Mary Nenkai Moipei

Mignon by Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903)

4/11/2015

Performance Time 6.45

Musical Features:
Key(s) E flat major, C major, D minor, E flat minor.
Tempo(s) This piece is mainly slow with great expression. It
however, is characterized by quite a few rubatos and tempo
changes.

Figure 1 - Hugo Wolf (1885)

Time Signature(s) Simple triple (three quarter notes in a bar) - Compound triple
(nine eighth notes in a bar). The combination of these two time signatures is more
commonly known as Hemiola.
Dynamics Mignon has a dynamic range of piano to fortissimo. It is also good to
note that there are many crescendos and diminuendos.
Range G3 to F5
Texture Polyphonic
Text / Lyrics:
Language German
Prose
Musical Form Mignon is an art song in strophic form. It consists of three verses
all sharing the same melody.
Accompaniment This song is accompanied by the piano. It has a four measure
prelude and three bars of a postlude. Every time the singer is to say Dahin! Dahin!
there are three measures worth of a piano interlude.
The piano score is perhaps one of the most difficult pieces of music I have ever
come across. It has its lion share of accidentals and syncopated rhythms, coupled
with rubatos that only make it harder to look at. It has a typical sound that
associates it with the late romantic and early twentieth century styles of composing.
Wolf makes good use of the 16th century invention the tremolo. He uses it in the
third verse when the singer talks of high mountains that clouds conceal, in caverns
deep the dragons brood which evoke an ambience of mystery and a sense of the
unknown.
Sub Text This piece contains no sub text whatsoever. It is an innocent interaction
between a child and her father. From the text, I can glean that the child wants to go
and explore the land and all its secrets and mysteries.

Historical / Cultural and Composers Biographical Information

Hugo Wolf was an Austrian composer who was famous for his art songs also known
as lieder. Like Mozart, he was a child prodigy who loved the piano and the violin. At
the age of four, he was father begun tutoring him on the violin, and when he joined
primary school, he started learning piano and music theory.
Just like many genius today, Wolf failed on all subjects that did not relate to what
he loved most music. In fact, he was so poor in other studies that he was
dismissed from his first secondary school, dropped out of another because he hated
Latin and finally quit the last due to a falling out with a certain professor who
deemed his musical ideas as damned!
He then went on to join the Vienna Conservatory, much to his fathers
disappointment, who had really hoped he would not try to make a living out of
music. Once again, the always rebellious Wolf was dismissed from the Conservatory
for breach of discipline.
Wolf was extremely temperamental. This however, did not deter the attention he
got due to his musical abilities. Support from benefactors enabled him to teach
music. He met a daughter of one of his benefactors who inspired him to write
Valentine. She was his first love, and when she left him at the age of 21, he was
completely heart broken.
His life was riddled with sudden bursts of wild mood swings and depression. When
Richard Wagner died, Wolf composed what is today termed as one of his best early
works Zur Ruh, zur ruh. He was prone to self-pity and often despaired of his
future.
History claims that the period between 1888 and 1896 proved to be the golden
years in Wolfs career. He wrote six German lieder and even one opera Der
Corrigidor.
His last public appearance was 1897 during a concert including his composition
giant Jager. Shortly after, he suffered from syphilis which caused him to slip into
insanity. He desperately tried to complete his second and last opera Manual
Venegas, before he completely lost his mind, but was unsuccessful leaving sixty
pages of an unfinished opera.
He died on the 22nd of February 1897 and was buried in the Central Cemetery in
Vienna.
Recordings:
Schwarzkopf, E. (1958). Hugo Wolf - "Kennst du das Land" Schwarzkopf. Retrieved
February 7, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMe22tHvG4c
Performance Edition(s) and Bibliography:

Hugo Wolf. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 7, 2015, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Wolf

Figure 2 - Mignon I PA - translation