Lieb Liebchen, leg's Händchen = O listen, my darling / Dresel

Composer: Dresel, Otto
Dates: 1826-1890
Song title: Lieb Liebchen, leg's Händchen = O listen, my darling
Opus, no., etc.: -
Music collection title: -
Imprint(s): Brainard [?]
Source(s) for score: Zwanzig Lieder und Gesänge für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte -- Ausgabe letzter Hand -- Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, c1892. (Pl. no. 19338)
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: German
Language(s) of text: German and English [translated by L.D.]
Tempo marking: Andante un poco agitato
Key: C minor
Time signature: common time
No. of measures: 25
Approximate duration: 1 min., 30 sec.
Form: sligtly modified strophic
Vocal range: c to f' [c' to f"], tenor/soprano with good low c, or baritone/mezzo with good high f
Vocal tessitura: lower middle tessitura (fto a) but low c and high e-flat' appear in significant numbers (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: mostly in eighth and quarter notes
Vocal intervals: mostly skips of a third to a sixth
Vocal comments: keeping intervals in tune is probably biggest vocal challenge
Textual variants, etc.: -
Instrumental part(s): piano part quite easy; mostly a repeated pattern of three eighth-notes in three- or four-voice voice chords, signifying the pounding heart, often with interesting added bass lines; one hand or the other usually reinforces the vocal melody
Summary: A successful and engaging setting which reflects the text both literally and emotionally. A wide-ranging melody with expressive leaps (the first phrase is very similar in that way to Franz's setting of this text), but which still has a somewhat percussive aspect, since its repeated eighth-notes antiphonally reflect the obsessive pounding-heartbeat pattern in the accompaniment. Subtle changes during the second stanza help keep interest (deep, bell-like long notes and lower richer chords in the piano at "hammert und klopfet;" a desperate leap up to the high f' on "Schlaf gebracht"). Harmonies are conservatively diatonic, but with some interesting use of dissonance (major seventh chords, suspensions) in the opening phrases of both stanzas.