing introduced in the song by Chaliapin that deviates from Rubinstein's original music:
Johann Goethe was a writer that inspired the entire 19th century world of art, specifically the Germanic-speaking world. Franz Schubert fell under the spell of Goethe's works early on, and the first lied he set to Goethe's text was Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen At The Spinning Wheel), the text of which was taken from a scene in Faust. The year was 1814 and Schubert was 17 years old. Goethe remained an inspiration to Schubert for the rest of his short life as he wrote over 80 lieder to texts of Goethe, including his famous setting of Der Erlkönig.
The scene depicts Gretchen at her spinning wheel as her mind drifts to Faust, a man she has recently met and fallen deeply in love with. Schubert uses the piano as an illustrative device as the music depicts the wheel spinning in the right hand notes, the clicking of the spool that gathers the yarn in the staccato eighth-note accompaniment in the left hand and the pedal that makes the wheel spin in the lower notes in the left hand:
The passion of Gretchen grows until it reaches near madness in the 7th stanza, when the piano depicts the halting of the spinning wheel as she is overcome with the thought of his kiss. The wheel makes a few false starts before it begins again. The passion grows once again, until the first stanza is repeated and the wheel stops. The song begins and ends in D minor, but Schubert takes the harmony far afield, a characteristic of Schubert's music that was to continue. This song of 1814 led to one of Schubert's most productive years when in 1815 he wrote over 100 lieder as well as many works for orchestra and chorus.
There were many composers that wrote works of musical imagery before Schubert. The cantatas of Bach as well as the oratorios of Handel are but two examples of works that contained illustrative music, but Gretchen am Spinnrade was a turning point in the history of the German lied. Schubert's fertile imagination and his pairing of the voice and piano as equal partners in musical expression influenced countless song composers.
Gretchen At The Spinning Wheel
My peace is gone,
My heart is heavy,
I will find it never
and never again.
Where I do not have him,
That is the grave,
The whole world
Is bitter to me.
My poor head
Is crazy to me,
My poor mind
Is torn apart.
My peace is gone,
My heart is heavy,
I will find it never
and never again.
I look only for him
Out the window
Only for him do I go
Out of the house.
His tall walk,
His noble figure,
His mouth's smile,
His powerful eyes,
His mouth's
Magic flow,
His touch,
and ah! his kiss!
My peace is gone,
My heart is heavy,
I will find it never
and never again.
My bosom urges itself
toward him.
Ah, might I grasp
And hold him!
And kiss him,
As I want,
With his kisses
I should die!
Claude Debussy has been identified with Impressionism, exemplified by the paintings of Renoir and Monet among others. Debussy himself disliked the term and rejected any association with it. As he said himself:
I am trying to do 'something different'...what the imbeciles call 'impressionism', a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the critics.
Some have suggested he was a proponent of Symbolism more than Impressionism, but 'isms' are but created labels that attempt to categorize. Not that these labels aren't useful. They certainly can give a sense of structure for study and understanding. But labels are models to aid in understanding. As soon as a model is used as a definite mold to force art to conform to specific rules, the model loses its value.
Debussy's talent was such that he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire when he was ten years old. During his 11 years there he constantly challenged his teachers and the directorship of Ambroise Thomas, a musical conservative. He earned the praise and admiration of his teachers and fellow students for his abilities as a pianist and sight-reader, but his compositions were not understood. He understood the models of music that were taught in his classes, but he refused to allow his creativity to be controlled by them.
That is not to say that he was not influenced by other composers. Richard Wagner was a profound influence, as well as Mussorgsky. Older music also had an influence, such as the Baroque clavicenists such as Couperin as well as J.S. Bach. Each one of these influences were digested and internalized by Debussy's talent and transformed into his own highly original music. American Ragtime, the Gamelan from Java all played a part as well as literature and the visual arts.
