Der Zimmermann / Lange-Müller

Composer: Lange-Müller, Peter Erasmus
Dates: 1850-1926
Song title: Der Zimmermann
Opus, no., etc.: op.27, Nr.5
Music collection title: Sechs ernste Lieder für eine Singstimme mit Klavier
Imprint(s): Nordisk Musikforlag
Source(s) for score: P. E. Lange Müller Sange : 2det Bind -- Kjøbenhavn : Wilhelm Hansen ; Nordisk Musik-Forlag (OCLC #25726325; #27697290); also in vol. 2 of Modern Scandinavian Songs -- Boston : O. Ditson, 1926 (high voice: OCLC #21513622; #1985039; low voice: OCLC #34754127; #22880441; #4706365)
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: Danish
Language(s) of text: German
Tempo marking: Andante moderato
Key: B minor; available in high and low versions
Time signature: common time
No. of measures: 12
Approximate duration: 1 min., 15 sec.
Form: Slightly varied strophic
Vocal range: e to d' [e' to d"], good for any voice of medium range
Vocal tessitura: very restricted: mostly f-sharp, f-double-sharp and g-sharp (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: usually eighth note followed by two sixteenths, with an occasional dotted-eighth/sixteeenth pattern (these are expanded upon somewhat in the second stanza)
Vocal intervals: normally by step or third with a couple of upward leaps of a fifth
Vocal comments: because of narrow compass the occasional non-chord tones against the piano are not difficult to place
Textual variants, etc.: words of poem are changed in a few places: in the first stanza "pochet" becomes "pocht," and in the first two lines of the second stanza "Es" becomes "Er", personalizing the "carpenter" in the poet's heart, perhaps to make it seem as if the poet might be hallucinating rather than merely speaking metaphorically, which fits in with the obsessive, closed-in nature of the song
Instrumental part(s): piano part quite easy; all but two measures consist of legato quarter note chords under an ostinato of three sixteenth notes on f-sharp' or g' after a sixteenth rest
Summary: A focused, intense, almost claustrophobic setting, similar to Reisenauer's version, but even more innig. The narrow compass of the voice (almost an incantation) and the monotone sixteenth-note ostinato (obviously the poet's beating heart), underlaid by slowly descending mysterioso chromatic harmonies, combine to produce a portait of a mind trapped in its obsessions. The anxiety and agitation inherent in the poem must be conveyed by intensity of diction and subtlety of accent of the part of the singer, otherwise this nearly monotone gem could fade to true monotony. The basically diatonic harmonic structure is extensively overlaid with chromatically altered chords with more coloristic than tonal function.