Which Themes Can Be Found in an Art Song
What is Art Song?
Today we telephone call them art songs, but when this specific genre first appeared in the late 18th century, they were merely "songs," nearly always scored for what is now a classic combination: pianoforte and voice. At the time, the Industrial Revolution was helping to create a new course of music lovers. The new Center Class was wealthy enough to want access to musical entertainment at home, but non wealthy plenty to rent live-in courtroom musicians like the aristocratic classes. What they could afford was the perfect new domestic instrument: the piano.
The ability to play the pianoforte and sing became a status symbol for heart and upper middle class families, especially amongst women (as you might know from the novels of Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters). This made dwelling house music a lucrative marketplace for composers. The earliest Lieder [pronounced "leader"], or High german art songs, were written for voice and simple pianoforte accompaniment, then that domicile musicians could accompany themselves or their friends at the piano.
Throughout the 19th century, the genre of art song adult into a sophisticated fine art class for the concert stage as well every bit for the home. Notwithstanding, in one sense, information technology's never abandoned its domestic beginnings: most art songs are still scored for voice and piano. In this post, nosotros'll accept a lightning tour of fine art song history, featuring a few of the countless keen works in this genre. In addition to the videos, click on the text links to mind to a few more fine art songs.
Classical Lieder
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was one of the starting time composers to explore the expressive capabilities of the Lied [singular of Lieder, pronounced "leet"]. Many of Mozart's Lieder were composed for the growing domestic song market. His Lieder offering the same natural vocal writing he brought to opera – and the same wide-ranging dramatic sense. For example, his "Abendemfindung" (Evening Thoughts) is a tender reflection on bloodshed; in contrast, his "Das Veilchen" One thousand. 476 (The Violet) is a playful, rather snarky setting of a poem by Goethe about a dramatic violet's tragic dearest for an oblivious shepherdess.
Other Classical composers who wrote in the burgeoning Lied genre include Louise Reichardt, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, who invented the song cycle (more on that next!).
"Das Veilchen" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Song Text
Schubert and the Song Cycle
In 1816, Ludwig van Beethoven had the idea of writing a set of six Lieder with an overarching narrative: his An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Honey). This new genre came to exist known as a Liederkries, or in English, a song wheel. Some song cycles tell a story, some have a common theme, and some are merely meant to be sung in a series for aesthetic reasons. They're a bit like the 19th century's version of the record album.
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was a master of the Lied. He composed more than 900 Lieder, many of which had their premieres at musical home gatherings which Schubert'south friends delightfully called Schubertiades. Schubert perfected the song wheel in works like his narrative cycle Dice schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Miller Maid), equally well equally cycles linked by a common author, like his Op.52 settings from Sir Walther Scott's Lady of the Lake. Perhaps his greatest song cycle is Winterreise D. 911 (Winter Journey), a psychologically profound exploration of loss.
"Gute Nacht" from Winterreise by Franz Schubert
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The Romantic Lied
Every bit the 19th century progress, composers like Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf added increasingly sophisticated vocal cycles and individual Lieder to the repertoire. Many Lieder became increasingly complex for the boilerplate habitation musician: the solo recital was becoming a popular mode of performance, thank you to Franz Liszt, who invented the term, and composers were writing for the skills of professional recitalists as well as for amateurs.
However, the Lied was notwithstanding an entrenched home music genre, and that gave a special edge to women composers in the 19th century. Many women who wrote symphonic music or chamber music in the Romantic menses struggled to promote involvement in their work, just since the Lied was considered a domestic genre, women faced fewer barriers to be accepted as composers of fine art song.
Women took advantage of this artistic outlet to produce glorious art songs, many of which differ from the male-composed repertoire past examining love and life from a adult female's perspective. Some notable composers include Josephine Lang, Clara Schumann, and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847), whose "Warum sind den die Rosen so blass" is an elegant example of the Romantic Lied.
"Warum sind denn die Rosen so blass" Op. ane No. iii by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
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French Art Song: Mélodie
German-speaking composers did much of the early work developing the art vocal genre, but it spread amidst composers of many languages. For case, French art song is known as mélodie.Countless French composers fabricated gorgeous additions to the genre through the 19th century and across, including Pauline Viardot, Henri Duparc, Ernest Chausson, Cécile Chaminade, and Claude Debussy.
If we were to crown a French Schubert, whose stature in mélodie resembles that of Schubert in Lieder, it might exist Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924). Fauré composed more than than 100 art songs, including both individual songs and song cycles. His masterful, text-sensitive writing for both vocalism and piano make his art songs perennially popular with singers.
