Area of Study 2 - Shared Music Romantic Song

Taking the Lied !STARTER ACTIVITY – LISTENING FOR ACCOMPANIMENTS

Franz Shubert (shown right) is widely regarded as the greatest songwriter of the early nineteenth century and you are going to listen to the opening of one of his songs called ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’ (or “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel”). The words are taken from Faust by German poet Goethe (1749-1832), where it is sung by the girl Gretchen as she sits at her spinning wheel. She has been seduced by Faust and then abandoned by him. Here are Gretchen’s opening words given in the original German with an English translation !

Meine Ruh ist hin My peace is gone Mein Herz ist schwer My heart is heavy Ich finde, ich finde sie nimmer und nimmermehr I shall never find peace never again !As you listen to the opening of the song, see if you can answer the questions below. The opening score of this song is shown at the bottom of the page. !1. What instrument is playing the accompaniment to the song?!

2. What TYPE of female voice do you think this song is written for?!

3. How would you describe the RIGHT HAND part of the piano accompaniment?(the highest pitched part)!

4. What do you think this is describing within the song?!!Next, listen again to this extract but this time focusing on the LEFT HAND part of the piano accompaniment (the bass line) and answer the following questions. !5. How does the LEFT HAND part of the piano accompaniment differ from the right hand part?!

6. What do you think this is describing within the song?

!Learning Objectives • Learn about the Lied as a type of song for solo voice with accompaniment and the

importance of the relationship between the voice and accompaniment • Learn about features of Lieder such as word painting, motifs and strophic and through-

composed structures !LEARNING ABOUT LIEDER The Romantic Period in music, lasted from roughly 1820-1900. The Romantic period wasn’t simply about love (as the name might imply), although a lot of composers did use this theme in their music. In fact, Romantic composers strove to add a wide range of emotions and expression into their music. Aside from love and desire, feelings of despair, hope, anger, anxiety, loss and even death were popular with Romantic composers. Song writing allowed Romantic composers to reflect and indulge in a huge range of emotions found in poetry. “Art Songs”, written by Schubert, such as “Gretchen at the Spinning

Wheel” which you listened to in the starter activity, Schumann (pictured above left), Brahms (pictured right) and Hugo Wolf, for solo voice and accompaniment are known as LIEDER. The word LIED is German for “song” (plural LIEDER – “songs”). The instrument normally chosen to accompany the voice in almost all Lieder is the piano and Lieder are usually set to German poetry. They aim to bring to life the events, emotions, people and places in the poetry. Many of them tell a story and some can be quite dramatic, while others are calmer and more reflective. MOTIFS are often used (short musical ideas) to represent an idea, character, place or object (e.g. a spinning wheel) An important aspect of Lieder is that the piano is far more than a mere “accompaniment for the voice”. Instead, voice and piano are brought together in equal partnership where the accompaniment adds to the ‘story telling’ of the song. Originally Lieder were performed in an intimate setting - commonly in the drawing rooms of the middle class, who could afford to have pianos in their homes. Today Lieder are usually heard in the concert hall. For the first-time listeners the large, bare stage with only a couple of musicians on it and formality of the performance can make Lieder seem quite remote and inaccessible. It may be surprising to learn that Lieder were intended to be performed at home in more informal circumstances. !1. When was the “Romantic Period” in musical history?!

2. What type of emotions did Romantic composers strive to capture in their music?!

3. How would you define the word “Lieder”?!

4. Name 4 composers of Lieder? !

5. What language are Lieder commonly sung in?

6. What instrument normally accompanies Lieder? !

7. What is a MOTIF?!

8. What is meant by “equal partnership”? !

9. Where were Lieder originally performed? !

10. Where are Lieder commonly performed now? !!LISTENING TO A SCHUBERT LIED

Schubert composed over 600 Lieder, most of them written for piano and voice. He used another of Goethe’s poems, "Erlkönig“ (or The Erlking) for a Lied written in 1815. The story of the poem revolves around a young boy, being carried home at night by his father on horseback. During the journey, the son seems to see and hear beings his father does not, the father asserts reasuring reasons for what the boy sees and hears: a wisp of fog, rustling leaves, shimmering willows.

