Composer: Liwschitz, Hirsch
Dates: -
Song title: Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen (von Heinrich Heine). Lied für eine Singstimme
Opus, no., etc.: -
Music collection title: -
Imprint(s): Berlin: Phoenix, [19--?]
Analysis: The piano opens with a measure of circular eighth-note figures, perhaps symbolizing the aimless wandering of the poet. This continues under the voice's low and nearly monotone declamation of the first line, the voice then rising to the fifth on the second line, hovering around it, with special accentuation for the word "Träumen", until the fourth and final line descends back to the tonic. The second stanza repeats the same music until "Schweight still!" where a sudden shift to a forte chord on the submediant "suprises" the accompaniment into two beats of silence, followed by another vocal descent to the tonic on the stanza's last line, this time with a piano part more chromatically expressive (e.g. Neapolitan 6th chord) of the poet's deep sadness. After a fermata there is a total shift of mood and texture for the stanza of the birds' reply: the tempo changes to Allegretto, and the piano's sixteenth-note figures, obviously imitating bird-song, modulate to the relative major. The voice then enters rather low, but with a new melody which soon soars to a much higher tessitura than heretofore, eventually to a high g'. The quick piano figurations continue, constantly changing, even extending to the left hand. There is also somewhat more chromaticism (mostly secondary dominants) in this section. A quick deceptive cadence (D7 (V7 in G) to B7 (V7 in e)) overlaps the start of the fourth and final stanza. This is a tempo, which presumably means Andante again. Only the second and third lines bear resemblance to those of the first two stanzas. The first line in particular highlights the increased agitation of the poet, rising to a c' rather than remaining nearly monotonic. This is offset by a descending scale in the left hand, with only two offbeat chords in the right. The final line, repeated once, returns to the semi-monotone aspect of the opening bars, rising reluctantly by half-steps to the dominant, over syncopated, richly chromatic chords, before dropping to the tonic. The opening three measures of the accompaniment serve as postlude, before descending to the closing chords, deep in the bass.
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Copyright © 2000, Peter W. Shea