Turchin, 19th-Century Wanderlieder Cycle (JM 5-4, 1987)

The Nineteenth-Century Wanderlieder Cycle Author(s): Barbara Turchin Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 5, No.
4 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 498-525 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/763842 . Accessed: 21/06/2013 02:58
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The Nineteenth-century Wanderlieder Cycle

BARBARA TURCHIN
498
A lthough today Conradin Kreutzer's Lieder are all but forgotten, in his own time they were among the most popular and critically acclaimed works in the genre. In an account of a musical soiree held in 1830 at the home of Rahel von Varnhagen, hostess of the leading Berlin salon, her husband reported that the noble songs of Schubert, Beethoven, and Kreutzer were performed with utter purity of feeling to the great delight of all in attendance.1 Indeed, Kreutzer's songs kept good company. If one singled out those songs that received the greatest praise, would place Kreutzer's setting of Ludwig Uhland's Neun Wanderlieder Wanderlieder Kreutzer's on the list. Published as in op. 1818, 34 high created a stir among music critics and composers alike.2Judging by the published commentary of Kreutzer's contemporaries, in addition to the large number of Wanderlieder cycles that followed, it would be no to Wanderlieder initiated a vital tradition in state that his exaggeration nineteenth-century song-cycle composition. Schubert's Winterreise, Schumann's Kerner Liederreihe, and Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen are today the best known of the many cycles that comprise this tradition. The present essay provides an overview of the Wanderlieder cycle in the nineteenth century. Particular attention is given first to Kreutzer's work-specifically, its role in establishing a poetic toposthat was taken up numerous times by later composers, and its role in offering a musical approach to song-cycle composition that proved more congenial to composers than the one taken by Beethoven in An dieferne Geliebte,op. 98, published in 1816. How this poetic theme and musical approach
Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, Vermischte Schriften.AusgewahlteSchriften,3rd ed.,
von Uhland, op. 34 (Augsburg, 1818). Prior to Conradin Kreutzer, Neun Wanderlieder their publication, Kreutzer's Wanderliederhad already gained some notoriety through KunstliedConradinKreutzers public performances (see Annelies Landau, Das einstimmige [Leipzig, 1930], p. 52, n. 72; p. 53).
19 vols. (Leipzig, 1876), XIX, p. 194.
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manifest themselves in the above-mentioned cycles by Schubert, Schumann, and Mahler, among others, will then be considered. Since the poem is the raison d'etrefor the song, it is to appropriate begin with a discussion of Uhland's Wanderlieder,first as a published group of eight poems in the 1813 anthology, Deutscher and later expanded to nine in the 1815 edition of his colDichterwald,3 lected poems.4 Uhland's lyrics, the style and spirit of which were derived from his intensive study of older German folk poetry, revitalized in poetic form the figure of the solitary wanderer, a character central to many contemporaneous novels including Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, H6lderlin's Hyperion,Tieck's Franz Sternbald,Novalis's Heinrich von Ofterdingen,and Eichendorffs Aus demLebeneines Taugenichts. As Meyer Abrams has shown in his study Natural Supernaturalism, the wanderer and the act of wandering were at the heart of German Romantic literature and philosophic thought. To paraphrase Abrams, the travels of the wanderer symbolize mankind's quest to recover, through a circuitous journey, the lost primal state of unity experienced in the Golden Age of long ago. The circuitousjourney is both an educational and psychological process which begins with man's fall from unity into self-division, self-conflict, and self-contradiction. The dynamic of this process is to move towards a balance, an integration, a closure of these divisions and contraries. The goal of the inner quest is to achieve a higher state of unity, a greater wholeness through increased self-awareness. The beginning and end of thejourney is man's ancestral home which is often linked with a female counterpart from whom the wanderer departs when setting out. The achievement of the goal is frequently portrayed in a scene of recognition and reconciliation, and is often symbolized in a loving union with the female other.5 The Bildungsgeschichterelated by Goethe, Holderlin, Tieck, and others follow various paths taken by their protagonists in the search for self-knowledge and self-recognition. In poetic form, Uhland's Wanderlieder also is an expression of this Romantic quest and incorporates many facets of the wandering theme. On the surface the nine poems relate a simple tale of departure, absence, and return. On closer view,
3 DeutscherDichterwaldvon Justinus Kerner, Friedrich Baron de la Motte-Fouque, Ludwig Uhland, Helmina von Chezy, Friedrich Kolle, August Mayer, Gustav Schwab, Varnhagen von Ense (Karl August) (Tibingen, 1813). 4 Ludwig Uhland, Gedichte(Stuttgart, 1815). In this publication the poem "In der Ferne" was added. 5 M. H. Abrams, Natural Traditionand Revolutionin RomanticLiterature Supernaturalism: and Wanderlied: (New York, 1971), p. 255. In addition, see Theodore Gish, "Wanderlust The Motif of the Wandering Hero in German Romanticism," Studiesin RomanticismIII (1963), 225-39.
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however, we recognize a painful emotional and psychological journey during which the wanderer reassesses and ultimately seeks to reestablish his relationship with his beloved, a symbol of both homeland and society-at-large. On the surface, the nine poems appear independent, each relating a particular point in the journey. On closer reading, we find a network of recurring images and phrases that interrelate and unify the individual members.6 Using changes in season and in the surrounding landscape as a metaphor for the traveler's altered emotional states, Uhland portrays ajourney that turns from high spirits, to grim despair and complete alienation, yet concludes with a hopeful, though anxiety-ridden, sense of renewal. "Lebewohl" (poem 1) and "Scheiden und Meiden" (poem 2) express the wanderer's ambivalence at the moment of departure. He leaves his beloved not because of any external event but because of an inexplicable compulsion. He sets off with optimism in "In der ferne" (poem 3), taking delight in the sights and sounds of nature. However the mode of expression begins to change in "Morgenlied" (poem 4). The dim rays of dawn cast a haze over the springtime landscape; the birds heard in the previous poem now "zwitschern nur im Traum." In both "Nachtreise" (poem 5) and "Winterreise" (poem 6) Uhland equates the growing physical distance between the wanderer and his beloved with an increasing emotional separation leading ultimately to total emotional estrangement. The cold, pale landscape of "Nachtreise" reflects the traveler's inability to feel. Though he tries to summon up memories of golden sunshine, of walks taken with the beloved, it is to no avail for he states, "Mein Lieb zu Grab getragen." Just as the change in season from springtime to winter should not be taken literally, nor should the phrase "my love is borne to the grave." The beloved herself has not died; it is his feelings of love that have been buried, and in "Winterreise," the most desolate of the nine poems, this is made explicit. Against a backdrop of frozen water and icy winds, the traveler declares, "Erloschen ist die Liebe."7
6 For example, the Kuss the wanderer requests from his beloved because he must "scheiden" and "meiden" in "Lebewohl" (poem i) is made more urgent in the second poem titled, in fact, "Scheiden und Meiden." While "Erloschen ist der Sonne Strahl" in "Nachtreise" (poem 5), "Erloschen ist die Liebe" in "Winterreise" (poem 6). 7 Both Helen Mustard (The LyricCyclein GermanLiterature[New York, 1946], pp. 78Musical 79) and Luise Eitel Peake ("Kreutzer's Wanderlieder:The Other Winterreise," In particuLXV [1979], 90) have questioned the unity of Uhland's Wanderlieder. Quarterly lar they find the line "Mein Lieb zu Grab getragen" to be inconsistent with the traveler's return to the beloved, but a contradiction exists only if the line is interpreted literally. Read within the context of the entire poem, as well as that of "Winterreise" and the cycle as a whole, it is clear that a figurative interpretation is meant, for, as Peake herself acknowledges, the poems relate not simply a physical journey but, of more importance, a psychological journey. Just as A. W. Schlegel came to realize in 1803, we too must remember that the nineteenth-century lyric cycle was not necessarily constructed and not always meant to be