"Clair de Lune," Op. 46 No. 2 by Gabriel Fauré
Song Text
Orchestral Songs
Traditionally, fine art song is scored for vocalisation and piano, just music genre rules take never been fix in stone, peculiarly during the experimental Romantic catamenia. One early Lied-scoring exception is Schubert'due south "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" D.965 (The Shepherd on the Rock), which is scored for vox, piano, and clarinet.
In the mid-1800s, orchestral songs began to grace the concert phase. Unlike opera or oratorio arias, these songs were not intended every bit part of a larger ensemble work, but were simply standalone fine art songs or vocal cycles using orchestral accompaniment instead of piano.
An early instance of Romantic orchestral vocal was Hector Berlioz'southward orchestration of his vocal wheel Les nuits d'ete Op. seven (Summer Nights, pub. 1856). Many Romantic composers contributed to the genre of orchestral song, particularly in the form of orchestral song cycles. Examples include Richard Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder and Alma Mahler-Werfel's 4 Songs for Soprano and Orchestra (1915).
Perhaps the best-known composer of Romantic orchestral Lieder was Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), whose orchestral song cycles remain staples of the repertory. HisDes Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth's Magic Horn, pub. 1905) consists of orchestral songs for mezzo soprano and baritone. The texts are German folk poems that range from dark musings, to cynical allegories, to charming fairy tales.
"Wo dice Schönen Trompeten blasen" from Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Gustav Mahler
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The 20th Century and Fine art Vocal in English
Around the aforementioned time that German language composers were diving into orchestral Lieder, English language speaking composers were starting to requite special attention to fine art song. The rhapsodic songs of George Butterworth and Ivor Gurney helped singers requite vox to the trauma surrounding the Start World State of war. Ethel Smyth, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and many other English composers contributed to the 20th century's flowering of English vocal.
English-language art song flourished in the U.s.a. as well, in the works of composers like Amy Beach, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber. Folk song inspired many American composers of art song, including Harry T. Burleigh and John Jacob Niles.
One remarkable partnership in American fine art song was that between poet Langston Hughes and composer Florence Price (1887–1953). Both were pivotal figures in the Chicago Renaissance, and Toll set Hughes'south poetry in several masterful art songs, which were championed by Leontyne Price, Marian Anderson and other great Blackness singers.
"Songs to the Dark Virgin" (1941) by Florence Price
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Gimmicky Art Vocal
The art song genre continues to flourish in the works of recent and contemporary composers: to name just a few, Adolphus Hailstork, Jennifer Higdon, Kim Dong Jin, Libby Larsen, Morten Lauridsen, Yoshinao Nakada, and Rhian Samuel.
In fact, there'due south such a wealth of art song by contemporary composers that I could never choose one favorite to end this list. Let'south proceed things local with a gorgeous song by Portland-based composer and conductor Joan Szymko (b. 1957). Her "Eli, eli," is an case of the art vocal genre's continual transformation. Scored for solo voice accompanied past solo cello, "Eli, eli" is a setting (in both Hebrew and English) of a moving prayer by Hannah Szenes, a poet and resistance fighter who was executed by the Nazis in 1944.
"Eli, eli" (1994) by Joan Szymko
Song Text
For Further Reading
Art vocal is a rich and vibrant genre, and we've but scratched the surface in this article. Below are some resources to go on learning. Another wonderful way to experience art song is to attend university vocal recitals: they're commonly free, full of repertoire you'd rarely hear in a concert hall, and an splendid fashion to support the next generation of singers.
The Fine art Vocal Project: http://theartsongproject.com/
Hampsong Foundation: https://hampsongfoundation.org/most/
Johnson, Graham, and Richard Stokes. A French Song Companion. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Kimball, Carol.Song: A Guide to Art Vocal Mode and Literature .Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard, 2006.
Olson, Margaret.Listening to Fine art Vocal: An Introduction .United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Oxford Lieder: https://world wide web.oxfordlieder.co.u.k./
Simmons, Margaret R., and Jeanine Wagner.A New Anthology of Art Songs by African American Composers .U.k.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004.
Stokes, Richard, and Ian Bostridge. The Book of Lieder .United Kingdom: Faber & Faber, 2011.
Special thanks to Arwen Myers of Northwest Art Vocal for her insightful inquiry communication.
Source: https://www.allclassical.org/what-is-art-song/
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