Heine-Lieder : Lieb Liebchen, leg's Händchen aufs Herze mein / Vanderstucken

Composer: Vanderstucken, Frank Valentin [Stucken, van der Stucken]
Dates: 1858-1929
Song title: Lieb Liebchen, leg's Händchen aufs Herze mein = Leg liefgen, dijn handjen ot harte mijn
Opus, no., etc.: op.5, Heft I, Nr.3
Music collection title: Neun Gesänge (Deutsche und Niederländischer Text) für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte
Imprint(s): Leipzig: Kistner
Source(s) for score: reprint of original publication, Huntsville, TX : Recital Publications, 1986
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: American
Language(s) of text: German and Flemish words; Flemish translation by H.J. Beverans
Tempo marking: Mässig (Matig)
Key: F minor
Time signature: common time
No. of measures: 22 (one of 2/4)
Approximate duration: 1 min., 45 sec.
Form: Strophic, slightly modified in second stanza
Vocal range: c to e-flat' (c' to e-flat"), tenor or soprano, high baritone or mezzo
Vocal tessitura: medium tessitura (a to d'), c' being the song's predominant pitch (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: dominated by alternating eighth-note duplets and quarter notes, broken occasionally by dotted patterns and syncopations
Vocal intervals: mostly by step and third, with many descending chromatic semitones, plus a few larger intervals (fourths, sixths and an upward octave leap at the start of each stanza)
Vocal comments: this song calls for good breath control and very accurate pitch for the slow descending chromatic lines; great attention to dynamics and frequently changing tempos is needed, or the song may lose interest
Textual variants, etc.: in the second stanza a word is left out ("bei Tag und bei Nacht") in order to repeat verbatim the first stanza's rhythmic profile; "sputet euch" and "balde" are repeated
Instrumental part(s): piano part not technically difficult; coordination with the voice will be the major challenge, due to frequent tempo changes, written rubatos, and nearly constant doubling of the vocal melody in the right hand, often in octaves; four- to six-voice texture; many accidentals; detailed pedal markings; a rather Schumannesque postlude.
Summary: A curious and unique setting of this text which forgoes any musical references to beating hearts or pounding hammers. The composer strives for a sense of unfulfilled longing, which of course is the underlying cause of the poet's physical symptoms. Harmonically this effect is achieved by extensive use of suspensions and other dissonances within a context of richly chromatic voice-leading and modal ambiguity. Melodically the upward leaps and skips, especially those of a minor third, contribute to a feeling of yearning, which is continually offset by the mournfully descending chromatic semitones which follow. The slow tempo with its frequent ritardandos is only occasionally interrupted by dotted-eighth/sixteenth-note patterns and syncopated entrances in the vocal part, mainly in the more exclamatory second stanza.