Heine-Lieder : Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen / Liszt

Composer: Liszt, Franz
Dates: 1811-1886
Song title: Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen
Opus, no., etc.: Heft III, Nr.14
Music collection title: Franz Liszt's gesammelte Lieder mit Begleitung des Pianoforte
Imprint(s): Leipzig: Kahnt, 1880
Source(s) for score: An anthology of song / Goss, ed. -- C. Fischer : 1929
1st line of poem: Anfangs wollt' ich fast verzagen (Go to text and translation)
Source of poem: Buch der Lieder: Junge Leiden: Lieder, Nr.8
Date of composition: 1856; first published 1860 according to 1908 ed. of complete works
Nationality of composer: Hungarian
Language(s) of text: German
Tempo marking: Poco Andante
Key: F-sharp major
Time signature: 3/4
No. of measures: 40
Approximate duration: 2 min., 15 sec.
Form: through-composed
Vocal range: c-sharp to f-sharp', with B in ossia [c-sharp' to f-sharp", with b in ossia]; score specifies "Mezzosopran oder Bariton"
Vocal tessitura: middle to slightly high for a baritone or mezzo (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: mostly quarter and half notes
Vocal intervals: much semitone movement, which alternates with passages of wider intervals, notably ascending and descending fifths
Vocal comments: some phrases cover an octave or more, especially penultimate phrase, starting on lowest and ending on higest note; ossia for the unaccompanied first statement of the poem's final line is significantly lower than "preferred" phrase, starting on B, and its change of color may be more effective.
Textual variants, etc.: final line is repeated fragmentarily several times
Instrumental part(s): not very difficult; mostly four-voice chords in quarter note motion, heavily chromatic; changes to more intricate texture towards end, with overlapping voices in left-hand half-notes, including crossovers, and a similar melodic pattern to first section in right hand coupled with eighth-note duplet ostinato
Summary: A finely crafted, harmonically adventurous song. Interprets the poem's spirit as exhausted but defiant, in contrast to Schumann's austere chorale-like resignation. Both piano and vocal parts are characterized by trudging phrases replete with pauses, chromatically descending passages redolent of exhaustion alternating with awkward, struggling upward leaps. Stretches the small frame of the single stanza almost to the breaking point.