Debussy was a slow and meticulous composer, but uncharacteristically the Preludes Book One was begun in late 1909 and finished three months later. He kept with the traditional number of preludes of 24 (in two books of 12) as set by many composers before him, especially J.S. Bach and Chopin. But where Bach had his preludes (and the fugues that went with them) follow each other in a half-step progression of keys and Chopin followed the circle of fifths, Debussy's preludes follow no set key sequence, although groups of them seem to be tonally related. Debussy doesn't use conventional keys hardly at all as he uses church modes, pentatonic scales and the whole tone scale in writing them.
Another unique feature of Debussy's preludes is that while each one is titled, the title appears at the end of the piece instead of the beginning.
1) Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi) -Debussy begins with music inspired by ancient Greek dancers in music that gently moves through different types of scales and melodies. This first prelude gives a clue to what will proceed, and renders what Debussy himself said is his musical objective:
Wagner pronounced himself in favor of the laws of harmony. I am for freedom. But freedom must essentially be free. All the noises we hear around ourselves can be re-created. Every sound perceived by the acute ear in the rhythm of the world about us can be represented musically. Some people wish to conform to the rules; for myself, I wish only to render what I can hear.
2) Voiles (Veils or Sails) -The title of this prelude is ambiguous, quite appropriate for the music. Either the sails of ships billowing in a breeze, or the sensuous form of a woman only partially hidden by diaphanous veils. The whole tone scale is used throughout with the chromatic scale added for variety. 3) Le vent dans la plaine (The wind in the plain) - A depiction of strong as well as gentle breezes. There is no documentation as to whether Debussy intended the preludes to be played as an entire set. Shortly after their composition, Debussy himself as well as other pianists played them in groups of three. The first three preludes sound well together played this way. 4) Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir (The sounds and fragrances swirl through the evening air) -The title is inspired by a poem by Charles Beaudelaire titled Harmonie Soir (Evening Harmony). This preludes ends with a short coda that is marked by the composer 'as a far away horn call'. 5) Les collines d'Anacapri (The hills of Anacapri) - Anacapri is a small village on the Isle of Capri in the Gulf of Naples off the Italian coast. Debussy begins the prelude slowly until it erupts in an Italian dance, the tarantella. The dance is interrupted by a folk song like melody in the middle section. The dance returns and leads to a glittering ending in the extreme treble of the keyboard which is marked lumineux (luminous). 6) Des pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the snow) - A bleak landscape of snow and cold is represented as a persistent motive is repeated. Debussy gives the direction that 'the tempo must be such that it sounds like a sad, icy landscape'. There is little relief from the cold atmosphere in this prelude that is a challenge for the pianist to bring off with Debussy's intended effect. 7) Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest (What the west wind has seen) -The subtle colors of the preceeding preludes are swept away by this depiction of a violent wind that roars off the coast of France during a storm at sea. 8) La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair) -One of the most often played preludes, this gentle music is in stark contrast to the preceding violent one. Gentle chords surround Debussy's original melody that sounds like a folk song. 9) La sérénade interrompue (The interrupted serenade) -Debussy continues the French love of Spanish music in this prelude that depicts a Spanish guitarist that tries to serenade his sweetheart. Is the father the one that slams the window to shut out the serenade, or the beloved? No matter, the serenader finally gives up and wanders off. 10) La Cathédrale engloutie (The engulfed cathedral) -Another of the most popular preludes, this is a representation of the legend of the cathedral of the ancient city of Ys in Brittany that sank to the bottom of the ocean when the city was swallowed by the sea. Once every hundred years the cathedral rises out of the ocean to the tolling of its bells and the chanting of monks. It then sinks back into the sea. With thunderous chords in the middle section, Debussy has the piano do a credible impression of pipe organ sonority. Widely-spaced chords (including six-note chords to be played by the five fingers of the right hand) add to the mysterious nature of the legend before the cathedral slips back under the water. 11) La danse de Puck (Puck's dance) -A representation of the mischievous Puck from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. 12) Minstrels -Traveling minstrel shows appeared in Europe around the turn of the 20th century and were very popular. European composers were influenced by ragtime and early jazz music. Debussy's creative imagination attracted him to different kinds of music and art, and led to this witty representation of the banjo and minstrel music.
