Heine-Lieder : Morgens steh ich auf und frage / Bókay

Composer: Bókay, János
Dates: 1858-?
Song title: "Morgens steh' ich auf und frage" ...
Opus, no., etc.: Nr.13
Music collection title: Heine-dalok
Imprint(s): Budapest : Az Athenaeum r.-t. kottanyomása, 1925
Source(s) for score: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (NUC #NB0607005) microfilmed
1st line of poem: Morgens steh' ich auf und frage (Go to text and translation)
Source of poem: Buch der Lieder: Junge Leiden: Lieder, Nr.1
Date of composition: 1924
Nationality of composer: Hungarian
Language(s) of text: German
Tempo marking: Moderato
Key: E flat major
Time signature: 6/8
No. of measures: 18
Approximate duration: 1 min.
Form: through-composed
Vocal range: B-flat to f' [b-flat to f"]
Vocal tessitura: lower middle; indicated for "Baryton (Mezzo Soprano)" (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: All of the two-measure half-periods are comprised primarily of eighth-notes in the first measure and dotted quarter notes in the second measure, or some similar arrangement
Vocal intervals: The antecedents of the first three periods are ascending scales with chromatic alterations, while all their consequents have increasingly larger skips, up to a seventh. The last period and its extension is entirely stepwise.
Vocal comments: vocally very pleasant and non-challenging; widest leap to highest note is on the word "lieg"; male singer (baritone or tenor with good low B-flats) more appropriate to text; indicated for "Baryton (Mezzo Soprano)"
Textual variants, etc.: Heine's last line is repeated
Instrumental part(s): vocal melody is doubled, but interestingly in the left hand for the antecendent and in the right hand for the consequent in each of the first three periods; this is accompanied by repeated three-voice eighth-note chords over pedal E-flats and Cs; in the last period the texture is slightly more fluid and transparent; some wide stretches and leaps call for adult hands and neat pedal work, otherwise quite easy
Summary: The overall impression is one of dreamy longing. The way the musical periods and the phrases within them are constructed subtly reflects the oscillating affect, if not the literal meaning, of each pair of Heine's lines: restful, lazily climbing scales accompanied by static chords followed by more anxious, yearning phrases with increasingly wider skips. Harmonically unadventurous for its time, with a few altered chords, but still exuding a rather Lisztian fragrance.