‘Singing puts to flight all space and time’
Alois Jeitteles (poet of Beethoven’s An die Ferne Geliebte)
Song/Lied is such a vast subject that it’s impossible to do any sort of justice to it in a mere ten weeks. So, in order to carve a little space out of this enormous topic, we’ll focus (mainly) on a comparatively recent phenomenon, the song cycle.
Surprisingly, it’s possible to give an accurate date to the first appearance of the genre – Beethoven’s An die Ferne Geliebte [To the distant beloved] is generally acknowledged to be its first well-known example; the composer dated the work April 1816.
What makes a collection of songs a cycle?
The subject matter must be linked in some way: by narrative (e.g. Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin); or, more loosely, by general subject (Barber’s Hermit Songs, Britten’s Serenade); it can just be settings of diverse poems by one particular author (e.g. Berlioz and Gautier in Nuits d’été, Britten and Hardy in Winter Words, Mahler and Rückert in Rückert-Lieder); or sometimes just a series of unrelated texts linked by extra-musical circumstance (sadly often the death of the composer) – think Schubert’s Schwanengesang or Strauss’ Four Last Songs. And, as most of the above categories aren’t mutually exclusive, as you can see, the concept is rather elusive and needs to be applied on a case by case basis!
Anyway, to begin at the beginning…
Beethoven: An die Ferne Geliebte
00:02 Auf dem Hugel Sitz ich Spahend
(On the hill I sit peering)
02:24 Wo die berge so blau
(Where the mountains so blue)
04:30 Leiche Segler in den Hahen
(Light veils in the heights)
06:01 Diese Wolken in den Hahen
(These clouds in the heights)
06:58 Es kehrel der Maien, es bluehel die Au
(May returns, the meadow blooms)
09:38 Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder
(Take, then, these song)
Score (transposed to C from E-flat)
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Pontarddulais!
The Art of Listening 