Heine-Lieder : Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen / Schumann

Composer: Schumann, Robert
Dates: 1810-1856
Song title: Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen
Opus, no., etc.: op.24, Nr.8
Music collection title: Liederkreis nach Gedichten von Heinrich Heine für eine Singstimme mit Klavier
Imprint(s): Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1840
Source(s) for score: Schumann, Sämtliche Lieder für eine Singstimme mit Klavierbegleitung, Bd. II, ed. Friedländer -- Originalausgabe (hohe Stimme) -- NY : C.F. Peters, [n.d.] Pl. no.9559
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: 1840
Nationality of composer: German
Language(s) of text: German
Tempo marking: [none supplied; recorded performers take a wide variety of tempos]
Key: D minor
Time signature: common time
No. of measures: 11
Approximate duration: 45 sec. to 1 min. 30 sec.
Form: through-composed
Vocal range: g to f' [g' to f"]
Vocal tessitura: fairly high, narrow compass; centers on d' (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: mostly quarter notes, some dotted quarter/eighth-note patterns
Vocal intervals: mostly stepwise motion, a few descending thirds
Vocal comments: -
Textual variants, etc.: last two words repeated on half cadence; Peters ed. leaves out important comma before final word
Instrumental part(s): a simple four-voice chorale in steady quarter-notes, octave doubling in bass
Summary: This tiny, one-stanza "chorale" is the most austere setting imaginable (other than voice alone) and conveys perfectly a sense of stoic resignation, almost as if the protagonist is confessing alone, in front of the altar in an empty church. It cannot stand alone, since the half cadence on A major on the repeated final words is a question mark leading directly into its answer, the cycle's concluding song in D major. For a fascinating analysis of the entire Heine Liederkreis see Berthold Hoeckner's "Poet's Love and Composer's Love" in Music Theory Online, Volume 7, Number 5, October 2001.