Composer: Crabtree, Leslie
Dates: 1941-
Song title: Es treibt mich hin, es treibt mich her!
Opus, no., etc.: Nr.2
Music collection title: Lieder
Imprint(s): -
Analysis: A six measure introduction opens with two statements of a motive embodying stormy impatience: fast ascending right-hand scales in thirds and sixths against descending octave scales in the left hand. Various permutations of this motive appear between vocal phrases throughout most of the song. The first vocal line denotes the poet's impatience with its wide skips and "galloping" quarter-note/eighth-note pattern. These factors characterize many of the vocal phrases in the song's faster sections. The third phrase switches mode to A major for the poet's evocation of his beloved. Then, after a sudden stop and short pause, pesante triplets in the piano announce, accompany and signify the breathless questioning of his heart: "why do you beat so hard?" Similarly detailed text-painting permeates the rest of the song, with frequent sudden tempo changes, meter changes, and key changes: e.g. "Slowly" for most of the second stanza's complaint about the slowly moving hours; 4/4 F-minor "Faster" for the start of the third stanza. The penultimate phrase's "secret conspiracy" evokes a slow, convoluted modulation from B-flat minor back to A minor, at which point the song ends quickly with an echo of the opening scales and two emphatic chords.
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Copyright © 2000, Peter W. Shea