MZSS

299
SCHUBERT-ART
SONG
SECOND
Liebe schwrmt
auf allenYEAR
wegen

05-08-2016

NAME: SESHUBA DINTLETSE VIOLET

STUDENT NUMBER: 26481669

NAME: SESHUBA DINTLETSE VIOLET

STUDENT NUMBER: 26481669

Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................... 2
General characteristics of an art song...................................................................2
General characteristics of Schuberts style............................................................2
General characteristics of Romanticism................................................................3
Conclusion............................................................................................................. 4
Bibliography........................................................................................................... 4

Introduction
An art song is a piece that was popular in the romantic period, performed by a professional singer
and accompanied by piano (Kamien, 2011:263). In this assignment, I am going to analyze an art
song according to the general characteristics of an art song, the characteristics of Schuberts style,
as well as the characteristics of Romanticism. The art song that I am going to analyze is composed
by Franz Schubert and it is called Liebe schwrmt auf allen wegen.

General characteristics of an art song

An art song is a short piece that is sung by a professional singer and accompanied by piano. In this
piece piano is very essential because it makes the song complete as it explains the meaning of the
song itself by acting as a partner of the vocalist (Kamien, 2011:263). This is a fusion of poem and
music which creates emotional vitality that cannot be conveyed by the voice alone. Franz Schubert
saw a very big importance in taking 59 of Johann Wolfgan Von Goethes poems to create a certain
mood or a strong emotion with this fusion of poetry and music (Hanning, 2010:415). The text of the
song talks about passion or strong feeling of love, as well as lost love. In this piece, Claudine is
engaged to Pedro, but she finds him fickle and irresponsible, now she admits that she has found
love from Crugantino (Auf allen wegen).
The song has very short, beautiful melodies linked to the text that tells the story in short and has
only four lines (Hanning, 2010:413). It starts in a major key, but in the middle of the piece we hear
a change to the minor key, this creates a different feeling to the listener, where the words of the song
repeats again. This creates an emphasis to the repeated words and grabs an attention of the listener.
Liebe schwrmt auf allen wegen, like other art songs of the romantic period, starts with an opening
section that is played by the piano to introduce the mood of the song, and ends with closing section
that is also played by piano instead of the piano and the singer concluding at the same time. The
opening section is called a prelude and the closing section is called a postlude (Burkholder,
2010:611).

General characteristics of Schuberts style

Schubert is one of the best Romantic composers that used poems to create music. He is said to be
gifted in creating very beautiful melodies, which we can hear in the art song (Liebe schwrmt auf
allen wegen). With a rich and productive accompaniments produced in Schuberts music, every line
in this song has a melody which flows very well with the text as well as creating a strong personal
expression and grabs attention of the listeners. Like other songs of this legends style, this song
modulates from the home key to the lower key to produce a different thought of love (Burkholder,
2010:609).
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According to Hanning (2010:414) to make a song even more enjoyable or emotional, Schubert
used a strong sense of harmonic color. This harmonies helps to provide an imagination of the poem
or story of the art song. This song has a huge variety of mood like in most of Schuberts
composition. It is sad and happy at the same time, which creates a change in mood as well as the
melody and harmony. In this song we hear a very interesting repetition of rhythms from the start of
the song till the end, which is very important in unifying the melody as well as the rhythm of the
song (Kamien, 2011:265). The song is rather modified than through composed or strophic, because
only two stanzas in its poetry are set to the same music. According to Burkholder (2010:609)
Schuberts music were written in any of the forms: strophic, modified strophic and through
composed.

General characteristics of Romanticism

The romantic period came into appearance from about 1820 to 1900. The romantic composers used
musical forms from the Classical period and the musical style that focused on emotion, novelty,
melody, and individuality corresponded to the romanticism in both literature and art (Burkholder,
2010:602). This period came to be called the romantic period. The composers of the romantic
period used colorful harmony to increase the emotional intensity of the music, they also used the
emphasis of the rich chords to emotionalize their music (Kamien, 2011:259). In Liebe schwrmt auf
allen wegen, towards the end of each line, the chords are emphasized to create a great emotion. The
piece changes from a major key to a minor key in bar 19 to create emphasis to what the singer
repeats again.
According to Kamien (2011:259) romantic music has an expanded range of dynamics, pitch and
tempo. Liebe schwrmt auf allen wegen has expanded range of pitch. It starts with a moderate pitch
for soprano voice and goes higher in bar 15 and it becomes even lower from bar 19 where it
modulates, it then become s higher again from bar 23 where it changes the expression key again.
The music of the romantic period has a groundbreaking emphasis on self-as well as separate
existence of style (Kamien, 2011:257). If one can listen to this piece, there is a strong feeling of
love with strong emphasis on self-expression, the singer sings it expressly as if the text refers to her
original life. It also creates a strong expression as well as grabbing the attention of the listener.
Subjectivity and fantasy were also the characteristics of the romantic period. According to Kamien
(2011:257) the romantics examined the nature of feeling that included brilliance, intimacy, and
melancholy as well as longing. This song as well contains the strong feeling of sadness as well as
happiness, which makes it a good example of the art song especially when one imagines the song
itself happening through listening only.
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Conclusion
The nature of romantic music lies in poetry, melody, harmony, expression as well as passion. When
we talk about Schuberts art songs, we find the most romantic art from this world. This art song
(Liebe schwrmt auf allen wegen) has the power to convey the message to the lissteners as well as
to demand a certain expression from each one of them when performed well. This really shows how
well gifted Schubert was in giving the music of the romantic period to the lovers of music.

Bibliography
Burkholder, J.P. 2010. A History of The Western Music. 8th ed. New York, NY: W.W Norton &
Company, Inc
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Kamien, R. 2011. Music: An appreciation. 11th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Hanning, B.R. 2010. Concise History of Western Music. 4th ed.