Tevae Shoels

Dr. Amy Petrongelli

MUS 4329

3 May 2020

Recital Reflection #1

I watched Fleur Barron perform her virtual recital. I loved the ​An die ferne Geliebte​ song

cycle by Beethoven. In the notable German tradition, Alois Isidor Jeitteles, the poet of the text of

this song cycle, uses vivid imagery of nature to portray love. These images conjure deeply

romantic visions of love that are both heartbreaking and inspiring, depending on the poem.

Beethoven expertly employs harmonic textures in the piano to help the poet create these images

and evoke these emotions in the listener. In the first piece, the sweeping rhythmic lines and rich,

full harmonies help portray the speaker's gaze across the country side. The tumbling motion of

the chords in the piano create an image of hills in the countryside that seem like they could go on

forever, perhaps just as unwavering and firm as the speaker's desire for their beloved. Beethoven

dims this brightness of joy with an image of grey clouds that he creates with the high tessitura of

chords in the accompaniment, in the second piece. The piano and voice compliment each other

extremely well. The openness of the voicing in this piece helps the listener grasp the feeling of

how alone and miserable the speaker feels in nature. This relationship between music and text

continues throughout the song cycle and the listener can ride along on the emotional journey of

this cycle.

In Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, he does an exceptional job of using chromaticism and a

dirge-like motion of rhythm to express the deep despair that the poet Friedrich Rückert felt after
the loss of his daughters to Scarlet Fever. It is interesting that Mahler would later lose a child to

illness. You can truly feel a sense of autobiographical torment that these men felt. The

chromaticism adds a crunch with so much harmonic tension that this emotion becomes a physical

sensation for the listener.

I haven’t heard any vocal works by Mahler that weren’t choral until this point and the

accompaniments are exquisite and deeply emotional. The vocal lines are gorgeous as well. I’m

grateful for this exposure and I’ll certainly look into more of his music.