Antonín Dvořák's music didn't become known outside of his native Bohemia until he entered and won the Austrian State Prize contest in 1877, a competition that awarded a stipend to the winner. Dvořák not only benefited from the prize money (which went far in helping to alleviate his condition of near poverty) but members of the panel of judges of the competition helped make his works known world-wide. One of those members was Johannes Brahms who recommended Dvořák's compositions to his publisher Simrock. With a music publisher's eye for sales, Simrock commissioned Dvořák to compose a set of dances similar to Brahms' Hungarian Dances. Dvořák filled the commission with the successful Slavonic Dances in 1878, which were played across Europe and the United States.
Hot on the heels of this great success and his new international reputation Dvořák wrote Cigánské Melodie (Gypsy Songs), a set of seven songs set to the poetry of Czech poet Adolph Heyduk. The songs were written in 1880 for Gustav Walter, the popular tenor of the Vienna State Opera. Heyduk wrote a translation of the poems in German for Dvořák in deference to Walter, and a version of the songs using the original Czech language was made later.
Adolph Heyduk
There was something of a fad for gypsy music for much of the 19th century, although what was called gypsy music at the time was more of an idealized mixture of European folk music with a few exotic gypsy motifs thrown in. Dvořák's Gypsy Songs owe more to Czech and Slovak folk songs than authentic gypsy music as well. But the freedom of gypsy life is in the songs and serves as a representation of the struggles for freedom of the Czech people from the repressive Austrian government of the time.
I want to thank Anna Matjas Royko and Gayle Royko Heuser for extending permission to include their translation of the Czech texts: 1) Ma pisen zas mi laskou zni (My song resounds with love)
The piano opens with measured tremolos in thirds in the right hand that lead to rolled chords that accompany the vocalist. A middle section in major mode provides contrast before the piano repeats the opening and ends in the home key of G minor - My song resounds with love when the old day
is dying;
it is sowing its shadows and reaping a
collection of pearls.
My song resonates with longing while my feet
roam distant lands.
My homeland is in the distant wilderness—my
song stirs with nationalism.
My song reverberates with love, while
unplanned storms hasten.
4) Kdyz mne stara matka (Songs my mother taught me)
The most well-known song in the set, this song is played regularly in vocal recitals and the melody has been arranged for many different solo instruments. A distinctive feature of this song is the time signature of 2/4 for the soloist while the piano is written in 6/8 - When my old mother taught me to sing,
Strange that she often had tears in her eyes.
And now I also weep, when I teach Gypsy
children to play and sing.
Chopin was not suited to a life of a performing virtuoso such as Liszt, not least of all on account of his health. He had been sickly as a child and had serious fits of coughing for most of his life. As a young man of 22, he was 5' 7" tall and weighed under 100 pounds. After giving a few concerts early on, he restricted himself to performing in the salons of Paris, and made his living by composing and teaching.
By contemporary accounts Chopin appears to have been a very good teacher. He never had a student that blossomed into a virtuoso, but he tended to concentrate his teaching efforts on the elite of Paris for the money they would pay for lessons. He emphasized a legato, singing touch and went so far as to recommend singing lessons for some of his students. Chopin himself would say,"You must sing if you wish to play." He urged his students to attend the opera and emulate the great singers. Chopin carried this love of singing into his compositions as well as his piano playing.
Chopin was a composer that attended the opera on a regular basis and helped create a singing style of piano playing, but his output for voice is very small. He wrote only 19 completed songs in his lifetime, and a few others that remain incomplete. And though many tried to persuade him to try his hand at opera, he refused. None of his songs were published in his lifetime. It wasn't until 1853 that one of his songs was published. The Opus 74 set of 17 songs was first published in 1859, and it is not a song cycle as there are no connecting themes to the poems. Each song is independent of the other.
Perhaps if his health allowed him more vigor and a longer life, he may have grown in his ability, interest and confidence to write more for the voice. As it is, his songs have been mostly passed over as inferior to others. But his songs are interesting, and there a handful that are masterworks.