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The journey takes him to a city far from home in "Abreise" (poem 7). Although he resides here for some time, he remains an outsider, a nameless face. He quits this town and sets off once more in "Einkehr" (poem 8). The season again changes; it is now autumn when he stops to rest under an apple tree which offers him the comfort and solace he so desperately needs. Nature, the rejuvenator, revitalizes his spirits and his resolve to return to his beloved, a resolution taken up with much intensity in the brief but pungent final poem, "Heimkehr." No doubt, Kreutzer was attracted to Uhland's Wanderlieder by their wide range of feelings expressed in a manner that is unadorned, direct and incisive. Kreutzer's musical treatment is initially contained and unassuming. At first glance, there appears little in piano writing or in harmonic language to distinguish these mostly strophic and variedstrophic songs. Kreutzer's interpretive talents, however, are to be found in his vocal lines, which can move easily from simple folk style, to recitative-like declamation, to greater lyricism, and all within a single song, as in "Scheiden und Meiden" (Example i). Nor is drama beyond Kreutzer's grasp. The furious opening of "Nachtreise," with agitated arpeggios and minor harmonies, contrasts sharply with the more gentle movement and sweeter major sounds of the second half of each strophe (Example 2). Nor is a sense of irony beyond Kreutzer, who sets the desolate "Winterreise" in the key of E-flat major. However, in the opening measures Kreutzer indicates "molto agitato" and instructs the vocalist to sing "Mit halber Stimme" (Example 3). Clearly, the success of this song depends on the interpretive skills of the performers. Kreutzer understood the importance of musical variety in a cycle as well as the need to direct these diverse songs toward an expressive goal which is reached in "Heimkehr," the culmination and resolution of the tale. Agitated, stark tremolo figures accompany equally agitated vocal phrases that grow and swell until the final poetic line, "Eh' ich mag bei der Liebsten sein!" Here, all tension resolves into D major; anxiety subsides into hopeful calm (Example 4). The publication of Kreutzer's Wanderliedermet with approval in the press. Of particular interest is a review that appeared in the 1818 issue of the Vienna Allgemeinemusikalische Zeitung: Withtrulygreatjoy the reviewerdrawsthe public'sattentionto these incomparablesongs, unique in their style, which certainlybelong to the sweetestblossomsthat ever maturedin Polyhymnia's garden .... They are all equallyexcellent and form a nearly inseparablecycle, a
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understood according to the aesthetic requirements of a time-defined dramatic work (see A. W. Schlegel, Geschichte der romantischen Literatur.Vorlesungeniiber schbneLiteraturund Kunst [1801-1804], Teil 3, ed. J. Minor, Deutsche Literaturdenkmale des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts [Heilbronn, 1884], XIX, pp. 203-05).
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EXAMPLE
^
1. "Scheiden und Meiden"
tPt(. j Ij I,,!
So soil
In massig leichter Bewegung
ir
ich dich nun mei-
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it
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WANDERLIEDER
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EXAMPLE 1. (continued)
fz
wenn
man
sich
fest
um-
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chain of sweet smelling flowers.... To every singer who is accustomed to feeling what he performs, we recommend with complete
conviction this distinguished Liederkreis.8
The descriptive terms chosen by the critic are especially worthy of note. As far as I have determined, this review represents the first instance in which Cyclusis applied to a set of songs. Furthermore, not since An dieferne Geliebte had the term Liederkreis been used.9 Yet, Kreutzer's Wanderliedershares little in common, from the standpoint of musical structure, with Beethoven's cycle. There are no On the contrary, each piano transitions to connect the nine Wanderlieder. of Kreutzer's songs is a physically and tonally self-contained and complete unit. Unlike Beethoven's cycle, there is no structural and expressive return of poetic or musical material at the close of the Wanderlieder.'?With respect to key structure as well, the two cycles present
8 Riicksichtauf den bsterreichischen KaiserAllgemeinemusikalische Zeitung mit besonderer staat, Wien II (1818), pp. 478-79: "Mit wahrer Herzensfreude macht Ref. das musikalische Publicum auf diese in ihrer Art einzigen,ja unubertrefflichen Gesange aufmerksam, welche gewiss zu den zartesten Bliithen gehoren, die je in Polihymniens fruchtbaren Garten reiften.... Sie sind alle gleich vortrefflich, bilden einen beynahe nicht zu trennenden Cyclus, eine Kette siiss duftender Blumen.... Jedem Sanger der da auch zu fuiihlenpflegt, was er vortragt, empfehlen wir aus voller Uberzeugung diesen ausgezeichneten Liederkreis." Kreutzer's Fiinf Friihlingslieder, op. 33 (Augsburg, 1818) was reviewed along with his Wanderlieder. 9 For a discussion of the use of Cyklusand Kreis, as well as Roman, in the early nineteenth century, see Barbara Turchin, "Robert Schuman's Song Cycles in the Context of the Early Nineteenth-Century Liederkreis"(Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1981), Chapter I, pp. 44-47 and Chapter III, pp. 97-116. 10 This is not to say that there are no varied reappearances from song to song of melodic phrases, rhythmic patterns, or harmonic progressions. However, the examples are few and, seemingly, without specific poetic or musical motivation.
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EXAMPLE
A
2. "Nachtreise"
i Sehr bewegt
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contrary tonal designs-Beethoven's is tonally closed while Kreutzer's is tonally open (see Figure i). Also, beyond this obvious difference, the relationships between adjacent keys are of a different kind. To judge the quality of these relationships, it is insufficient to say simply that they are close or distant. It would be helpful to assess more
WANDERLIEDER
CYCLE
EXAMPLE
A
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precisely the degree of closeness and distance. In fact, Gottfried Weber, a contemporary of Kreutzer and Beethoven, provided an approach to the evaluation of key distance that we today can find useful. In the first volume of his Versucheiner geordnetenTheorieder Tonsetzkunst,Weber explains that those tonalities most closely related to a given tonic are the dominant, subdominant, and relative and parallel minor (or major) keys." These are Weber's "first-degree" relationships. To determine the next degree of distance, Weber treats each firstdegree related key as a tonic so that its most closely related keys are then related in the second degree to the original tonic. In turn, each seconddegree related key is treated as a tonic, and so on. Figure 2 reproduces
J. Gottfried Weber, Versuch einer geordneten Theorie der Tonsetzkunst,3 vols. in 4 (Mainz, 1817-1821) I, pp. 283-301 (3rd ed./i832; English trans./1851). Weber evaluates the relationship of keys based on the number of pitches they have in common. For this reason, dominant, subdominant (both considered equally close) and relative minor (or major) keys are most closely related. This explanation, however, does not suffice with regard to the parallel minor (or major), which certainly has fewer pitches in common with the tonic. Here, Weber provides another rationale, the importance in function of the pitches they share-the tonic, dominant and subdominant tones. "
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EXAMPLE
4. "Heimkehr"
sehr leise
Molto agitato
J44
O brich nicht
IJ
Steg,
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du zit- terste sehr.
sempre staccato
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506
34 sehr sanft und zuruckhaltend
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the diagram format Weber favored in presenting his classification

