Lieb Liebchen, leg's Händchen / Crabtree

Composer: Crabtree, Leslie
Dates: 1941-
Song title: Lieb Liebchen, leg's Händchen
Opus, no., etc.: Nr.4
Music collection title: Lieder
Imprint(s): -
Source(s) for score: unpublished, acquired from composer; not listed in Metzner
1st line of poem: Lieb Liebchen, leg's Händchen aufs Herze (Go to text and translation)
Source of poem: Buch der Lieder: Junge Leiden: Lieder, Nr.4
Date of composition: -
Nationality of composer: Canadian
Language(s) of text: German
Tempo marking: Moderately
Key: G major/E minor/major
Time signature: 4/4
No. of measures: 27
Approximate duration: 50 sec.
Form: Modified strophic (AA')
Vocal range: d to f-sharp' [d' to f-sharp"], tenor or soprano
Vocal tessitura: medium to slightly high tessitura (a to e') (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: quarter and eighth notes
Vocal intervals: nearly all steps and thirds, a few fourths; some accidentals but since all are part of secondary dominant chords they are easily heard
Vocal comments: few vocal difficulties except for text underlay (see analysis)
Textual variants, etc.: -
Instrumental part(s): piano part very easy: nearly all staccato chords, four-voice texture with octave doubling in left hand
Summary: Unique but effective setting of this text; deceptively simple. No other version systematically begins the first two lines of each stanza on the downbeat. Simple diatonic harmonies with momentary tonicizations of various scale degrees. (Go to analysis)