Chopin used poems by six different Polish poets in the songs. Stefan Witwicki - Nos. 1-5, 7, 10, 14, 15 Adam Mickiewicz - Nos. 6 and 12 Bohdan Zaleski - Nos. 8, 11 and 13 Zygmunt Krasiński - No. 9 Ludwika Osiński - No. 16 Wincenty Pol - No. 17 1) Życzenie (The Maiden's Wish) Stefan Witwicki
Witwicki was a close friend of Chopin and Chopin regarded his writings highly. He used ten of his friend's poems in his 19 songs, nine of them in opus 74. The songs were not put in chronological order of composition by the publisher. This song was written in 1829 before Chopin left Poland. As can be expected from a composer who wrote no music that did not include the piano, Chopin uses the instrument to set the mood, sometimes with a short solo from the beginning. The first song in this set begins with the piano playing a mazurka that is taken up by the soloist:
If I were the sun shining in the sky
I would shine only for you.
Not on lakes nor forests
but for all time,
Under your window and only for you,
If I could change myself into sunshine.
If I were a bird of the grove
I wouldn't sing in any foreign country.
Not on lakes nor forests
but for all time
Under your window and only for you.
If I could change myself into sunshine.
2) Wiosna (Spring) Stefan Witwicki
Composed in 1838.
Sparkling drops of dew,
A brook whispers through the field
Hidden somewhere in heather,
A heifer's bell rings.
I look out over the pasture,
the beautiful, happy pasture
All around, flowers bloom
Stefan Witwicki
And bushes bloom.
Graze and wander, my little herd,
I will sit by a rock,
and a sweet song that I like
I'll sing to myself.
A pleasant and quiet place!
But sorrow is in my memory
my heart mourns,
and my eye a tear forms.
The tear escapes my eye,
The brook sings with me,
and from above
A skylark responds.
It spreads its wings
Barely visible to the eye,
Higher and higher,
Lost already among the clouds.
Above prairies and fields it flies,
Still singing its song;
And takes the gentle song of earth
up into the sky!
3) Smutna rzeka (The Sad River) Stefan Witwicki
Composed in 1831.
River, flowing from the mountains,
Tell me why your waters are swollen.
Is the snow thawing
And flooding your banks?
"The snow lies unmelted in the hills,
And flowers hold my banks firm.
At my source sits a mother,
Sorrowful and weeping.
Seven daughters she loved;
And seven she has buried.
In death they know neither night or day;
They lie facing east.
Waiting in pain by their graves,
She tells her sorrow to their spirits.
And her unceasing tears water the graves,
Swelling my waters to a flood."
4) Hulanka (Drinking Song) Stefan Witwicki
Composed in 1830.
Take care, pretty girl; be careful!
You are laughing so much
You're spilling wine on my coat!
I'll not let you go, I'll make you pay;
I'll kiss you over and over.
Your lips and eyes
set my blood afire!
Come now, despondent one,
What are you brooding about?
Drink! Don't waste time worrying.
This sorry world is not worth it.
So what if you can barely walk.
Where's the disgrace in that?
When your wife shouts you won't hear;
You'll be out cold on the floor!
Drink, or I'll beat you with a stick.
Hey, pretty girl, over here!
Serve us. Don't entice us.
Pour us some beer!
5) Gdzie lubi (Where She Loves) Stefan Witwicki
Composed in 1829.
Streams run through the valley;
Birds nest under the eaves;
Deer hide in the forest,
But where can a girl's heart find a home?
Maybe in bright blue eyes,
Or dark, deep, mysterious ones;
Maybe in happy songs,
or maybe in sad songs too.
She herself is powerless
As to where her heart will go
She is powerless
As to where her heart will go.
6) Precz z moich oczu! (Out Of My Sight!) Adam Mickiewicz
Composed in 1830.
Out of my sight! Listen right away!
Adam Mickiewicz
Out of my heart! I will obey!
Out of my thoughts! No, that cannot
happen with either of our memories.
As evening shadows lengthen
Getting longer in the distance
I will shine brighter in your mind
The further you are from me.
In every season in places close to our hearts,
Where I cried with you, where I played with you
Always and everywhere shall I be with you,
For everywhere I have left a part of my soul.
