February 22, 2019

Here are three songs by Hugo Wolf from his famous collection on Mörike’s texts.

In this harmonic style there is a great deal of dissonance that is used expressively, often
prolonged by contrapuntal means (voice-exchanges, neighbor tones, etc.). Dissonance itself is
often unprepared, and it seems as if the tonality is only obliquely defined (hinted at rather than
stated outright).

In Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag, find the progression of keys, then their relationship, and then
make a harmonic analysis. How are keys established? (Through which progressions?) What’s
going on with the final cadence?

In Das verlassene Mägdlein, we begin and end clearly in a minor, but what (harmonically) is
enabling the sense of unease in the middle? Is there more than one way to explain how this
passage operates?

Um Mitternacht at first looks like a wash of notes, but reduces quickly to something simpler.
Recognize the haze inducing neighbor tones and the use of pedal-point in the bass. Make a
reduction you think expresses the essential harmonies and give an analysis/explanation of the
relationships.