The Art Song

What is an art song?

A poem set to music for solo voice and piano in the classical tradition

English- Art Song

German- Lied

French- Mélodie

Italian- Romanza
Quartet Nature
An art song usually has four contributors...

- A poet who inspires a composer

- A composer who writes music for the text
- A vocalist and pianist who interpret and animate the work

*Four people of differing artistic disciplines, potentially from

different cultures and centuries, channelling their prowess and
empathy towards a single intention.
Duet Nature
The vocalist and pianist are equal
partners, not merely solo and
accompaniment

- Art songs demand an extreme

degree of intimacy and
sensitivity to communicate “
the most subtle and evanescent
emotions as expressed in the
poem and music.” - Meister, An
Introduction to the Art Song

Pianists who specialize in this genre

are called collaborative pianists
 The Singer and Poetry
*The singer’s expressive advantage is their ability to explicitly use poetry

- Diction courses are imperative for an education in classical voice

*Lyrics provide an added layer of musical interpretation using qualities and

compositional techniques like...

- The juxtaposition of lyrics and musical tone or vocal and piano lines
(sometimes ironically)
- The rhythmic or dynamic emphasis or distortion of lyric phrase shape
- The use of consonants and vowels to create musical texture
- Using the natural narrative progression or poetic form to determine
musical form
Form
Strophic: all verses are set to the same music

Modified strophic: all verses are set to the same vocal melody with
variations in the piano line

- Most folk-inspired art songs are strophic or modified strophic

Through-composed: each section is set to entirely unique music

- Some through-composed art songs still feature repetition (Ex. ABA’

form as in da capo arias)

Song Cycle: a group of songs unified by poetic material or theme

*Pianist usually plays concluding postlude

 Origins
Germany

- Earliest lieder (12th and 13th century) were monophonic

(single melodic line)
- By the 14th century, polyphonic (two or more melodic lines)
lieder were popular and the tradition began to spread

England and Italy

- Poetry of the Renaissance adopted by composers

- Helped to preserve poetry by cementing it into the musical
canon
- The piano was not invented until the early 18th century and
its predecessor (harpsichord) in the early 17th century. Thus,
these pieces were often for paired voice and lute or voice and
chamber orchestra.
 https://www.yo
utube.com/wat

John Dowland- Burst Forth, My Tears ch?v=yvA3q6cl0

OI

*1st Stanza....

Burst forth, my tears, assist my forward greif

And show what pain imperious love provokes.

Kind tender lambs, lament love’s scant relief

And pine, since pensive care my freedom yokes.

O pine to see me pine, my tender flocks

John Dowland
 German/Austrian Romantic Revival
*During and after the industrial revolution, the burgeoning middle class had the means to pursue music at home
but not to hire musicians like the aristocracy.

- Families and friends played hausmusik together- duets or chamber works, accessible to trained amateurs
(18th/19th century jam sessions)

*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert were amongst the first to explore what we know as the art song
today (poetry set to voice-piano duet)

*Ludwig van Beethoven- wrote 6 lieder with an overarching narrative (An die ferne geliebte/to the distant beloved)

- Birth of the liederkreis (song cycle)

19th century- Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf

- More complex and virtuosic pieces for concert recital rather than amateur domestic settings
Hausmusik/Jam Session...
An die Musik (To Music), D547
https://www.
youtube.com/
watch?v=3TD
EyW9JLuc
Poet: Franz von Schober, Composer- Franz Schubert

Du holde kunst, in wieviel grauen stunden O blessed art, how often in dark hours

Wo mich des lebens wilder kreis umstrickt When the savage ring of life tightens round me

Hast du mein herz zu warmer lieb entzunden Have you kindled warm love in my heart Franz Schubert

Hast mich in eine beßre welt entrückt! Have you transported me to a better world!

Oft hat ein seufzer, deiner harf’ entfloßen Often a sigh has escaped from your harp,

Ein süßer, heiliger akkord von dir, A sweet, sacred harmony of yours

Den himmel beßrer zeiten mir erschloßen, Has opened up the heavens to better times for me

Du holde kunst ich danke dir dafür O blessed art, I thank you for that

Du holde kunst, ich danke dir! O blessed art, I thank you!

Franz von Schober
 Romantic Era Art Songs and Female Musicianship
Clara Schumann
*For women of this period, the ability to sing and
play piano was a way to express intellect, artistry,
and status.

*Female composers (ex. Clara Schumann, Fanny

Mendelssohn Hensel, Josephine Lang) had
difficulty gaining acceptance in the symphonic or
operatic tradition. This genre was their entrypoint
into the compositional sphere.

*Female composers had not enjoyed such

prominence and esteem since the middle ages
(Hildegard von Bingen, Beatriz de Dia, Castelloza)
Josephine Lang Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
The 20th Century and Onwards
England (Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams

- Revival of Renaissance poetry in Art Songs

- Incorporation of English and Irish folk tunes and poems
- Gave voice to the trauma surrounding the world wars

United States (ex. Amy Beach, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber)

Aaron Copland Ralph Vaughan Williams
- Many were inspired by folk or popular music (jazz, blues, etc) and
were a major part of the development of “The American Sound”
- Coincided and collaborated with major American poetic
movements

Ex. Collaboration between Chicago Renaissance poet Langston Hughes

and composer Florence Price, whose works were performed by singers like
Leontyne Price and Marian Anderson

*Diversification of the Art Song as an international genre Amy Beach Cecil Sharp
 https://www.yo

Songs to The Dark Virgin utube.com/wat

ch?v=gRT-0M
HuK7I
Poet- Langston Hughes, Composer- Florence Price
II. III.
I.

Would Would
Would

That I were a garment, That I were a flame, Florence Price

That I were a jewel

A shimmering, silken garment, But one sharp, leaping flame

A shattered jewel

That all my folds To annihilate thy body,

That all my shining brilliants

Might wrap about thy body, Thou dark one.

Might fall at thy feet

Absorb thy body

Thou dark one

Hold and hide thy body,

Thou dark one

Langston Hughes
Six Elizabethan Songs, 2. Sleep Through-composed
ABA’ form
Poet- Samuel Daniel, Composer- Dominick Argento
Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night, Cease dreams, the’ imagery of day-desires,

Brother to Death, in silent darkness born: To model forth the passions of the morrow;

Relieve my languish, and restore the light, Never let rising Sun approve you liars, Samuel Daniel

With dark forgetting of my cares, return; To add more grief to aggravate my sorrow

And let the day be time enough to mourn Still let me sleep, embracing clouds in vain;

The shipwreck of my ill-adventur’d youth: And never wake to feel the day’s disdain

Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn,

Without the torment of the night’s untruth.

Dominick Argento
Thank you!