7) Poseł (The Messenger) Stefan Witwicki
Composed in 1830.
The grass is beginning to grow,
The winter is waning,
And you, faithful swallow,
Are with us once more.
With your coming the days are longer,
Oh bringer of spring.
Welcome back home,
Joyful singer!
Wait! Do not leave.
I will feed you grain.
Sing a new song,
Your journey was long, take a rest.
Fly around and look
with your dark eyes.
But do not look so merry;
My loved one is not here, not there!
She left with a soldier,
left the village.
At the roadside cross
her weeping mother stood.
Tell me, swallow, tell me
If you've seen her.
Is she happy and laughing, or
Sad and weeping?
8) Śliczny Chłopiec (Handsome Lad) Bohdan Zaleski
Composed in 1841.
Sublime, slender and young,
Oh, quite a beauty!
What more could I want?
Black hair and golden cheek!
If he barely blinks an eye
Bohdan Zaleski
It makes my heart beat faster.
What more could I want?
Black hair and golden cheek!
When we're dancing together
all eyes swarm on us.
What more could I want?
Black hair and golden cheek!
If he is late
My heart grows faint and numb in me.
What more could I want?
Black hair and golden cheek!
Every fond word he whispers
Clings in my heart and ear.
What more could I want?
Black hair and golden cheek!
He's already told me
I am everything in the world to him.
What more could I want?
Black hair and golden cheek!
9) Melodia (Melody)
Zygmunt Krasiński
Zygmunt Krasiński
Composed in 1847. A poem that ostensibly relates the Biblical tale of the Jews who reached but could not enter the promised land. It also represents the plight of Poland and its people under Russian oppression. This is the last song Chopin ever wrote.
Under the cruel weight of the crosses they bear
They stand on the mountain to see from afar the promised land.
Their eyes see the heavenly light
As the people struggle to descend.
They see the land they cannot enter!
The land they will never live in.
And here their bones will lie forgotten
Perhaps forever.
10) Wojak (The Warrior) Stefan Witwicki
Composed in 1830. Written before Chopin left Poland, the song gives an idea of the patriotic fervor in Warsaw (that Chopin supported) just before the November Uprising of 1830. Chopin creates the masculine rhythms of a polonaise:
My bay is stomping the ground!
Let's go! It is time!
Farewell to mother and father and sisters;
Farewell all!
We'll ride like the wind
Our enemies will tremble in the bloody battle.
We will return hale and hearty
Run like the wind, my faithful horse!
Onward to battle!
But if I am chosen to die
My steed shall return to the farm
without a rider.
I can still hear the cries of my sisters
that beg my horse to stop.
But the horse refuses,
So onward into battle!
11) Dwojaki koniec (The Double End) Bohdan Zaleski
Composed in 1845
They loved each other for a year,
for an age they have been apart.
She lies dead in her chamber;
He at the crossroads under an oak tree.
O, the whole family grieves over the girl.
Over the Cossack a raven caws.
In both passions burned hot.
They suffered great pain until the mercy of death.
O, for the girl the bell tolls in the village.
Over the Cossack the wolves howl in the woods.
The girl's bones were lain in consecrated ground,
The Cossack's whiten in the cruel light.
12) Moja pieszczotka (My Darling)
Adam Mickiewicz
Composed in 1837.
When my darling is in a happy mood she
Sings, trills and chirps as a bird,
I enjoy each sweet moment,
And dwell on each happy note.
I dare not interrupt or say a word.
I only want to listen, listen, listen.
But when her singing makes her eyes bright
And her cheeks red as berries,
And her pearly teeth shine between coral lips,
Then boldly I gaze deeply into her eyes,
And I no longer want to listen.
I only want to kiss kiss kiss her!
13) Nie ma czego trzeba (There Is Nothing For Me Here)
Bohdan Zaleski
Composed in 1845.
Tears in my eyes comes from deep within.
Darkness gathers on my left and right.
A Dumka wells up within me but dies on my lips.
I am in the silence of unhappiness.
Sometimes I look heavenward.
