Heine-Lieder : Mit Rosen, Zypressen und Flittergold / Crabtree

Composer: Crabtree, Leslie
Dates: 1941-
Song title: Mit Rosen, Zypressen und Flittergold
Opus, no., etc.: Nr.9
Music collection title: Lieder
Imprint(s): -
Source(s) for score: unpublished, acquired from composer; not listed in Metzner
1st line of poem: Mit Rosen, Zypressen und Flittergold (Go to text)
Source of poem: Buch der Lieder: Junge Leiden: Lieder, Nr.9
Date of composition: -
Nationality of composer: Canadian
Language(s) of text: German
Tempo marking: Somewhat fast
Key: E major
Time signature: 4/4 (2 measures of 2/4, one of 6/4)
No. of measures: 73
Approximate duration: -
Form: through-composed
Vocal range: B to g-sharp' [b to g-sharp"]
Vocal tessitura: medium (Go to chart)
Vocal rhythms: mostly quarter and eighth notes, often one quarter followed by eighth-note duplet, a few longer eighth-note melismas; some sixteenth notes in quasi recit. passage
Vocal intervals: most motion by step and third, especially in opening and closing stanzas, but middle stanzas have many wider skips, including several sixths, sevenths and ninths.
Vocal comments: very grateful for a voice with a relatively wide compass; a tenor or soprano would need excellent low B's to sing this well; a mezzo or baritone would need a ringing high g-sharp
Textual variants, etc.: Crabtree uses the later, extensively revised edition of this poem, quite different from the version Schumann used, especially in the opening stanza
Instrumental part(s): much of the song has various types of sixteenth-note figurations (broken chords, arpeggios) in the right hand; other sections more chordal (some martial, some syncopated); left hand almost entirely half notes in octaves; long postlude is a modified reprise of Song 5's postlude
Summary: An expansive, wide-ranging melody and propulsive piano figurations help sweep this song forward, before things gradually slow down in the last two stanzas. It is similar in many ways to Schumann's setting, but it lacks some of that version's seamlessness and elan. A worthy effort nonetheless, and the long, slow postlude helps knit the cycle together.