Finally, the boy shrieks that he has been attacked, the father makes for home and realises the boy is dead. There are four characters in the song, all performed by the same singer. See if you can hear these different characters as you watch and listen to a performance of The Erlking on Video

1. The Narrator lies in the middle range and is in minor tonality 2. The Father lies in the low range and sings in both major and minor tonalities 3. The son lies in a high range (you can hear his shouts to his father on the words Mein Vater) 4. The Erlking’s vocal line is in a major key to an undulating arpeggio piano accompaniment. !!!!!!!!!

Listen again to the introduction of “The Erlking”. The score above shows the opening from the piano accompaniment part, features of which are heard again throughout the piece. How has Schubert immediately created a dramatic effect from the opening? Think about TONALITY, RHYTHMS and MOTIFS and make some notes below.

LEARNING ABOUT WORD PAINTING WORD PAINTING is the musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song and is a common musical feature of many LIEDER. For example, ascending scales could be used to accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music could accompany lyrics about death. Both “The Erlking” and “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel” use word painting to bring out the meaning of the song – repeated accompaniment patterns and arpeggios, representations of horses hooves etc. 1. Look at the following example of word painting taken from a

Tenor aria from Handel’s Messiah. The words used are: !Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight, and the rough places plain (Isaiah 40:4)

!a. What technique does Handel use on the word “mountain”?!

b. What happens on the words “made low”? !

c. The word “plain” is extended over several bars in a series of long notes. What is the musical term for this?!

2. Listen to another example of word painting, again from Handel’s Messiah in which the choir is accompanied by an orchestra and follow the text below (‘Glory to God’ is repeated twice). !

Glory to God, Glory to God in the highest. And Peace on Earth !a. How does Handel use word painting in the music to reflect the

contrasting meanings of the words in each line? !

3. Word painting is a device not only used by earlier composers and composer of Lieder. Many popular songs make use of this feature of “bringing out the meaning of the words”. Listen to four short examples taken from popular songs and see if you can pick on the examples of word painting. !

Extract 1 - “Friends in Low Places” by Country & Western singer Garth Brooks – listen out for how Brooks sings the word “low” on a very low note. Extract 2 – “Smash the Mirror” by The Who – listen out for each repetition of the word “rise” being a semitone higher than the last Extract 3 – “What Goes Around” by Justin Timberlake – The lyrics “What goes around, goes around, goes around, Comes all the way back around” descends an octave and then returns back to the upper octave, as though it was going in around in a circle. Extract 4 – “Up Where we Belong” – Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes – listen out for the melody rising in pitch during the words “Love lift us up where we belong”. !

4. Let’s look again at Schubert’s word painting in his Lied “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel”. Listen to another extract from this Lied, taken from the middle of the song, following the words below: !

Sein hoher Gang, His fine gait, Sein’ edle Gestalt, His noble form, Seines Mundes Lächeln, The smile of his lips Seiner Augen Gewalt, The power of his eyes ! Und seiner Rede And the magic flow Zauberfluss, Of his words, Sein Händedruck, The pressure of his hand, Und ach, sein Kuss! And, ah, his kiss! !!How does Schubert use word painting here, both in the voice part and piano accompaniment? !!!!!!LEARNING ABOUT SONG STRUCTURES Composers of Lieder, such as Schubert, often chose poems to set to music as a basis for their songs. There were an abundance of poems by poets such as Goethe which dealt with subject matter popular in the “Romantic” period in which Schubert and other Lieder composers were writing music. Matters such as love, death, horror and terror and images of nature were all popular subjects on which to write poetry and, in turn, to set to music as a Lied. One of the decisions a Lieder composer had to think of was how to STRUCTURE their song. There were two main structures of Lieder:

STROPHIC – using the same melody for successive stanzas or verses, a method also used in hymns, folk songs and the blues!THROUGH-COMPOSED – different music is composed and used for each verse or section throughout the song.