scheme.'
12 Weber's explanation and representation of key relationships was later adopted in derallgemeinenMusikwissenschaft totoby Gustav Schilling in his Lehrbuch (Karlsruhe, 1839/ 40). Weber's mode of representation, if not his manner of explanation, lived on into the
WANDERLIEDER
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An die fere
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1. Key structure in An dieferne Geliebte and Neun Wanderlieder

Geliebte
3rd ?Eb O G
4th ---" Ab------1st Ab ----C
3rd ?^---
2nd Eb
Neun Wanderlieder 2nd e '--1st 2nd - --G ---1st g 2nd Eb2nd 1st 1st d/D
A ----
--E
-F C 4th
4th
Using Weber's descriptive method, we find the key relationships between adjacent songs in An dieferne Geliebteto be quite distant: thirddegree (E!/G), fourth-degree (G/A!), third degree (Ab/C), and seconddegree (C/EN).At the same time, however, E-flat major acts as the outer pillars of an arch form with A-flat major at the center, thus creating a larger, first-degree, subdominant tonal framework within which the individual songs move (see Figure 1). In contrast to An dieferne Geliebte, the key relationships between adof the Wanderlieder are first or second degree and either jacent songs hence far more closely related. Furthermore, Kreutzer's cycle moves through a non-symmetrical series of keys in which each song represents a particular stage in the journey and is characterized by a distinctive tonal color.'3 Such a tonal plan indeed reflects and reinforces the idea of traveling.'4 Finally, that Kreutzer chose and arranged the keys with an
twentieth century in Schoenberg's StructuralFunctionsof Harmony(revised and edited by Leonard Stein [New York, 1969]; 1st ed. 1954). The relationship of keys is taken up by Schoenberg in his discussion of "monotonality." 13 The tonal, stylistic, and physical independence of Kreutzer's songs are, of course, characteristics not found in Beethoven's cycle. Although an obvious statement, it bears emphasis. Kreutzer's songs live an independent existence as well as one within the cycle. However, the inner four songs of Beethoven's cycle would have difficulty gaining independence (even without the piano transitions) because they lack firm and direct tonal definition as well as melodic distinction. As Hans Boettcher remarked, An dieferne Geliebte is more like a single Lied that has been greatly expanded from within (see Boettcher, Beethovenals Liederkomponist [Augsburg, 1928], p. 67). '4 Although a return at the close to the opening key of the cycle would be structurally satisfying, it would be totally inappropriate with regard to poetic meaning. The wanderer who rushes homeward is emotionally not the same man who departed.
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FI GU RE
2. Table of the relationships of keys from Gottfried Weber, einergeordneten Versuch Theorie derTonsetzkunst, Vol. I
(Mainz: Schott, 1817)
a -A f-F -d D-b-B -
gx
F -d
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---
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c---
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bb
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d I
cb
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Ab
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b B /
/
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gb
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3rd c 4th/
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cb
Cb
abE
Ab
/f
Abb--fb
b---
db
Db E--
b --g
Dbb -bbb
--B
gb
CGb
e -
Eb--
ear toward their expressive relation to the individual poem and to the cycle as a whole is suggested by the tonal relationships among songs 1, 6, and 9. Set in E-flat major, "Winterreise" (6), the point of greatest emotional and psychological separation, is likewise the point of greatest tonal distance from the start and close of the journey, for it is related
WANDERLIEDER
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in the fourth degree to both "Lebewohl" (1) and "Heimkehr" (9) (see
Figure 1).
When the Vienna AmZ reviewer, quoted above, called the Wanderliedera Cyclusand a Liederkreis, clearly he was not suggesting those musical features that distinguish An die ferne Geliebte.Rather, Cyclus and Liederkreis here refer to the related contents and narrative design of the to Kreutzer's poems, style in general, and to his ability to create a feeling of musical drama and development in song. These are the features that lend coherence to Kreutzer's Wanderlieder, and these are the traits that came to characterize the majority of nineteenth-century song cycles.15 The poet Wilhelm Muller wrote in an 1827 essay
about Uhland that his Wanderlieder ". .. leave a long train of imitations
behind them."'6 Miiller's remark applies equally well to musical composition. A stream of settings of Uhland's Wanderlieder issued forth from the pens of composers throughout the century (see Table la). More often than not, these composers had to face the comparison critics made between their interpretation and that of Kreutzer. For example, Leopold Lenz, whose songs make more than passing reference to Kreutzer's setting, met the following reproach: When the lyrics and melodies of songs, like those by Uhland and Kreutzer,alreadyhavebecomedecided favoritesof the public,it is illadvisedto venture upon a new compositionof the same. However,if such songs are deservedlybeloved, as is trulythe case with Kreutzer's
15 This view is echoed in reviews of nineteenth-century song cycles. For example, in a critique of Schubert's Winterreisepublished in the Munich AllgemeineMusik-Zeitung of 1828, the reviewer comments about song cycles, in general, ". .. the task of a song cycle, if it is to form a beautiful whole, seems to us to be to carry in the detail and variety of its parts the condition of a continuous and increasing interest, and therefore to be capable of being sung from beginning to end in order to achieve its purpose completely." (Quoted in A Documentary Schubert: Biography,ed. Otto Erich Deutsch, trans. by Eric Blom [London, 1946], p. 795.) In later years the same criteria were applied. About Georg Vierling's CyclusArabischerDichtung, op. 8 (Berlin, 18??), the reviewer for the Neue ZeitschriftfiirMusikremarks, "Nicht aber blos das Charakteristische in der ganzen Farbung dieser Gesange fesselt uns, sondern insbesondere auch der Reiz melodischer Gestaltung, der das Gewebe der Dichtung nach seinen mannichfachen Phasen in den wohlklingendsten Tonen dem sinnlichen wie dem geistigen Ohre eindringen lasst. Es besteht dieser Cyclus aus 5 Gesangen, deren keiner von dem anderen sich trennen lasst. Sie geben ein zusammenhangendes Bild, das zu immer hohren Ausdrucke gesteigert ...." (XXXVI [1852], p. 192). 16 Wilhelm Muller, "Ueber die neueste lyrische poesie der Deutscher: Ludwig Uhland undJustinus Kerner," Hermes,oderkritischesJahrbuch derLiteraturXXVIII (1827), p. 105; Schriften,ed. G. Schwab, 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1830), IV, pp. 118-19: reprinted in Vermischte "Billig gedenken wir hier zuerst der vortrefflichen 'Wanderlieder,' die einen langen Zug von Nachahmungen hinter sich herziehn. Denn es erscheintjetzt kaum ein Almanach, worin nicht ein Paar solcher Wanderlieder zum Besten gegeben werden. Jeder meint es nachmachen zu konnen, weil es sich so leicht, einfach und naturlich anhort."
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(the best of the composer's songs), then the undertaking is only so much more ill-advised. Everyone will do well to avoid such a thing.17
