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How to use the Ihr Lieder! website
How to use
Ihr Lieder! Ihr meine guten Lieder!
What is it?
What is included?
How is it constructed?
Future enhancements?
This website is the pilot phase of a long-term project to create and disseminate online reviews of all available musical settings for one or two voices of Heinrich Heine's poems, starting with settings of his earliest lyrics.The ultimate goal is to familiarize as many performers as possible with the wealth of music which is available, and to stimulate the study and performance of these songs.
This pilot phase is intended to elicit constructive comments, responses, and suggestions. These will be taken into account while the project continues. Please send feedback to: shea@library.umass.edu
Why Heine?
Heinrich Heine has been set to music more than any other poet (except "the psalmist," as some say). There have been well over 10,000 settings composed, and thousands more variant arrangements and editions of those settings. There are well over 8000 works for one or two voices, as listed in this website's companion database, the Heine Lieder Query. As a point of comparison, the recent Shakespeare music bibliography published by Oxford University Press is in 5 volumes, while Günter Metzner's Heine in der Musik runs to 12 volumes.
How did you find these songs?
Metzner's monumental bibliography Heine in der Musik is the foundation upon which this project rests, the starting point of my long journey. Although I have discovered over 2000 Heine settings which Metzner missed (many of them American), the majority are listed in Metzner, along with an astounding array of data on arrangements, editions, secondary sources, performances, recordings, reviews, etc. Heine in der Musik can be found at many music research libraries. At the start of this project I (with the help of my friend Marcelle Lipke and my son Simon) began the creation of an EndNote database of entries from Metzner, limiting that database to works for one or two voices. That database has grown enormously over the years, and is now available online at the Heine Lieder Query website.
What is included?
Poems: only settings of Heine's earliest poems are indexed and reviewed here, i.e. those lyrics which appeared in his first collection Gedichte (1822) and in Junge Leiden, the first section of his most famous collection, Buch der Lieder (1827). This project will be extended gradually into later portions of Buch der Lieder, and then into later collections of Heine's poetry. Please contact me if you have questions about musical settings of Heine poems not yet covered here.Genre: only vocal settings for one or two voices are indexed and reviewed here, with or without accompaniment of any kind. Choral works, ballets, vocal trios or quartets, instrumental works inspired by the poems, etc. are not included. See Günter Metzner's 12-volume bibliography Heine in der Musik for listings of such material. This work is held in many major music research libraries.
There are five basic "layers" to this website as it now stands:
1. home pages |
1. The home page and introductory and explanatory pages (including this one)
a. The Index of composers lists only those composers whose songs are or soon will be reviewed. Each song is listed individually under the composer's name. If a review is available, there is a clickable arrow before the entry, plus a link from the song's title to the review page. If a review is forthcoming, there is a parenthetical note to that effect.
b. The Index of first lines and titles lists all those poems which have been set to music, and the titles given to those poems by Heine, whether or not they have reviews on this site. These entries link to the individual poem pages (see below). Additionally, song titles given by composers are listed if they differ from Heine's title or first line, and are linked to that song's review page, or to the poem page if more than one composer has used a particular title. Finally, an entry is made if the first line of a song text is significantly different from Heine's first line, for example, when an excerpt from within a poem or a variant version of a poem is set to music.
c. The Listing of poems in published order is in effect a table of contents of Heine's books of poetry, at present only through the end of Junge Leiden (the first section of Buch der Lieder) plus a few additional poems from Gedichte which were not included in Buch der Lieder. All poems are listed here, whether they were set to music or not, with links to the individual poem pages for those that were. Total numbers of one- or two-voice settings, followed by the number of songs reviewed, appear in parentheses.
3. The poem pages: a page for every poem which has been set to music for one or two voices. A poem page lists all settings in this order:
a. Settings for which there are review pages, in alphabetical order by composer, with clickable arrows before the entries, plus a link from the song's title to the review page.b. Settings for which review pages are forthcoming (labelled "Reviews coming soon"), in alphabetical order by composer. I have scores for these songs but am still in the process of creating the individual critiques.
c. Settings for which scores are needed, in alphabetical order by composer. Any and all assistance towards acquiring scores for these songs in any format is much appreciated.
4. The reviews: a page for every song which has been reviewed, with 26 labelled fields covering various aspects of the song. A "dummy" review page has been created as a guide.
5. The texts, charts and analyses; these are adjuncts to the main review pages which are accessible by hyperlink:
a. Texts: if there is an English translation of the poem available, a "Go to text and translation" hyperlink at the end of the 1st line of poem field connects you to the appropriate page on Emily Ezust's Lied and Song Texts website at http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/ . If there is no translation available, a "Go to text" link takes you to the appropriate page of Heine's complete works at the website of Projekt Gutenberg DE (http://www.gutenberg2000.de/).
b. Charts of general vocal range and tessitura are accessed by clicking on "Go to chart" at the end of the Vocal tessitura field. These charts are meant as general guides only, since they do not take into account accidentals or variations in tessitura within a song. These are plain .GIF files, originally created using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The number of beats on each degree of the diatonic scale was entered and totaled to create the chart. They were created with the normal male range in mind (arbitrarily, mainly because I am a tenor), so altos, countertenors, mezzos and sopranos must mentally transpose the charts up an octave. Pitch nomenclature: middle c = c'
Octave starting on middle c = c' upward to b'Octave below middle c = c upward to b
Octave below that = C upward to B
c. Analyses: in-depth, "blow-by-blow" analyses of selected songs are provided on a separate page accessed by clicking on "Go to analysis" at the end of the final, Summary field of the review. Originally I was intending to write one for each song, but although they were an intriguing and worthwhile exercise in coming to know these songs intimately, they are extremely time-consuming to write. Since realistically I can't expect them to be of major use to performers, especially without the scores, I have left off writing them. I provide those I have written for those few who may be interested.
Other features under consideration for future "enhancements" of this site:
Score images for songs not under copyrightSound files of recordings: I have recorded each of these songs myself as an aid in writing the reviews, but these are "home-made" recordings of rough read-throughs, and, apart from any considerations of personal vanity, it would not be fair to subject my pianist friends to public scrutiny of their often heroic feats of sight-reading. Any recordings suitable for posting on this site should be well-rehearsed, professional-level performances, professionally recorded, which would entail my finding additional funding sources. If any performers wish to submit recordings for possible posting, contact me at: shea@library.umass.edu
Additional suggestions are welcome.
Go to Index of first lines and titles
Go to Listing of poems in published order
Copyright © 2000, Peter W. Shea
Last Edited: 5 February 2009
