Composer: Crabtree, Leslie
Dates: 1941-
Song title: Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden
Opus, no., etc.: Nr.5
Music collection title: Lieder
Imprint(s): -
Analysis: There is no prelude, since this is meant to follow attaca from the E major cadence of the previous song in Crabtree's cycle. A slow and expressive melody unfolds, somwhat similar in outline to Schumann's tune for the same words (Crabtree states that he did not know Schumann's versions when he set these texts), but slower, and with a less agitated accompaniment (a slow moving bass line with right-hand ascending quarter notes) . The tune's first two phrases are each in inverted arch form, communicating well the text's sadness at farewell; then the second pair of phrases reverses that contour, expressing thereby the poet's longing to remain. The second stanza has only minor vocal changes from the first, but is intensified accompanimentally by doubling the voice with full chords in the right hand and continuous eighth-note arpeggios in the left hand. After the cadence a descending bass line leads into the relative minor. (Crabtree likes to make transitions between sections in different keys in the Purcellian manner, by simple stepwise motion in the solo bass line; although this is economical it is somewhat at odds with the prevailing conservatively Romantic style of most of his songs, where such transitions are more often smoothly integrated into the surrounding textures). The key change also signals a change in texture (short wave-like eight-note melismas echoing each other in treble and bass) and tempo (slower). A short interlude in this manner leads into the third stanza. Each line begins with the wave-like motif, which, when combined with the sunsequent slow quarter notes and lowered tessitura, makes this section sound like a funeral march, quite appropriate to the bitter sentiments expressed ("Would that I had never seen you"). The last phrase's cry of wretchedness rises to the highest point yet (f-sharp'). Another interlude in the funeral-march vein leads smoothly into the fourth stanza, back in E major. The melody and texture here are similar to the first two stanzas, but all of the phrases are arch-shaped, none inverted. Since this stanza dwells on past wishes rather than present farewells, this more expansive melody serves the text well. Grief at what did not come to pass is further expressed when the last phrase is interrupted after "Wollt' ich" ("I wished"), a half-measure rest followed by a repeat in the piano of those words' choked-out quarter notes, before the voice can finish the line. Another immediate "Purcellian" shift, this time to C minor, brings in the fourth stanza, with its much faster tempo, the third stanza's ominous eighth-note melismas in octaves in the piano's bass, and widely ranging eighth-note triplet arpeggios in the treble. There are only two phrases in this stanza, since the voice declaims the overwrought text almost entirely in quarter notes, and although the general arch shape is still preserved, the overall effect is much more jagged. The transition to the final stanza is again solitary half note octaves deep in the bass; this time the pivot is B (VII of C minor, V of E major). A slightly modified version of the first stanza tune serves for the last, albeit at an even slower tempo, and against slow quarter-note triplet arpeggios, all illustrative of the text's weary, listless trudging. The penultimate phrase rises to a high g-sharp' on "Haupt", before descending to the cadential "kühles Grab." The long piano postlude reprises the fourth stanza's expansive melody over continued quarter-note triplets, but its final phrase echoes those of the first and second stanzas.
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Copyright © 2000, Peter W. Shea