Then there were those composers who set poetic imitations of Uhland's Wanderlieder(see Table ib). Here too the Kreutzer/Uhland Wanderlieder often served as the yardstick against which they were measured. Heinrich Marschner surely felt the weight of comparison when he read the 1826 Leipzig Allgemeinemusikalische Zeitung review of his the The critic sympaSechs Wanderlieder Wilhelm Marsano.18 by poet thizes with Marschner and, indeed, with other composers who attempt to treat anew this subject so well known to the public by Kreutzer's work. Unfortunately, the reviewer remarks, Marschner is at a disadvantage, not because his songs are inferior to Kreutzer's, but simply because he handles the subject in a different manner.19 About Marschner's songs, in general, the AmZreviewer comments,
Although each of these six songs exists on its own and represents a specific feeling sufficiently different from the others, and therefore an individual song can be sung alone very well without damage to the
510
rest, yet again they also have such an exact connection among themthus differentiating selvesthat they form a sort of tragicLiederroman,
themselves from Uhland's and Kreutzer's work of this type.20
Marsano's poems tell a sad tale of unrequited love. Having been rejected by his beloved for another, a young man sets out to wander in hope of finding some solace. Years of travel, however, do not bring peace of mind. Ultimately, he returns home and to his horror, he wit-
17 Review of Leopold Lenz'sFriihlingsliederund Wanderlieder von Uhland,op. 8 (Munich, Zeitung (hereafter, Leipzig AmZ) XXXI 1828/29?) in the Leipzig Allgemeinemusikalische (1829), 667-68: "Wenn Lieder, dem Texte und der Melodie nach, wie diese von Uhland und Kreutzer, schon entschiedene Lieblinge des Publicums geworden sind, ist es misslich, sich an neue Compositionen derselben zu wagen. Sind aber solche Lieder mit Recht beliebt, wie diess mit diesen Kreutzer'schen (den besten diese Tonsetzers) wirklich der Fall ist, wird das Unternehmen nur um so misslicher. Es that Jeder wohl, wenn er so etwas vermeidet." 18 Review of Heinrich Marschner's Sechs Wanderliedervon Wilhelm Marsano, op. 35 (Leipzig, 1825/26?) in the Leipzig AmZ XXVIII (1826), 481-85. 19 Adolph Bernhard Marx, in his review of Marschner's songs in the Berlin Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (V [1828], 111), is more harsh in his judgment, suggesting that beinto cause Marschner was lured by the popularity of the Kreutzer/Uhland Wanderlieder producing a similar work, his songs lack a certain warmth and honesty of feeling. 20 LeipzigAmZ XXVIII (1826), 482-83: "Obgleichjeder dieser 6 Gesange fur sich besteht und ein bestimmtes, von dem andern hinlanglich verschiedenes Gefuhl dargestellt, und daher auch sehr wohljeder einzelne Gesang ohne allen Nachtheil nach Belieben fur sich allein gesungen werden kann; so haben sie doch auch wieder einen so genau Zusammenhang unter sich, dass sie eine Art von tragischem Liederroman bilden, wodurch sie sich von Uhlands und Kreutzers Werken der Art unterscheiden."
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TABLE la Settings of Uhland's Wanderlieder von Uhland. Op. 8, Miinchen:Falterund Sohn Lenz, Leopold. Wanderlieder (1828/29?). Wanderlieder von Uhland. Frankfurt:Dienst (1828-44). Barnett,John. Sechs Decker,Constantin.NeunLieder. Op. 6. Berlin:Bote u. Bock (1828-44). von Uhland. Berlin:Schlessinger(1826-44). Dessauer,Joseph. Wanderlieder
von Uhland. Berlin: Bote u. Bock (18??). Eckart, W. Vier Wanderlieder
von Uhland. Op. 4. Bremen: Cranz Engels, Hubert.NeunWanderlieder (1868-73). Dressier,A. F. Wanderlieder. Op. 12. Berlin:Bote u. Bock (1874-79). Hepple, Henry.NeunWanderlieder. Op. 4. Hamburg:Bohme (1874-79). Miinchen:Schmid(1880-85). Gruber,Franz.Wanderlieder. Franz.NeunWanderlieder von Uhland. Wien:Wetzler(1880-85). Radnitzky, von Uhland. Op. 30. Stuttgart:Zumsteeg Schiitky,F.J. Wanderlieder (1880-85). von Uhland. Berlin:Challieru. Co. Reisenauer,Alfred. Wanderlieder (1892-97). 511
nesses the burial of his beloved. Thus, in the most sorrowful of circumstances, the wanderer's pain is finally brought to rest with the death of the loved one. Marschner's treatment of Marsano's poetic cycle reveals a kinship to Kreutzer's approach to the song cycle. Each song is a musically selfsufficient entity. There are neither piano transitions, nor musical quotations or transformations between songs.2' The tonal scheme of the cycle is neither balanced nor closed (see Figure 3). The key relationships progress from first degree to fourth degree, the latter being reserved for the final, tragic song. Poetic content rather than abstract design guided Marschner's choice and arrangement of keys. It appears that Kreutzer's far more than Beethoven's An dieferne Geliebte,served as Wanderlieder, the musical exemplar for Marschner.22
21 However, songs 1 through 4 all open with an ascending, triadic gesture, thereby lending them a small degree of stylistic kinship. 22 An interesting exception is Wilhelm Haser's Sechs Wanderliedervon Carl Griineisen (Leipzig, 1820). Haser physically binds the six songs together with a piano ritornello that appears as prelude, interlude and postlude throughout the cycle. The key structure of the cycle is closely knit-(e)E; a; A; f#-D(D7); G; e/E. Not only is the poetic return home reflected in the return to the tonic of song 1 in song 6, but the opening measures of song 6 are identical (except for a change in mode) to those of song i. At the turn to major in song 6, Haser recapitulates measure 20 to the end of song i. Clearly, Beethoven is the model here.
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TABLE lb of other Wanderlieder cycles Settings Wanderlieder von CarlGriineisen.Leipzig:Breitkopfu. Haser,Wilhelm.Sechs Hartel(1820). Heinrich.Sechs Wanderlieder von WilhelmMarsano.Op. 35. LeipMarschner, zig: Hofmeister(1825/26). von WilhelmMuller.Op. 89. Wien:Tobias Schubert,Franz.Winterreise Haslinger(1828). von WilhelmMuller.Op. 2. Leipzig:Klemm, Derege, Theodore. Wanderlieder (1838?). in 9 Situationen von G. A. Schwarz.Bonn: Schindler,Anton. Wanderlieder Mompauer(1840). von G. Tietz. Op. 9. Berlin:Bote u. Bock (1844?). Weiss,Julius.Wanderlieder Theodore. von W. Muller.Op. 1. Berlin:WagenSechs Wanderlieder Frohlich, fuhr (1828-1844). von Schlippenbach.Berlin:Bote u. Bock Gernlein,R. Wanderlieder (1828-44). von E. Vogt. Op. 5. Leipzig:Hofmeister Skraup,Franz.Wanderlieder (1828-44). vonJustinus Kerner:Eine Liederreihe. Schumann,Robert.ZwolfGedichte Klemm 35. (1841). Op. Leipzig: Ein Liederkreisvon Fr. Dingelstedt.Op. 1. Ecker,Bernhard.Wanderleben. Mainz:Schott(1844-51). von W. Muller.Leipzig: Reise-undWanderlieder Gradener,K. G. P. Zehn Reiter-Biedermann (1860-67). Liebe,Louis. Wanderlieder. Liedercyclusvon A. Katsch.Op. 65. Kassel:Luckhardt (1860-67). von Handwerksburschen. einesrheinischen Liedercyklus Hopffer, B. Wanderlieder W. Muller.Op. 8. Berlin: Mitscher(1868-73). Hartmann,Ludwig.DreiWanderlieder. Op. 21. Berlin: Furstner(1880-85). Rosenfeld,Leopold.Heimathsklinge. Op. 11. Hamburg:Thiemer (1880-85). Liedercyklus.Berlin:Simrock(1886-91). Zichy,Geza.Kiinstlerfahrt. Gesellen. Mahler,Gustav.Lieder Leipzig:Weinberger(1897). einesfahrenden Liedercyklus. Leipzig:Vormeyer(1892-97). Blumenburg,Felix. Wanderung.
Without doubt, the Kreutzer/Uhland Neun Wanderlieder was the conceptual prototype for the better-known Schubert/ Muller Winterreise cycle. Wilhelm Miiller, who composed the poems between 1822 and 1823, surely was well aware that he hadjoined the Wanderliederbandwagon. In many ways Miiller's tale of wandering is indebted to Uhland's work. Like the latter's poems, here too landscape and season reflect the traveler's inner state. As in Uhland's Wanderlieder, the journey described in Miiller's poems is primarily a psychological
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F I G U RE
D
3. Tonal scheme of SechsWanderlieder