The howling wind hears my grief.
All is cold, all is cold, but my heart hopes
That I and my Dumka will leave for other lands.
14) Pierścień (The Ring)
Stefan Witwicki
Composed in 1836.
Sad songs were sung to you,
I was in love already.
On the little finger of your left hand
I slipped a silver ring.
Girls married others,
I was faithful.
A young stranger came.
Though I had given you a ring.
With other musicians
I sang at the festivities.
You became another’s wife,
I have always loved you.
Today the girls mocked me.
I wept bitterly:
I was faithful and constant,
I gave you the ring in vain.
15) Narzeczony (The Bridegroom)
Stefan Witwicki
Composed in 1831. In rushing chromatic figures in the piano that represent the wind blowing through the forest and the pounding hooves of the rider's horse, Chopin sets the stage for this dramatic and morbid song:
The wind howls through the trees: You gallop wildly on. Your black hair streams behind you. But, strange horseman, you ride in vain.
Don't you not see above the trees How the ravens gather, Soaring, cawing, flying, swooping, Down into the forest?
Where are you, where are you, my darling?
Why don't you come out to meet me? How can she run out? She is dead. She lies cold in her grave.
I am sick with grief.
Let me see her!
As she lay dying, did her eyes
Search for me?
When she hears me crying
Feels my tears over her grave,
Maybe she will wake from the dead,
and live again!
16) Piosnka lietwska (Lithuanian Song) Ludwik Osiński
Composed in 1831.
Ludwik Osiński
Early one morning, the sun was rising as
Mom sat at the glass window.
"Where," she asks, "have you been, my daughter?
Where did you get your scarf all wet?" "It is no wonder that those who must bring water so early might get dew on their scarves."
"You made that up, my child!
You went into the field
To talk with that boy!" "True, true, Mother, I confess I saw my sweetheart in the field; We were only a few minutes in conversation and dew settled on my scarf."
17) Spiew z mogilki (Hymn from the Tomb)
Wincenty Pol
Composed in 1836. Chopin accentuates the mood of the sad and mournful poem that deals with the plight of Poland after the Russians crushed the revolt. It is the longest song Chopin wrote.
Leaves are falling off
Trees that once grew freely.
A little bird sings
On top of a grave.
Poland is in great sorrow.
It was all as a dream.
The land is draped in black,
Your children dead.
Burned hamlets,
Wincenty Pol
Destroyed towns,
And a homeless woman
Cries in a field.
People have fled
and taken their scythes.
Crops shrivel and die,
With no one to harvest them.
Brave men gathered to defend
the walls of Warsaw
Poland began to rise
In glory and honor.
They fought through blizzard,
Through the summer heat.
Then came autumn, but there were
not enough young ones to continue.
The war is now over,
The struggle all in vain.
Many soldiers never came home
and the fields lay barren.
Some are buried;
Some rot in prison;
Some roam in exile,
without home or food
No help from heaven,
or human hands.
Unsown fields turn to waste,
Nature's gifts are nothing.
Leaves are falling off trees,
thick and dark.
Oh Poland, If your sons,
That fought for your sake
had each taken a handful of soil
they could have built a new Poland.
But now, freedom through
force seems impossible,
Because traitors flourish and the
common people are too honest.
Despite Saint-Saëns being somewhat of an innovator early in his career (he introduced the symphonic poem to France), his aesthetic sense also was evident in his habit of composing music in the traditional forms such as the symphony and concerto. His piano concertos are elegantly written works that make virtuosic demands of the soloist, but always in service to musical expression.
