Composer: Schumann, Robert
Dates: 1810-1856
Song title: Berg' und Burgen schaun herunter
Opus, no., etc.: op.24, Nr. 7
Music collection title: Liederkreis nach Gedichten von
Heinrich Heine für eine Singstimme mit Klavier
Imprint(s): Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1840
Analysis: The prelude is practically identical with the first four measures of the accompaniment of the song proper. Together, with their offset octaves and thirds and constant sixteenth-note motion, paint a perfect picture of the sun glinting off gently swelling waves. Only the higher swelling "waves" of the interludes between stanzas hint at things hidden in the depths. The strophic tune, almost folk-like in its simplicity, conveys little sense of the poem's conflict between beauty and deceit, which, to be fair, only becomes apparent in the last two stanzas. The lovely melody floats along at a high tessitura, skimming the surface of the song like a sailboat in the waves. In the last stanza, Schumann changes the melody slightly at "Die kann auch so freundlich nicken," inserting a dissonant f-double-sharp (descending minor seventh) to belie the "sweetness" of his beloved's nods. One hesitates to credit the ubiquitous secondary dominants and other chromatic tonicizations and voice leadings with too much importance in expressing any "underlying unease" since such techniques are so integral to Schumann's overall style. This is not to say that the song is a failure; it is as "successful" as many of Schubert's strophic settings. But Schumann's more "interventionist" approach to text-setting is avoided, and therefore the song serves as a restful "intermezzo," expressing mainly a rather nostalgic longing, amidst its more highly strung companions.
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Copyright © 2000, Peter W. Shea