Composer Is Considered a Master of the Art Song?
What is Fine art Song?
Today nosotros call them art songs, just when this specific genre first appeared in the late 18th century, they were just "songs," most ever 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 Middle Class was wealthy plenty to want access to musical entertainment at home, but not wealthy enough to rent live-in court musicians like the aristocratic classes. What they could afford was the perfect new domestic musical instrument: the piano.
The ability to play the piano and sing became a status symbol for middle and upper middle class families, peculiarly amongst women (as you might know from the novels of Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters). This made habitation music a lucrative market for composers. The earliest Lieder [pronounced "leader"], or German art songs, were written for vox and simple piano accompaniment, and so that dwelling house musicians could accompany themselves or their friends at the piano.
Throughout the 19th century, the genre of art song developed into a sophisticated art grade for the concert stage equally well every bit for the home. However, in one sense, information technology'southward never abased its domestic beginnings: nigh art songs are nevertheless scored for voice and piano. In this post, nosotros'll have a lightning bout of fine art song history, featuring a few of the countless great works in this genre. In improver to the videos, click on the text links to listen to a few more art songs.
Classical Lieder
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was one of the first composers to explore the expressive capabilities of the Lied [atypical of Lieder, pronounced "leet"]. Many of Mozart's Lieder were equanimous for the growing domestic song market place. His Lieder offer the aforementioned 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 mortality; in contrast, his "Das Veilchen" K. 476 (The Violet) is a playful, rather snarky setting of a verse form past Goethe nigh a dramatic violet'south tragic love 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 bike (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 dice ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved). This new genre came to be known every bit a Liederkries, or in English language, 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'south version of the tape 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's friends delightfully chosen Schubertiades. Schubert perfected the song cycle in works similar his narrative cycle Die schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Miller Maid), as well as cycles linked by a mutual writer, like his Op.52 settings from Sir Walther Scott's Lady of the Lake. Perhaps his greatest vocal wheel is Winterreise D. 911 (Winter Journey), a psychologically profound exploration of loss.
"Gute Nacht" from Winterreise by Franz Schubert
Song Text
The Romantic Lied
As the 19th century progress, composers like Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf added increasingly sophisticated song cycles and private Lieder to the repertoire. Many Lieder became increasingly complex for the average home musician: the solo recital was becoming a popular mode of performance, thanks to Franz Liszt, who invented the term, and composers were writing for the skills of professional person recitalists every bit well as for amateurs.
Yet, the Lied was yet 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 period struggled to promote interest in their work, merely since the Lied was considered a domestic genre, women faced fewer barriers to be accepted as composers of 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 dice Rosen so blass" is an elegant example of the Romantic Lied.
"Warum sind denn dice Rosen so blass" Op. ane No. 3 by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
Song Text
French Fine art Vocal: Mélodie
German language-speaking composers did much of the early work developing the art song genre, only it spread amidst composers of many languages. For instance, French fine art song is known as mélodie.Countless French composers fabricated gorgeous additions to the genre through the 19th century and beyond, 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 100 art songs, including both individual songs and vocal cycles. His masterful, text-sensitive writing for both voice 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, art song is scored for phonation and pianoforte, simply music genre rules have never been gear up in stone, especially during the experimental Romantic period. Ane early Lied-scoring exception is Schubert'due south "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" D.965 (The Shepherd on the Stone), which is scored for voice, piano, and clarinet.
In the mid-1800s, orchestral songs began to grace the concert stage. Unlike opera or oratorio arias, these songs were not intended equally part of a larger ensemble work, but were simply standalone art songs or vocal cycles using orchestral accessory instead of piano.
An early instance of Romantic orchestral vocal was Hector Berlioz's orchestration of his song cycle Les nuits d'ete Op. 7 (Summer Nights, pub. 1856). Many Romantic composers contributed to the genre of orchestral song, peculiarly in the form of orchestral song cycles. Examples include Richard Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder and Alma Mahler-Werfel's Four Songs for Soprano and Orchestra (1915).
Mayhap the best-known composer of Romantic orchestral Lieder was Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), whose orchestral vocal 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 nighttime musings, to cynical allegories, to charming fairy tales.
"Wo die Schönen Trompeten blasen" from Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Gustav Mahler
Song Text
The 20th Century and Fine art Song in English
Around the same time that German composers were diving into orchestral Lieder, English language speaking composers were starting to give special attention to art vocal. The rhapsodic songs of George Butterworth and Ivor Gurney helped singers give voice to the trauma surrounding the First Globe War. Ethel Smyth, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and many other English language composers contributed to the 20th century'due south flowering of English song.
English-language art song flourished in the United States likewise, 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 betwixt poet Langston Hughes and composer Florence Toll (1887–1953). Both were pivotal figures in the Chicago Renaissance, and Price fix Hughes's verse in several masterful art songs, which were championed past Leontyne Price, Marian Anderson and other great Black singers.
"Songs to the Dark Virgin" (1941) by Florence Price
Vocal Text
Contemporary Art Song
The art song genre continues to flourish in the works of contempo and contemporary composers: to name merely a few, Adolphus Hailstork, Jennifer Higdon, Kim Dong Jin, Libby Larsen, Morten Lauridsen, Yoshinao Nakada, and Rhian Samuel.
In fact, at that place's such a wealth of art song past contemporary composers that I could never choose one favorite to cease this list. Permit's keep things local with a gorgeous vocal past 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 by solo cello, "Eli, eli" is a setting (in both Hebrew and English language) of a moving prayer by Hannah Szenes, a poet and resistance fighter who was executed by the Nazis in 1944.
"Eli, eli" (1994) past Joan Szymko
Vocal Text
For Further Reading
Art song is a rich and vibrant genre, and nosotros've only scratched the surface in this article. Below are some resources to continue learning. Another wonderful way to experience art song is to attend university vocal recitals: they're commonly free, total of repertoire yous'd rarely hear in a concert hall, and an excellent way to support the next generation of singers.
The Art Song Projection: http://theartsongproject.com/
Hampsong Foundation: https://hampsongfoundation.org/near/
Johnson, Graham, and Richard Stokes. A French Song Companion. United kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Kimball, Carol.Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature .Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard, 2006.
Olson, Margaret.Listening to Fine art Vocal: An Introduction .United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Oxford Lieder: https://www.oxfordlieder.co.united kingdom/
Simmons, Margaret R., and Jeanine Wagner.A New Anthology of Fine art Songs by African American Composers .Uk: 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 Song for her insightful research advice.
Source: https://www.allclassical.org/what-is-art-song/
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