An die ferne Geliebte
Encyclopedia
opus 98, is a composition by Ludwig van Beethoven
in April 1816. It is considered to be the first example of a song cycle
by a major composer.
was the precursor of a series of followers, including those of Franz Schubert
, Robert Schumann
and Carl Loewe. The setting is for a man's voice (usually baritone
) with pianoforte. The title page of the original edition (S. A. Steiner, Vienna) bore a dedication with permission to Fürst Joseph von Lobkowitz, Duke of Raudnitz, a leading Austrian musical patron, in whose palace the Eroica Symphony
was first performed in 1804; Beethoven also dedicated the six string quartets opus 18, the Eroica Symphony opus 55, the Triple Concerto opus 56
, the C minor Symphony opus 67
, the Pastoral Symphony opus 68
, and the String Quartet opus 74
to him.
The text was written by a physician named Alois Isidor Jeitteles, probably at Beethoven's request. Then aged 22, Jeitteles published several short poems, economic in style, in Viennese magazines or almanacks, particularly 'Selam' and 'Aglaja', and was making his name by it. He was an active, selfless young man who later distinguished himself by working tirelessly for his patients during a dreadful cholera
epidemic and mortality in Brno
. Beethoven had already explored inward feelings of longing in his setting
of Matthisson's
, but in these poems the distance from the beloved is greater, the longing is more intense and stormier, and is no longer satisfied with merely the sound of her name, but is preoccupied with the clawing pain of separation which colours the whole surrounding landscape. Max Friedlaender
regarded the entire composition as autobiographical in meaning, and the subject of the composer's longing to be none other than the , the Immortal Beloved
of his letters of July 1812.
The whole sequence is through-composed
, so that none of the songs stands alone. The different moods of the six episodes are expressed in different key and time signatures, working from E flat in the first song through G major
(and briefly C major
) in the second to A-flat major in the third and fourth, and thence back through C to E flat. With their underlying thematic linkage, each of the songs is carried without break into the next: a short bridge passage connects 2 and 3, and the last note of 3 is held through the first three bars of the accompaniment to 4 and proceeds into almost without a breath. The final strophe
s of 4 have an accelerando leading directly into the vivace of 5.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
in April 1816. It is considered to be the first example of a song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
by a major composer.
Beethoven's
Beethoven's only song cycleSong cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
was the precursor of a series of followers, including those of Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
and Carl Loewe. The setting is for a man's voice (usually baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
) with pianoforte. The title page of the original edition (S. A. Steiner, Vienna) bore a dedication with permission to Fürst Joseph von Lobkowitz, Duke of Raudnitz, a leading Austrian musical patron, in whose palace the Eroica Symphony
Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major , also known as the Eroica , is a landmark musical work marking the full arrival of the composer's "middle-period," a series of unprecedented large scale works of emotional depth and structural rigor.The symphony is widely regarded as a mature...
was first performed in 1804; Beethoven also dedicated the six string quartets opus 18, the Eroica Symphony opus 55, the Triple Concerto opus 56
Triple Concerto (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C Major, Op. 56, more commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed in 1803 and later published in 1804 under Breitkopf & Hartel. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio and the...
, the C minor Symphony opus 67
Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1804–08. This symphony is one of the most popular and best-known compositions in all of classical music, and one of the most often played symphonies. It comprises four movements: an opening sonata, an andante, and a fast...
, the Pastoral Symphony opus 68
Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony , is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, and was completed in 1808...
, and the String Quartet opus 74
String Quartet No. 10 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 in E major, nicknamed the "Harp", was published in 1809 as opus 74.- Naming :The nickname "Harp" refers to the characteristic pizzicato sections in the Allegro of the first movement, where pairs of members of the quartet alternate notes in an arpeggio,...
to him.
The text was written by a physician named Alois Isidor Jeitteles, probably at Beethoven's request. Then aged 22, Jeitteles published several short poems, economic in style, in Viennese magazines or almanacks, particularly 'Selam' and 'Aglaja', and was making his name by it. He was an active, selfless young man who later distinguished himself by working tirelessly for his patients during a dreadful cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic and mortality in Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
. Beethoven had already explored inward feelings of longing in his setting
Adelaide (Beethoven)
"Adelaïde" is a song for solo voice and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was written in 1795/1796, when the composer was about 25 years old, and published as his Opus 46....
of Matthisson's
Friedrich von Matthisson
Friedrich von Matthisson was a German poet.-Biography:He was born at Hohendodeleben near Magdeburg, the son of the village pastor, on the 23rd of January 1761. After studying theology and philology at the university of Halle, he was appointed in 1781 master at the classical school Philanthropinum...
, but in these poems the distance from the beloved is greater, the longing is more intense and stormier, and is no longer satisfied with merely the sound of her name, but is preoccupied with the clawing pain of separation which colours the whole surrounding landscape. Max Friedlaender
Max Friedlaender (musicologist)
Max Friedlaender was a German bass singer, music editor, and musicologist. He specialized in German Lieder.- Life :...
regarded the entire composition as autobiographical in meaning, and the subject of the composer's longing to be none other than the , the Immortal Beloved
Immortal Beloved
Immortal Beloved may refer to:*Immortal Beloved, the name given by composer Ludwig van Beethoven to an unknown person in a famous love letter.*Immortal Beloved , a 1994 film about the life of Beethoven....
of his letters of July 1812.
The whole sequence is through-composed
Through-composed
Through-composed music is relatively continuous, non-sectional, and/or non-repetitive. A song is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each stanza of the lyrics. This is in contrast to strophic form, in which each stanza is set to the same music...
, so that none of the songs stands alone. The different moods of the six episodes are expressed in different key and time signatures, working from E flat in the first song through G major
G major
G major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
(and briefly C major
C major
C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
) in the second to A-flat major in the third and fourth, and thence back through C to E flat. With their underlying thematic linkage, each of the songs is carried without break into the next: a short bridge passage connects 2 and 3, and the last note of 3 is held through the first three bars of the accompaniment to 4 and proceeds into almost without a breath. The final strophe
Strophe
A strophe forms the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for the music," as John Milton wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes, with the strophe...
s of 4 have an accelerando leading directly into the vivace of 5.
Synopsis
Unlike the Schubert–Müller song-cycles, the six songs or episodes of do not form a chronological narrative leading towards a conclusion. Beethoven himself called it , i.e. a circle or ring of song, and it is so written that the theme of the first song reappears as the conclusion of the last, forming a 'circle' () - a ring in the figurative sense of a finger-ring as a love-token – rather than a 'cycle' () in the sense of a programme or drama. This thematic revolution is also expressed in the emotion and conceit of the words.- He is sitting on a hillside looking at the distant spot where they first met, and, feeling the pain of separation, he decides that he will sing songs to convey the feelings from one loving heart to the other.
- He identifies himself and his feelings with the landscape and the misty hilltops, sending his suffering into the valley where the soft winds can calm it, and the inward pain of his love into the forest depths: in these he can always be with her, even though he cannot go to her.
- With this thought he bids the clouds and the brook to greet her, and the little birds to sing to her of his complaint, and the west wind to carry her his sighs like the last rays of the sun, and the brook will carry his tears of love to her.
- He is enraptured, thinking how the clouds and the birds will see her - let him be borne with them! These breezes will play upon her breast and in her hair - let him share in that delight! And she shall see herself in the brook, and the picture will flow back to him.
- In lovely May when nature is at the full, and the swallows are building their nests for love to dwell within at their bridal beds, and everything that winter has separated is again united with its mate, it is only their own love which has no springtime, and all they have are tears.
- So he will send her the songs he has written, and she will sing them to the lyre when the red of sunset falls across the blue sea and behind the distant mountain: she will sing what he has sung, artlessly, from the fullness of his heart, out of his longing, and these songs will vanquish what keeps them so far apart, and will join one loving heart to the other.
Text
External links
- Translations into English at recmusic.org:
- 1. Auf dem Hügel sitz ich spähend (parallel German/English)
- 2. Wo die Berge so blau (parallel German/English)
- 3. Leichte Segler in den Höhen (parallel German/English)
- 4. Diese Wolken in den Höhen (parallel German/English)
- 5. Es kehret der Maien, es blühet die Au (parallel German/English)
- 6. Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder (parallel German/English)
- all songs (English only)
- Recording by Lotte LehmannLotte LehmannCharlotte "Lotte" Lehmann was a German soprano who was especially associated with German repertory. She gave memorable performances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier was considered her greatest...