Song cycle
A song cycle (German: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle, of individually complete songs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.[1]
The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combination of solo songs mingled with choral pieces.
A song cycle is similar to a song collection, and the two can be difficult to distinguish. Some type of coherence, however, is regarded as a necessary attribute of song cycles. It may derive from the text (a single poet; a story line; a central theme or topic such as love or nature; a unifying mood; poetic form or genre, as in a sonnet or ballad cycle) or from musical procedures (tonal schemes; recurring motifs, passages or entire songs; formal structures). These unifying features may appear singly or in combination.[1] Because of these many variations, the song cycle "resists definition".[6] The nature and quality of the coherence within a song cycle must therefore be examined "in individual cases".[6]
Song cycles in German Lieder
Although most European countries began developing the
Two of the earliest examples of the German song cycle were composed in 1816: Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte (Op. 98), and Die Temperamente beim Verluste der Geliebten (J. 200-3, \Op. 46) by Carl Maria von Weber.
The genre was firmly established by the cycles of Schubert; his Die schöne Müllerin (1823) and Winterreise (1827), settings of poems by Wilhelm Müller, are among his most greatly admired works. Schubert's Schwanengesang (1828), though collected posthumously, is also frequently performed as a cycle.
Das Buch der hängenden Gärten by Schoenberg and Krenek's Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen are important 20th-century examples. Wilhelm Killmayer composed several song cycles, on lyrics by Sappho, French Renaissance poets, German Romantic poets, and contemporary poets. The tradition is carried on by Wolfgang Rihm, with so far a dozen works.[citation needed] Graham Waterhouse composed a song cycle Sechs späteste Lieder after Hölderlin's late poems in 2003.[citation needed]
Song cycles in France
The six songs of
English, Scottish, and American song cycles
Perhaps the first English song cycle was
Raising Sparks (1977) by the Scottish composer James MacMillan (1997) is a more recent example. Trevor Hold wrote numerous song cycles, including many setting his own words, such as The Image Stays (1979), River Songs (1982) and Book of Beasts (1984).[14] The English composer
American examples include Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs (1953), Mélodies Passagères, and Despite and Still, and Songfest by Leonard Bernstein, Hammarskjöld Portrait (1974), Les Olympiques (1976), Tribute to a Hero (1981), Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (1989), Next Year in Jerusalem (1985), and A Year of Birds (1995) by Malcolm Williamson, Maury Yeston's December Songs (1991), commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its centennial year celebration, Honey and Rue by André Previn (composed for the American soprano Kathleen Battle). David Conte's American Death Ballads (2015) won the National Association of Teachers of Singing Composition Award in 2016.[15] Alex Weiser's song cycle in Yiddish and English, and all the days were purple (2019), was a 2020 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.[16]
Song cycles in other countries
The orchestral song cycle Sing, Poetry on the 2011 album Troika consists of settings of Vladimir Nabokov's Russian and English-language poetry by three Russian and three American composers.[17]
Cycles in other languages have been written by
Popular music
Song cycles written by popular musicians (also called
The R&B singer Raphael Saadiq's 2019 album, Jimmy Lee, is composed as a song cycle with personal narratives thematizing issues affecting African Americans, including addiction, stress, domestic conflict, AIDS, perpetual financial hardship, and mass incarceration.[19][20]
Musical theater
One of the earliest song cycle
Further reading
- Ingo Müller: "Eins in Allem und Alles in Einem": Zur Ästhetik von Gedicht- und Liederzyklus im Lichte romantischer Universalpoesie. In: Günter Schnitzler und Achim Aurnhammer (Hrsg.): Wort und Ton. Freiburg i. Br. 2011 (= Rombach Wissenschaften: Reihe Litterae. Bd. 173), S. 243–274.
References
- ^ a b c d Susan Youens, Grove online
- ^ One example is the set of Schubert songs from The Lady of the Lake. See the article on Schubert's "Ave Maria".
- ^ Called dyad-cycles, according to Youens.
- ^ Ferreira.
- ^ Mark, Jeffrey. 'The Song-Cycle in England: Some Early 17th-Century Examples', in The Musical Times, Vol. 66, No. 986 (Apr. 1, 1925), pp. 325-328
- ^ a b Daverio, Chapter 9, "The Song Cycle: Journeys Through a Romantic Landscape", German Lieder in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Rufus Hallmark, p. 366
- ^ Tunbridge, p. 2
- ^ Tunbridge, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Tunbridge, p. 3.
- ^ Tunbridge, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Tunbridge, p. 4
- ^ Bernac, Pierre (1970). The Interpretation of French Song. New York – Washington: Praeger Publishers. p36.
- ^ Myers, Rollo. Emmanuel Chabrier and his circle. Associated University Presses, Cranbury, 1970, p. 90-91.
- ^ Potter John. Trevor Hold obituary, The Guardian, 26 February 2004
- ^ "Conte Wins 2016 NATS Art Song Composition Award". National Association of Teachers of Singing. 2016-04-01. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
- ^ "Finalist: and all the days were purple, by Alex Weiser". Pulitzer.org. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
- ^ "Troika: Russia's Westerly Poetry in Three Orchestral Song Cycles", Rideau Rouge Records, ASIN: B005USB24A, 2011, liner notes, p. 4
- ^ O’Dell, Cary (2003). ""What's Going On"—Marvin Gaye (1971)" (PDF). Library of Congress. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ Kot, Greg (August 23, 2019). "Raphael Saadiq bears soulful witness to his family's anguish on 'Jimmy Lee'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (November 13, 2019). "Consumer Guide: November, 2019". And It Don't Stop. Substack. Retrieved February 1, 2020. (subscription required)
- ^ "December Songs | Works". Mauryyeston.com.
Bibliography
- Bingham, Ruth O., "The Early Nineteenth-Century Song Cycle", in The Cambridge Companion to the Lied, ed. James Parsons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 101–119.
- Hallmark, Rufus, ed. (2010). German Lieder in the Nineteenth Century. Routledge Studies in Musical Genres (paperback ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-99038-7.
- Ferreira, Manuel Pedro. 2001. "Codax [Codaz], Martin". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- ISBN 978-0-521-72107-3
- Youens, Susan. n.d. "Song Cycle". Grove Music Online, edited by Deane Root. Oxford University Press. Web. (accessed 23 September 2014) (subscription required)