d g lst '2nd/ f 3rd D 4th Eb
l1st
one. A comparison of Uhland's "Einkehr" and Miiller's "Der Lindenbaum" brings to light a particularly striking point of contact. In both, a tree offers rest and comfort to the weary traveler. While in Uhland's poem the traveler finds solace in the tree and is spiritually renewed, in Miiller's, comfort is momentary. For him there is no lasting peace, and the traveler is impelled to continue on his darkjourney. Herein lies the difference between the two Wanderliedercycles. Uhland's wanderer travels through a number of varied, emotional states. His journey will end, presumably, where it began, at home in the arms of his beloved. In contrast, the despair and isolation of Uhland's most bitter poem, "Die Winterreise," are pervasive modes of expression throughout Miiller's cycle of the same name. Here, a young man, denied the bond of love, an outcast among men, ultimately resigns himself to an existence apart from society. Like Miiller, who was much impressed and influenced by Uhland's poems, Schubert, too, was very taken with Kreutzer's setting of the poems. About Schubert's reaction to them,Joseph von Spaun reported the following incident: We once found him playing through Kreutzer'sWanderlieder, which hadjust appeared. One of his friends (Huttenbrenner)said "Leave that stuff alone and sing us a few of your songs instead,"to which he repliedtersely,"Butyou are unjust;the songs are verybeautifuland I wish I had writtenthem."23 Schubert's knowledge and appreciation of Kreutzer's Wanderlieder help to explain his approach to the setting of song cycles, an approach unfortunately misrepresented by modern scholars because of a general lack of information about song cycles composed in the early nineteenth century. Alfred Einstein's remarks serve as an example of such mistaken views: These cycles [DieschineMillerin and Winterreise] show that Schubert not only had nothing to learn from Beethoven,but also thathe had no
23 Memoirsof his Friends, ed. Otto Erich Deutsch, trans. by R. Levy Quoted in Schubert: and J. Nowell (London, 1958), p. 135. In an earlier telling of the event in an obituary notice, Spaun places the incident in 1818 or 1819 (see Schubert: Memoirs,p. 27).
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desire to learn anything from him, for he must have known Beethoven'sgreatestcontributionto the historyof the Lied, the cycle An dieferne Geliebte ... which, by means of the unifying accompaniment and the return to the beginning,is fused into a musicaland psychologicalwhole.24 And more recently Maynard Solomon has voiced the same opinion, adding, . . .apart from Schubert'sdeliberateavoidanceof the closely unified it seems thatSchuGeliebte, cyclicstructureinauguratedbyAndieferne bertdid not feel the weightof Beethoven'spriorityin the Lied form.25 Schubert did not willfully ignore Beethoven's op. 98 and strike out on a new path. On the contrary, he followed a course that stemmed from the then well-known and much admired Kreutzer/Uhland Wanderlieder. the more obvious, musically For this reason, we do not find in Winterreise Beethoven. means Indeed, in Schubert's cycle, as employed by unifying in Kreutzer's, choice of key in relation to poetic content has priority over choice of key in relation to an abstract or functionally logical scheme. Adjacent poems of related contents most often are tonally related in the first or second degree, while far more distant key relationships are reserved for moments of poetic discontinuity (i.e., fifth degree: no. 12, "Einsamkeit," and no. 13, "Die Post"; fourth degree: no. 4, "Erstarrung," and no. 5, "Der Lindenbaum").26 Schubert, it appears, learned from Kreutzer that the songs of a cycle can be physically independent and musically self-sufficient, and yet project a total picture that emanates not only from the poetic texts but from the general style of musical setting, the use of tonal coloration, and a sense of dramatic pacing. Along with the Lieder of Beethoven and Schubert, those by Kreutzer and Marschner were among the works heard by the young Schumann during evening entertainments at the Carus's home. in diary In particular, Schumann mentioned Marschner's Wanderlieder
entries from December 2 and 14, 1828.27 Twelve years later, at the very
Alfred Einstein, Music in theRomanticEra (New York, 1947), p. 98. Music III (1979), 124, Maynard Solomon, "Schubert and Beethoven," gth-Century n. 60. 26 For various discussions of key choice and key relationships in Schubert's song cycles see Thomas Archer, "The Formal Construction of Die Schine Miillerin,"Musical Quarterly XX (1934), 401-07; HansJ. Moser,DasDeutscheLiedseitMozart, 2nd ed., (Tutzing, 1968), pp. 302-03; 316-17; and Kurt von Fischer, "Einige Gedanken zur Tonartenordnung in ZbornikXVII (1981), 87-95. Schuberts Liederzyklen," Muzikoloski 27 See Georg Eismann, ed., RobertSchumannsTagebiicher:1827-1838, vol. I (Leipzig, 1971), pp. 128-46, passim (October-December, 1828).
24
25
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end of 1840, Schumann turned to the poet Justinus Kerner, selected from his collected works individual poems, and fashioned from them the Zwilf Gedichtevon Justinus Kerner: Eine Liederreihe,op. 35. The Kerner Liederreihe is Schumann's contribution to the Wanderlieder tradition. Unfortunately, this marvelous opus has frequently been misrepresented because it has been misunderstood both with regard to poetic theme and musical substance. The poetic content of op. 35 has elicited diverse responses from modern critics. Stephen Walsh and Gerald Moore, for example, assert that Schumann chose the poems more or less at random, a view promoted, no doubt, by the separation of the Kerner songs between volumes I and II of the Peters edition.28 On the other hand, Eric Sams and Hans Moser do not dismiss the poems as an arbitrary assortment, but they perceive only a vaguely suggested story of lost love and separation.29 In reality, Schumann's selection and arrangement of Kerner's poems reveal a tale that runs parallel to the wandering cycles of Uhland, Miller, and Marsano. "Lust der Sturmnacht" (song i) presents a young man blissfully lost in love, at peace in the arms of his beloved while a storm rages outside their room. His ardent feelings are crushed in "Stirb, Lieb und Freud!" 515 where we learn that his beloved has in renounced love (song 2) worldly favor of the more powerful calling of God. Rejected in love, denied the emotional bond that links the individual to society, the young man becomes one of the solitary wanderers he pitied in the opening song. His journey is the subject of the following ten poems. The search for comfort and solace in the sights and sounds of nature is the poetic substance of "Wanderlied" (song 3), "Erstes Griin" (song 4), and "Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend" (song 5). The wayfarer begins his journey optimistically, but as the distance from his homeland increases, so do loneliness and alienation in equal measure. In "Wanderung" (song 7) and in "Stille Liebe" (song 8), thoughts of his beloved finally surface in an attempt to reconcile and overcome his grief. The wanderer hopes that Nature may yet work its magical power and heal the wound inflicted by mankind. But, in an unexpected twist, the final poem of the sequence, "Alte Laute" (song 12), rejects as insufficient Nature's restorative potential and concludes despondently with the suggestion that peace may finally come only in death. Schumann's better known song cycles can be described, in general, as a synthesis of Beethoven's and Kreutzer's approach to the Liederkreis.
28 Stephen Walsh, The Lieder of Robert Schumann (New York, 1971), p. 67; Gerald Moore, Poet'sLove: The Songs and Cyclesof Schumann(New York, 1981), p. 160. 29 Eric Sams, TheSongs of RobertSchumann,2nd ed., (London, 1975), p. 166; Moser, Das DeutscheLied, p. 359.
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516
The individual song is treated as a physically separate entity, though not always a tonally independent unit. Adjacent songs are most frequently related in the first or second degree. Reinforcing the close tonal relationships that typically can be found in both the small- and large-scale design of his cycles, are recurring motives, melodic figures, and harmonic progressions that give each song cycle its distinctive sound.30 This The followcharacterization likewise applies to the Kerner Liederreihe. to underwill serve of and harmonic melodic examples integration ing line the musical coherence of op. 35, thereby weakening the assertion that this is a random assortment of Lieder. The two concluding songs, "Wer machte dich so krank?"and "Alte Laute," are bound into a single number by virtue of the fact that one is an explicit variation of the other. In turn, the musical material of this closing pair is derived in its entirety from an earlier song, "Stirb, Lieb und Freud!" (song 2). Example 5 reveals the close connection between the initial gesture of their vocal lines, a connection that lies close to the surface. The relation between their supporting harmonies is less apparent because of the interpolated chords in measures 5 of the closing pair. The harmonic continuation of song 2 (m. 3) is likewise the harmonic continuation of the concluding songs (mm. 7-8).31 Of special significance, subsequent melodic phrases of the final pair are taken from a melodic phrase heard several times (but in different keys) in "Stirb, Lieb und Freud!", a melodic phrase heard at the most poignant moments of the poem-the moment when his beloved renounced worldly love, and the moment when the speaker cried out, "Sie weiss es nicht, mein Herz zerbricht, stirb, Lieb und Licht!" (See Example 6 which presents the melody as it appears in both songs 2 and 12.) Because Schumann has reharmonized the phrase in the latter songs, the relation to its source is obscured. But surely this is Schumann's intention. In "Alte Laute," especially, the melodic phrase accompanies the poetic line "der Zeit, als ich vertraute der Welt und ihrer Lust." The melody is not meant to be a literal restatement, but rather a reminiscence, a sound from the past that represents the moment long ago when his faith and trust in love were destroyed. In this manner, Schumann entwines past, present, and future, literally and figuratively, poetically and musically.32
30 For a discussion of Schuman's opp. 39, 42, and 48, see Barbara Turchin, "SchuMusic VIII/3 (1984), 231mann's Song Cycles: The Cycle within the Song," 19th-Century
44.
31 The opening measures of songs 11 and 12 reappear at their respective final poetic verses. 32 To place the closing pair of songs at another point in the cycle, a suggestion made by Moore (A Poet'sLove, pp. 159 - 60), is to completely misunderstand the poetic and musical substance of op. 35.
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The tonal plan of the Kerner Liederreihe is particularly interesting and deserves attention (see Table 2). Tonal duality, or, put another way, tonal ambivalence, characterizes a number of songs in Dichterliebe (songs 1 and 9), in the EichendorffLiederkreis (song 7), and in Frauenliebeund -leben(song 6). "Frage," song 9 of op. 35, goes further in this direction. In response to the poetic question, Schumann fashioned a song that poses a tonal query, for "Frage"never establishes a tonal center. Rather, it picks up the E-flat major tonic of the preceding song, "Stille Liebe," and without cadentially reinforcing this key, moves on toward A-flat major, then by-passes it, and concludes unexpectedly on a G-major triad, the dominant of the song to follow, "Stille Thranen." "Frage" is literally a tonal bridge. "Stirb, Lieb, und Freud!" (song 2) likewise poses a tonal question. Although A-flat major is the tonic of this song, A-flat is supplanted by the key ofF minor at the conclusion (see Example 7). However, this is an F minor that is implied by strong dominant preparation, one that is not explicitly achieved. As a result, the cadentially reinforced final C-major triad is yet heard as the dominant of F minor. One might presume that the demand for tonal resolution to F minor would be fulfilled in the following song, "Wanderlied." Yet, this is not quite the case. "Wanderlied" indeed opens with a four-fold repetition of the pitch F, but F is immediately understood to be the dominant of B-flat major. Thus, the bridge that connects the two songs leads the wanderer in an unexpected direction. Finally, between "Stille Thranen" (song 1o) and "Wer machte dich so krank" (song 1 1) there is no bridge; there exists a tonal break (see Example 8). The concluding C-major triad of "Stille Thranen" serves as the dominant of a strongly implied F major tonic. In this instance, however, Schumann makes no attempt to tonally interrelate "Stille Thranen" with the following song in A-flat major. The wanderer's road has ended. Do these unresolved conclusions reflect a decline in Schumann's perception of tonal coherence? I think not. On the contrary, the position of "Stirb, Lieb und Freud!" and "Stille Thranen" within the series suggests that Schumann intentionally avoided tonal clarification in order to underline significant turning points in the poetic sequence. For example, the loss of the beloved, related in song 2, is the event that causes the speaker to break past bonds, to strike out on another path, to wander far from home. The lack of direct tonal bonding symbolizes this act. Schumann may have intended the ambiguous conclusion of "Stille Thranen" to set the final two poems, the epilogue, apart and in this way to heighten their impact. Whether the unresolved concluding cadences of songs 2 and lo add to or detract from our experience of the Kerner songs as a totality is a
517
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EXAMPLE
5. KernerLiederreihe,Op. 35; initial gestures in nos. 2, 11, and 12

