The Classical Music Book

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desire, in the face of rejection,

to find solace in nature. These

ideas would be explored with an

even greater level of intensity in

Winterreise, in which the poems

chart the progress of a lovelorn,

solitary wanderer through a bleak

wintry landscape. The songs of

Schwanengesang (“Swan song”),

published together after Schubert’s

death but never conceived as a

cycle, push the genre even further

and can be shocking in their

expressionistic power.

Private to public

The songs of Die schöne Müllerin

were, like so much of the music by

Schubert that was disseminated

during his lifetime, originally

designed primarily for private

performances, such as those

Schubert set several of Goethe’s

poems to music, including his tragic

1778 work “An den Mond” (“To the

moon”). This handwritten manuscript

of Schubert’s dates from 1815.

Schubert would give with his

friends, known as Schubertiads,

and they were not initially

published together as a cycle.

The first public performance

of the cycle as a whole was not

until 1856. As the 20th century

approached, the Lied also became

an increasingly public form, even

if many composers continued

to use it for some of their most

personal works.

Romantic vehicle

Schubert’s influence, in terms of

the later development of the Lied, is

difficult to overestimate. What had

been a peripheral activity for earlier

composers became a major area of

activity for several composers who

came after him. The genre’s unique

mix of music and poetry proved

particularly attractive to the

LIEDER AND SONG CYCLES

Written for voice and piano for performance in homes or

concert halls, sometimes as a cycle of three or more songs

linked by a story or theme.

They appear in three major forms

Lied and Song Cycles

Strophic:

all verses are sung to

the same music, as in

Schubert’s “Der Fischer”

and “Heidenröslein.”

Modified strophic:

the music varies

in some verses, such as

“Der Lindenbaum” in

Schubert’s Winterreise.

Through-composed:

each verse has different

music to match the words.

Schubert’s “Erlkönig” is

through-composed.

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