Saint-Saëns' 5 piano concertos are works that span a 40-year period and the piano parts show how well Saint-Saëns maintained his virtuoso technique over the years. His most popular piano concerto is Number 2 In G Minor, with occasional performances of No. 4 In C Minor and No. 5 In F Major. Concertos No. 1 and 3 are the least played, with No. 3 being considered by some as his weakest effort out of the five. When the work was premiered in 1869 it was not well received. It is in three movements:
I. Moderato assai - The soloist begins the movement with quiet arpeggios and after two bars a solo horn plays a fragment of a theme while the piano continues arpeggiating. The fragment is passed through different instruments and combinations as the piano arpeggios grow in volume until the fragment of the theme is taken up by the soloist and becomes the first theme of the sonata form movement. The orchestra repeats part of the theme and a short development section is played along with a different motive. The second theme appears in the solo piano and directly after it Saint-Saëns places a cadenza for the soloist. The development section follows the cadenza, which also has an extended part for the soloist alone. A flute signals the beginning of the recapitulation. After a coda that has an impressive piano part, the first movement ends in E-flat major.
II. Andante -The second movement key signature is E major, but in the beginning of it Saint-Saëns does some tonal wandering as the strings slowly move towards a theme, perhaps one of the reasons the concerto did not have a successful premiere. After the strings have their say, the piano enters with a magically simple theme in left hand octaves:
The low strings accompany this theme as it slowly wends its way through the section until a variant of the first theme is played by the oboe. The strings and piano have a tender dialog through the rest of the short movement until it leads without a break to the finale.
III. Allegro non troppo -The third movement brings back the home key of E-flat major as the orchestra hints at a theme that after a few measures is brought in by the soloist. This movement is full of pianistic difficulties as the robust theme returns throughout the movement. There is a short fugal section a little over half way through the movement. An exuberant coda brings this fine concerto to a close
.
Although Brahms is thought of as a composer of absolute music, that is music that is written for its own sake without having to be inspired by anything outside of it, he was a total Romantic composer in that there were many of his compositions that were indeed inspired by outside influences. The difference between Brahms and the new school composers of his era such as Liszt was that Brahms kept the stories connected to his music to himself. He was an exceedingly private man, and preferred to let his music speak for itself.
With Brahms' works for chorus and orchestra the texts are an instance where the listener can hear the musical result of an outside influence. Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) is set to a poem by the German poet and philosopher Friedrich Hölderlin , a major writer in German Romanticism. Brahms was a voracious reader and while exploring a friend's library found a volume of Hölderlin's poetry which contained a poem in it called Hyperion's Schicksalslied from the novel Hyperion. The poem moved Brahms deeply as related by his friend Albert Dietrich
One morning we went together to Wilhelmshaven, for Brahms was
interested in seeing the magnificent naval port. On the way there, our
friend, who was usually so lively, was quiet and grave. He described
how early that morning, he had found Hölderlin’s poems in the
bookcase and had been deeply impressed by the Schicksalslied. Later on,
after spending a long time walking round and visiting all the points of
interest, we were sitting resting by the sea, when we discovered Brahms
a long way off sitting by himself on the shore writing. It was the first
sketch for the Schicksalslied, which appeared fairly soon afterwards.
A lovely excursion which we had arranged to the Urwald was never
carried out. He hurried back to Hamburg, in order to give himself
up to his work.
The year was 1868, but Brahms did not finish the piece until 1871. Brahms could not make up his mind concerning how to end the work. The final stanza of the poem appealed to Brahms' morose nature, but he hesitated to end the work in such a dark mood. After much thought (and some advice from conductor Hermann Levi) Brahms settled on a return of the orchestral prelude that began the work.
Schicksalslied is in three short movements. The first movement begins with an orchestra prelude and the chorus comes in with the first two stanzas of the poem in E-flat major. The second movement is in C minor and reflects the gloominess of the third stanza. The last movement is a repeat of the the orchestral prelude that opened the work, but Brahms transposed the key to C major and made changes in the instrumentation.
Friedrich Hölderlin
Schicksalslied (Song Of Destiny)
You walk above in the light
on holy ground, blessed genies!
Divine breezes
waft by you,
like the fingers of the player
on the holy strings.
Fateless, like sleeping infants,
breathe the heavenly beings.
With modest buds
ever protected,
their spirit will bloom forever,
and their blessed eyes
will see in silent,
perpetual clarity.
But we are given
no place to rest.
We vanish and fall,
suffering humans.
Blind from hour to hour,
thrown from tragedy to tragedy
like water thrown from cliff to cliff,
we disappear into the abyss.
