Dichterliebe


Dichterliebe, "A Poet's Love", is the best-known song cycle of Robert Schumann. The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich Heine, written 1822–23 and published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert, those of Schumann constitute part of the central core of the genre in musical literature.

The source: Heine's ''Lyrisches Intermezzo''

Author of the sarcastic Die Romantische Schule, Heine was a vocal critic of German romanticism, though he himself is often described as a quintessentially Romantic writer. In some of his poetry, and notably in Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen of 1844, the romantic lyrical conventions are used as vessels to deploy the content of biting, satirical nature. Schumann's Dichterliebe was composed before Heine's Deutschland and does not appear to portray this ironic dimension: scholarship is divided as to what extent Schumann intended to express it.
Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo consists of a verse Prologue and 65 poems. The Prologue tells of the sorrowful knight that sits gloomily in his house all day, but by night is visited by his fairy bride, and dances with her until daylight returns him to his little poet's room. The 65 poems follow, of which the 16 of the Dichterliebe are a selection. The conclusion of it all is that he is going to put the old bad songs and dreams, all his sorrowful love and suffering into a huge coffin, which twelve giants will throw into the sea. This catastrophe is slightly reminiscent of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, in which the hero ends by drowning himself in the brook which he has followed through the cycle.

The song-cycle

Das Buch der Lieder was given its second edition, with preface from Paris, in 1837, the songs were composed in 1840, and the first edition of Dichterliebe was published in two volumes by Peters, in Leipzig, 1844. Though Schumann originally set 20 songs to Heine's poems, only 16 of the 20 compositions were included in the first edition. is one of the omitted items. Auf Flügeln des Gesanges, On Wings of Song.
The very natural, almost hyper-sensitive poetical affections of the poems are mirrored in Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy-tales. Schumann adapts the words of the poems to his needs for the songs, sometimes repeating phrases and often rewording a line to supply the desired cadence. Dichterliebe is therefore an integral artistic work apart from the Lyrisches Intermezzo, though derived from it and inspired by it. Schubert's selection of lyrics for his own Heine songs had sought different themes.
Although frequently associated with the male voice, the work was dedicated to the great soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, so that the precedent for performance by a female voice is primary. The first complete public recital of the work in London was given by Harry Plunket Greene, accompanied from memory by Leonard Borwick, on 11 January 1895 at St James's Hall.

The songs

  1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai.
  2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen.
  3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne.
  4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh.
  5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen.
  6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome.
  7. Ich grolle nicht.
  8. Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen.
  9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen.
  10. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen.
  11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen.
  12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen .
  13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet.
  14. Allnächtlich im Traume.
  15. Aus alten Märchen winkt es.
  16. Die alten, bösen Lieder.
Texts of some in the Schumann form are displayed in Wikibooks

Recordings

These are some landmarks among the many recordings of Dichterliebe: