A Set of Art Songs That Are Intended to Be Performed Together as a Group Is Called
What is Art Song?
Today we call them art songs, but when this specific genre first appeared in the late 18th century, they were simply "songs," about always scored for what is at present a classic combination: pianoforte and vocalization. At the fourth dimension, the Industrial Revolution was helping to create a new class of music lovers. The new Middle Class was wealthy plenty to want access to musical entertainment at dwelling house, but not wealthy enough to hire live-in court musicians like the aristocratic classes. What they could afford was the perfect new domestic musical instrument: the pianoforte.
The ability to play the piano and sing became a status symbol for eye and upper middle class families, specially among women (equally yous might know from the novels of Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters). This made home music a lucrative market for composers. The earliest Lieder [pronounced "leader"], or German art songs, were written for vocalisation and uncomplicated piano accompaniment, and so that habitation musicians could back-trail themselves or their friends at the piano.
Throughout the 19th century, the genre of art vocal adult into a sophisticated fine art class for the concert stage as well equally for the home. Nevertheless, in ane sense, it's never abandoned its domestic beginnings: most fine art songs are still scored for voice and piano. In this mail service, we'll accept a lightning tour of art song history, featuring a few of the countless bully works in this genre. In addition to the videos, click on the text links to listen to a few more than art songs.
Classical Lieder
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was one of the outset composers to explore the expressive capabilities of the Lied [atypical of Lieder, pronounced "leet"]. Many of Mozart'south Lieder were composed for the growing domestic song market. His Lieder offer the same natural song writing he brought to opera – and the same wide-ranging dramatic sense. For example, his "Abendemfindung" (Evening Thoughts) is a tender reflection on mortality; in contrast, his "Das Veilchen" K. 476 (The Violet) is a playful, rather snarky setting of a verse form by Goethe about a dramatic violet'southward tragic love for an oblivious shepherdess.
Other Classical composers who wrote in the burgeoning Lied genre include Louise Reichardt, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, who invented the song bicycle (more than on that next!).
"Das Veilchen" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Song Text
Schubert and the Vocal Cycle
In 1816, Ludwig van Beethoven had the idea of writing a set of half dozen Lieder with an overarching narrative: his An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved). This new genre came to be known equally a Liederkries, or in English, a song wheel. Some song cycles tell a story, some have a mutual theme, and some are merely meant to be sung in a series for artful reasons. They're a chip like the 19th century's version of the tape album.
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was a chief of the Lied. He composed more than than 900 Lieder, many of which had their premieres at musical habitation gatherings which Schubert'due south friends delightfully called Schubertiades. Schubert perfected the song wheel in works like his narrative wheel Die schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Miller Maid), besides as cycles linked past a common author, like his Op.52 settings from Sir Walther Scott'due south Lady of the Lake. Mayhap his greatest song bicycle is Winterreise D. 911 (Winter Journeying), a psychologically profound exploration of loss.
"Gute Nacht" from Winterreise by Franz Schubert
Vocal Text
The Romantic Lied
Equally the 19th century progress, composers similar Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf added increasingly sophisticated vocal cycles and private Lieder to the repertoire. Many Lieder became increasingly complex for the average home musician: the solo recital was becoming a pop style of functioning, thanks to Franz Liszt, who invented the term, and composers were writing for the skills of professional person recitalists as well as for amateurs.
However, the Lied was nonetheless an entrenched habitation music genre, and that gave a special edge to women composers in the 19th century. Many women who wrote symphonic music or chamber music in the Romantic menses struggled to promote interest in their work, but since the Lied was considered a domestic genre, women faced fewer barriers to exist accepted as composers of art song.
Women took reward of this creative outlet to produce glorious art songs, many of which differ from the male person-composed repertoire past examining honey and life from a woman's perspective. Some notable composers include Josephine Lang, Clara Schumann, and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847), whose "Warum sind den die Rosen so blass" is an elegant case of the Romantic Lied.
"Warum sind denn dice Rosen and so blass" Op. 1 No. iii by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
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French Fine art Song: Mélodie
German-speaking composers did much of the early work developing the fine art song genre, but it spread among composers of many languages. For example, French fine art song is known as mélodie.Countless French composers made gorgeous additions to the genre through the 19th century and beyond, including Pauline Viardot, Henri Duparc, Ernest Chausson, Cécile Chaminade, and Claude Debussy.
If we were to crown a French Schubert, whose stature in mélodie resembles that of Schubert in Lieder, it might be Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924). Fauré composed more than 100 art songs, including both individual songs and vocal cycles. His masterful, text-sensitive writing for both vocalisation and piano make his art songs perennially popular with singers.
"Clair de Lune," Op. 46 No. ii by Gabriel Fauré
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Orchestral Songs
Traditionally, fine art song is scored for vox and pianoforte, but music genre rules have never been set in stone, especially during the experimental Romantic period. I early Lied-scoring exception is Schubert's "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" D.965 (The Shepherd on the Rock), which is scored for voice, piano, and clarinet.
In the mid-1800s, orchestral songs began to grace the concert stage. Dissimilar opera or oratorio arias, these songs were not intended equally function of a larger ensemble work, but were merely standalone art songs or song cycles using orchestral accompaniment instead of pianoforte.
An early case of Romantic orchestral vocal was Hector Berlioz's orchestration of his song cycle Les nuits d'ete Op. 7 (Summer Nights, pub. 1856). Many Romantic composers contributed to the genre of orchestral song, especially in the form of orchestral vocal cycles. Examples include Richard Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder and Alma Mahler-Werfel'south Four Songs for Soprano and Orchestra (1915).
Perhaps the best-known composer of Romantic orchestral Lieder was Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), whose orchestral song cycles remain staples of the repertory. HisDes Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth's Magic Horn, pub. 1905) consists of orchestral songs for mezzo soprano and baritone. The texts are High german folk poems that range from dark musings, to cynical allegories, to charming fairy tales.
"Wo die Schönen Trompeten blasen" from Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Gustav Mahler
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The 20th Century and Fine art Song in English
Effectually the aforementioned fourth dimension that High german composers were diving into orchestral Lieder, English speaking composers were starting to requite special attention to fine art song. The rhapsodic songs of George Butterworth and Ivor Gurney helped singers give vocalisation to the trauma surrounding the First Globe State of war. Ethel Smyth, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and many other English composers contributed to the 20th century's flowering of English language song.
English language-linguistic communication fine art vocal flourished in the Usa also, in the works of composers like Amy Embankment, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber. Folk song inspired many American composers of art vocal, including Harry T. Burleigh and John Jacob Niles.
One remarkable partnership in American fine art song was that between poet Langston Hughes and composer Florence Cost (1887–1953). Both were pivotal figures in the Chicago Renaissance, and Toll set Hughes'southward poesy in several masterful art songs, which were championed by Leontyne Toll, Marian Anderson and other great Black singers.
"Songs to the Dark Virgin" (1941) past Florence Price
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Contemporary Fine art Song
The art vocal genre continues to flourish in the works of recent and gimmicky composers: to proper noun just a few, Adolphus Hailstork, Jennifer Higdon, Kim Dong Jin, Libby Larsen, Morten Lauridsen, Yoshinao Nakada, and Rhian Samuel.
In fact, in that location's such a wealth of art vocal by contemporary composers that I could never choose one favorite to end this list. Allow's proceed things local with a gorgeous song by Portland-based composer and conductor Joan Szymko (b. 1957). Her "Eli, eli," is an example of the art song genre's continual transformation. Scored for solo voice accompanied by solo cello, "Eli, eli" is a setting (in both Hebrew and English) of a moving prayer by Hannah Szenes, a poet and resistance fighter who was executed by the Nazis in 1944.
"Eli, eli" (1994) by Joan Szymko
Vocal Text
For Farther Reading
Art song is a rich and vibrant genre, and nosotros've simply scratched the surface in this article. Below are some resources to proceed learning. Another wonderful way to feel art vocal is to nourish academy vocal recitals: they're usually free, full of repertoire you'd rarely hear in a concert hall, and an excellent way to back up the next generation of singers.
The Fine art Vocal Project: http://theartsongproject.com/
Hampsong Foundation: https://hampsongfoundation.org/about/
Johnson, Graham, and Richard Stokes. A French Song Companion. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Kimball, Carol.Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature .Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard, 2006.
Olson, Margaret.Listening to Art Song: An Introduction .Britain: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Oxford Lieder: https://www.oxfordlieder.co.u.k./
Simmons, Margaret R., and Jeanine Wagner.A New Anthology of Fine art Songs by African American Composers .United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004.
Stokes, Richard, and Ian Bostridge. The Book of Lieder .United Kingdom: Faber & Faber, 2011.
Special cheers to Arwen Myers of Northwest Art Song for her insightful enquiry communication.
Source: https://www.allclassical.org/what-is-art-song/
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