1. Listen to ‘Heidenröslein’, yet another Lied by Schubert based

on another of Goethe’s poems. The poem tells a story of a young boy who goes to pick a rose in the heather. The rose objects, threatening to prick the boy, but he picks it anyway. This poem is allegorical in the fact that the rose is his female love, who rejects him. Follow the score of this song below as you listen and then decide whether you think the structure of this song is STROPHIC or THROUGH- COMPOSED and why.

!I think the structure of ‘Heidenröslein’ is !Because

2. Next, listen to ‘Rastlose Liebe’, another Lied by Schubert following the lyrics below as you listen and then decide whether you think the structure of this song is STROPHIC or THROUGH-COMPOSED and why. (Also listen out for excellent examples of WORD PAINTING in this Lied!) !

I think the structure of ‘Rastlose Liebe’ is !Because !

Schubert didn’t just compose single songs and Lieder, he also created SONG CYCLES. A Song Cycle is a series of songs or Lieder based on one theme. ‘Die Schone Mullerin’ (The Fair Miller Maid) is an example of this. The 20-song cycle tells the story of a young miller who falls in love with a mill owner’s daughter. However, the daughter ignored the miller’s affections and instead becomes infatuated with a hunter. In despair and longing for peace, the miller ends up drowning himself in the brook – a typical “Romantic” storyline and themes!! Listening to a complete song cycle can take a long time, considerably more time than there is available in this study session, but you may like to set time aside to listen to one of Schubert’s song cycles, listening out for the “equal partnership” relationship between voice and piano, word painting (having an English translation of the lyrics helps here!) and identifying any strophic and through- composed structures in the different lieder which make up the song cycle. !!

GCSE Style Listening question

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PLENARY - REVISING LIEDER Read the following information on Lieder and fill in the missing words from the box below. !There was a rich flowering of songs during the century, also called the period in music. The German (plural ) for solo voice and was particular popular. There are two main kinds of Lieder. In the first, the same music is repeated for each verse of the poem. This is called form. In the second kind, different music is used for each verse throughout the song. This is called form. Using this latter form, composers can more faithfully match the voice-part and accompaniment to the changing moods and dramatic events of the poem. The words of a Lied are of particular importance and composers have often used these to reflect the meaning of the song through music. This device of picking out certain features of the lyrics and representing these through music is called - short musical ideas to represent characters, ideas, objects and places are often used within Lieder. An important aspect of most Lieder, is that the piano accompaniment is far more than a mere “prop” for the voice. Instead, they are brought together in . The first great Romantic composer of Lieder was , who in his brief lifetime, composed more than 600 songs, touching on every possible mood and . Other important Lieder composers were Schumann, Brahms, and later, Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss. Occasionally, a composer might set a whole group of linked to the same idea, perhaps even sketching a story. A sequence of songs linked together in this way is called a . Examples include Shubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey) and Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben (Woman’s Love and Life).

Self Assessment

KEY WORDS – Accompaniment, Arpeggio, Chordal Homophonic, Texture, Equal Partnership, Homophonic Texture, Legato, Lied(er), Lyrical Melody, Major, Melisma(tic), Melody & Accompaniment Homophonic Texture, Minor, Modulation, Rich and Colourful Harmonies, Romantic Period, Schubert, Solo, Song-Cycle, Staccato, Stanza, Strophic, Syllabic, Through-Composed, Tonality, Word Painting

I know that a Lied is a type of song for solo voice and piano accompaniment popular in the nineteenth century/Romantic period

I understand word painting as a device used by composers to enhance the literal meaning of a song and identify basic examples (such as words denoting pitch ‘high’ ‘low’) when listening

I know that a Lied is a type of Romantic art song where solo voice and piano accompaniment are in equal partnership with one anotherI can identify more complex examples of word painting, such as changes in mood and emotion when listening to LiederI can comment on the relationship between solo voice and accompaniment when listening to a variety of Lieder in different moodsI can correctly identify structures of Lieder as either strophic or through-composed when listening

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Schubert ! ! through-composed !! word painting ! ! Romantic!Lieder!! piano!! Nineteenth ! ! Lied ! ! poems ! ! emotion ! song cycle ! ! strophic ! ! motifs !! equal partnership