Heine-Lieder : Warte, warte wilder Schiffsmann / Crabtree

Composer: Crabtree, Leslie
Dates: 1941-
Song title: Warte, warte wilder Schiffsmann
Opus, no., etc.: Nr.6
Music collection title: Lieder
Imprint(s): -
Source(s) for score: unpublished, acquired from composer; not listed in Metzner
1st line of poem: Warte, warte wilder Schiffsman (Go to text and translation)
Source of poem: Buch der Lieder: Junge Leiden: Lieder, Nr.6
Date of composition: -
Nationality of composer: Canadian
Language(s) of text: German
Tempo marking: Quickly
Key: A minor
Time signature: 4/4
No. of measures: 48
Approximate duration: 2 min.
Form: through-composed
Vocal range: c-sharp to b-flat' [c-sharp' to b-flat"]
Vocal tessitura: somewhat high: a, b, c', e' and f' are the predominant pitches, in that order (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: mainly quarter notes, plus occasional eighth-note duplets and dotted-quarters with eighths; broadens to half notes for final phrase
Vocal intervals: most stanzas contrast phrases built of wide skips (mostly fifths and sixths) with primarily stepwise phrases; modulates frequently, many accidentals, but most intervals are easy to hear, other than the final phrase, which includes skips of a diminished seventh and a diminished octave
Vocal comments: take care not to start shouting, which is easy to do on the repeated descending fifth patterns in the upper range; male singer (tenor) more appropriate to text
Textual variants, etc.: -
Instrumental part(s): Challenging at the fast tempo, in the right hand especially: eighth-note triplet arpeggios often covering two octaves, punctuated with triplet scale passages in octaves, dominate the texture; the left hand is mostly octave halves and quarters; some vocal doubling in the middle sections
Summary: A very dramatic setting, full of contrasts between fast and moderate tempo, high and low tessitura, and marcato and legato phrases. Numerous key shifts and the extroverted piano part also add much to the effectiveness of this fine song. (Go to analysis)