Composer: Carmichael, Mary Grant
Dates: 1851-1935
Song title: Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen = Out in the
deep woodlands
Opus, no., etc.: op.8, Nr.2
Music collection title: Three Lyrics (second set) from
Heine's Book of Songs
Imprint(s): London: Stanley, Lucas, Weber & Co.,
187-?; London: Schott, 1878
Analysis: A two-measure introduction with a short repeated descending eighth-note figure (bird-calls?) leads into the first stanza's D-flat major tune, with its little eighth-note sighs on "meinem Gram allein." Modulating to the mediant by the end of the stanza, the song then proceeds directly into the second stanza, which traverses several keys, ending on the dominant. Ascending phrases reflect the question of the second stanza's first two lines, while descending E-flat minor triads and a chromatic downward scale to c (accompanied by parallel descending diminished chords) illustrate the poet's heaviness of heart. A short interlude in the dominant prepares the way for a reprise of the opening tune on the third stanza, which this time ends on the tonic and goes without pause into the fourth. There are some added accents on the higher notes in the right hand at the point in the text where the birds speak, but this is the only concession to "text-painting." This final stanza has similar harmonic and melodic features to the second but follows a different scheme. The last three lines die away with another descending chromatic scale, a meno mosso on a switch to tonic minor, then a final piano ritenuto descent to the vocal depths (A-flat). The short postlude repeats a soulful, sighing chromatic phrase twice before a final descending line ends the song. One weakness of the song is the lack of any connecting motivic material between any of the solo piano sections and between those and the vocal sections. The only unifying factor seems to be the reprise of the first stanza's melody for the third.
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Copyright © 2000, Peter W. Shea