I (Tenor vorzugsweise.) 9 P I
"Stirb, Lieb und Freud!" no. 2 ia 1 Ta.ncranm
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1 Langsam, leise
13 P
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WANDERLIEDER 5. (continued)
CYCLE
EXAMPLE
"Alte Laute," no. 12 A ,1 Noch langsamer und leiser Dieselbe Weise 2 13 P
y\c.
| I
||
|j> .JJI
Horst du den Vo- gel
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point that may be argued. However, neither instance is an oversight nor an accident. Finally, that Schumann was sensitive to the distinctive tonal features of op. 35 is suggested by his use of the descriptive term Liederor Liedercyklus. reihe,rather than Liederkreis tradition Throughout the century the Wanderlieder endured. Composers continued to find musical and poetic riches in the wandering theme. Not least of these composers was Gustav Mahler who between the years 1883 and 1885 worked on his contribution to the
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EXAMPLE
6. Melodic phrase heard in Op. 35, nos. 2 and 12
"Stirb, Lieb und Freud!" no. 2
36(= 52; 67)
_- f I I
am
o
ganz
_
von
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r f r f rj Jr
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"Alte Laute," no. 12 14
ritard.
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Although decades separate genre, the Lieder einesfahrenden Gesellen.33 this opus from those discussed above, musical and poetic features of the Gesellen cycle have their counterparts in earlier Wanderliedercycles, thereby providing some insight into Mahler's musical and literary background. Although a personal event in Mahler's life provided the stimulus for the Gesellen songs, he chose to express his feelings in traditional folk-like, poetic themes. The opening number, "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht," is in fact a poem from the Arnim-Brentano Des knabenWun33 Donald Mitchell places the period of composition between December of 1883 and January of 1885, while Henri-Louis de la Grange places the period between December of 1884 and January of 1885. For discussions about the cycle's composition and its publication, see Mitchell, GustavMahler: The WunderhornYears(Boulder, Colo., 1976, c. 1975), pp. 27-43; 91-126, and de la Grange, Mahler, vol. I (New York, 1973), pp. 741-42.
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TABLE 2 Robert Schumann, Zw6lf Gedichte

