Lied v. H. Heine / Kücken

Composer: Kücken, Friedrich Wilhelm
Dates: 1810-1882
Song title: Lied v. H. Heine
Opus, no., etc.: op.17, Nr.2
Music collection title: Fünftes Liederheft. Fünf Lieder für eine Singstimme mit Klavier
Imprint(s): Berlin: Trautwein & C.; Bahn; Heinrichshofen
Source(s) for score: Liederspende … No. 69 -- Berlin: Trautwein: 2 separate copies bound into volume of sheet music "Lieder: Kücken, Tiehsen, Lachner" at Boston Public Library (**M.221.25)
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
Tempo marking: Allegro ma non troppo
Key: B minor
Time signature: 3/4
No. of measures: 74
Approximate duration: 1 min., 45 sec.
Form: through-composed
Vocal range: d to f' [d' to f"]
Vocal tessitura: lower middle (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: variety of typical 3/4 patterns, especially dotted-quarter/eighth/quarter-note and half/quarter-note
Vocal intervals: majority of motion is stepwise, but larger intervals from thirds to an octave are common
Vocal comments: quite easy, but needs dramatic flair to bring the song to life
Textual variants, etc.: the last words of both stanzas ("einen Todtensarg" and "balde schlafen kann") are repeated, as are the first two lines of the second stanza
Instrumental part(s): not very difficult, but requires some stamina to maintain the steady off-beat pulse at the fast tempo indicated; see additonal notes in Summary below
Summary: This is a competent, extroverted setting of this text. The passionate and dramatic vocal part, which alternates between wide-ranging phrases and rising chromatic perorations, is put in effective relief against a contrasting piano part. For nearly the entire song the accompaniment is an unbroken steady pulse of staccato eighth notes, "illustrating" the poet's nervous palpitations: off-beat two- or three-note chords in the right hand continuously alternating with a staccato on-the-beat bass-line (doubled at the octave when static). This pattern is broken only momentarily by a legato bass line which replies to the voice after a couple of climactic moments, and at the end, when the right-hand "heartbeat" falters and "dies" away (marked morendo). Rather conventional but effective use of early Romantic harmonic vocabulary, including a deceptive cadence to a startling diminished seventh chord towards the end of the first stanza, and chain of modulations under a rising chromatic phrase at the beginning of the second stanza.