closing cadence 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. "Lust der Sturmnacht" "Stirb, Lieb und Freud!" "Wanderlied" "Erstes Grin" "Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend" "Aufdas Trinkglas" "Wanderung" "Stille Liebe" "Frage" "Stille Thranen" "Wer machte dich so krank?" "Alte Laute" eb/Eb
A, Bb
g/G g El
(C= V/f)
Bb
El, El,--Ab _(G = V/C)
C
Ab
(C= V/F)
Ab,
521
derhorncollection, which Mahler expanded by adding to the poem several verses of his own making.34The subject of this poem-the portrayal of a young man, filled with grief because his beloved has married another-we have met before in the song cycles of Marschner, Schubert, and Schumann.35 The tale related in the following three poems of the GesellenLieder (all written by Mahler himself) parallels the earlier tales as well. Once again, a rejected lover turns to the sights and sounds of nature in the hope of finding comfort and peace. But neither wandering through fields, nor bird song, nor bright sunshine work their magic. In the final poem, the despondent wayfarer quits the town in the dead of night without a single good-bye having been said to him, a scene similarly portrayed by Uhland in "Abreise" and by Muller in "Gute Nacht." Muller's linden tree, the counterpart to Uhland's apple tree, appears in the last verse of Mahler's final poem. At the foot of the tree the wayfarer finds lasting peace in sleep. Mahler's musical setting suggests that this is the sleep of death.36 Mahler's LiedereinesfahrendenGesellenoccupies a special place in his oeuvre, not only because it is the first of several orchestral song cycles he
See de la Grange, Mahler, pp. 742-43. Of course, in the Kerner Liederreihe the marriage is of a spiritual nature. 36 Mitchell is certain that the wanderer finally comes to rest in a grave beneath the linden tree (see GustavMahler, pp. 33-34), because Mahler quotes the concluding measures in the funeral march of the first symphony and recollects these measures in songs of similar meaning. De la Grange, however, senses an atmosphere of "serene and hopeful resignation"! (see Mahler, p. 745).
34 35
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7. Tonal question in Op. 35, no. 2 EXAMPLE
Sie
weig
es
nicht,
mein
Herz
zerbricht,
-_el. ?U
?
-
522
composed, or because it served as a source of material for his first symphony, but because this early work reveals so many traits that stamp Mahler's unique musical style. Among the features that have attracted the attention of music scholars is its tonal structure, which has been characterized as unusual and innovative. Not only does the cycle begin and end in different keys, but each of its songs likewise opens and concludes in different tonalities (see Figure 4). Dika Newlin proposed that this striking procedure be called "progressive tonality,"37and in the late 940s and 195os this term provoked much heated debate and discussion. Hans Tischler and Hans Keller,
37 See Dika Newlin, Bruckner,Mahler, Schoenberg (New York, 1947), pp. 128-31.
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EXAMPLE 8. Tonal break in Op. 35, no. io

^ _
I
sei
'
VV ' I I
sein Herz.
--^ IOU : -l
J J-1
, J
'Telb. *
523
11,
1
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f
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i ^V
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d
P
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FIGURE
4. Tonal scheme of Liedereinesfahrenden Gesellen

4th 4th ef - F
d-------g
D -----
d- -----eb
2nd
4th
5th
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OF MUSICOLOGY
among others, found the concept inadequate and poorly formulated.38 However, "progressive tonality" describes very well the relationship between adjacent tonalities in the Gesellen cycle. As the cycle proceeds, the tonalities grow progressively distant.39 We have here a tonal design that embodies the wayfarer's physical wandering and increasingly distraught emotional state. A similar symbolic use of key relationships was met earlier in Kreutzer's and Marschner's Wanderlieder. If we place Mahler's cycle within the larger tradition of Wanderlieder, it becomes clear that a cycle which begins and ends in different keys is not unusual but, in fact, typical.40 Furthermore, Mahler was not the first to open and close a song in different tonalities. That honor may be bestowed on a number of earlier composers, and Schumann is certainly the most distinguished of this group.41 Mahler, who indeed much admired Schumann's compositions, wrote, Schumann is one of the greatest composers of song, to be mentioned in the same breath with Schubert .... Restrained feeling, true lyricism and a profound melancholy pervade his songs, of which the 524 dearest to me are precisely the less well-known ones which aren't forever being sung, as are those of the Frauenliebeund -lebencycle.42 It is very possible, if not probable, that Mahler had in mind Schumann's Kerner Liederreihe. Certainly, no straight and narrow path connects the works of Kreutzer, Marschner, Schubert, Schumann, and Mahler in orderly succession. However, these composers all had roles in the development of the Wanderlieder tradition, and this poetic and musical bond brings their works into closer proximity.
38 See Hans Tischler, II "Key Symbolismversus ProgressiveTonality,"Musicology (1949), 383-88 and "Mahler'sImpact on the Crisis of Tonality,"MusicReviewXII
39 In an earlierversionof the Gesellen cycle,the key schemewasquite different-d-g; Mahler, p. 94). The resultingkey relationshipsare Db- F; b-c; e-f (see Mitchell,Gustav in comparisonto the final,publishedsequence. haphazard 40 As Donald Mitchellremarksin his study Gustav TheEarlyYears Mahler: ((London, 1958), p. 223), Schubert,before Mahler,opened and closed his song cyclesin different keys,so that Mahler'stonal plan is not totallynovel. However,Mitchell,as well as other scholars,have failed to realizethat such tonal plansare in fact the norm for the majority of nineteenth-century song cycles. 41 Mitchell is the as a prototypefor Mahler,but the KernerLiederreihe citesDichterliebe Mahler: TheEarlyYears, more appropriateworkfor comparison(see Gustav p. 223). 42 Quoted by NatalieBauer-Lechner ed. Peter Frankin Recollections Mahler, of Gustav lin, trans.DikaNewlin (Cambridge,1980),p. 169 (summerof 19go).
(1951), 113-21; and Hans Keller, "The Entfuhrung's 'Vaudeville'," Music Review XVII (1957), 304-13-
WANDERLIEDER
CYCLE
Indeed, from Kreutzer to Mahler, the Wanderlieder cycle led an active and vital life. The composition of Wanderlieder cycles by the most of the period underrenowned composers, as well as by the Kleinmeister, lines the popularity and importance of this poetic theme. That the work of Conradin Kreutzer, a composer little-known today, had considerable influence on the manner of composing song cycles taken by his more illustrious contemporaries is of particular significance. Finally, although Kreutzer's name will never replace Beethoven's in the annals of music history, Kreutzer's Wanderlieder surely deserves consideration equal to Beethoven's more famous Liederkreis in the chapter on the nineteenthcentury song cycle. Merrick,New York
525

Turchin, 19th-Century Wanderlieder Cycle (JM 5-4, 1987)

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Turchin, 19th-Century Wanderlieder Cycle (JM 5-4, 1987)

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The Nineteenth-Century Wanderlieder Cycle Author(s): Barbara Turchin Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 5, No.

The Nineteenth-century Wanderlieder Cycle

19 vols. (Leipzig, 1876), XIX, p. 194.

1. "Scheiden und Meiden"

In massig leichter Bewegung

Andante con moto

Allegro molto agitato

Allegro molto agitato

34 sehr sanft und zuruckhaltend

If-'- - I7 der Liebsten seyn! eh' ich

"Nt Frr Fr Irf Ir

the diagram format Weber favored in presenting his classification

1. Key structure in An dieferne Geliebte and Neun Wanderlieder

4th ---" Ab------1st Ab ----C

3. Tonal scheme of SechsWanderlieder

5. KernerLiederreihe,Op. 35; initial gestures in nos. 2, 11, and 12

"Stirb, Lieb und Freud!" no. 2 ia 1 Ta.ncranm

J. J,J J J.J J i |I"

"Wer machte dich so krank?" no. 11

Dag du (Vorzugsweise Bariton)

"Alte Laute," no. 12 A ,1 Noch langsamer und leiser Dieselbe Weise 2 13 P

6. Melodic phrase heard in Op. 35, nos. 2 and 12

"Stirb, Lieb und Freud!" no. 2

36(= 52; 67)

"Alte Laute," no. 12 14

TABLE 2 Robert Schumann, Zw6lf Gedichte

7. Tonal question in Op. 35, no. 2 EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE 8. Tonal break in Op. 35, no. io

' J. % r- 1- . 1R-, _. -i I .Y ," rrA7"A

4. Tonal scheme of Liedereinesfahrenden Gesellen

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