Dichterliebe, Op. 48

A short piano introduction sets a hesitant, wistful mood before the voice enters with Heine's first stanza, about the May when love awoke. Although the words speak of delight, the music opens on an aching dissonance and sounds nostalgic. The second stanza follows. In the postlude the piano is left alone and ends on a chord that expects a home key which never comes, so the song hangs open and leads straight into the next.

1. 0:12Piano Introduction
2. 0:21Stanza I
3. 0:56Stanza II
4. 1:38Unresolved Piano Postlude

Four-bar phrases give this song a compact shape: the melody is heard in A1 and again in A2, a contrasting phrase (B) arrives, and the opening melody returns in A3. The poet offers her flowers grown from his tears and nightingale songs born of his sighs, if she will only love him. The voice finishes first; then the piano completes the close alone.

1. 2:04A1
2. 2:17A2
3. 2:32B
4. 2:45A3
5. 2:56Piano Completion / close

Words come quickly here, set almost syllable by syllable in a continuous flow from the start, as the poet lists the rose, the lily, the dove and the sun, all things he once loved. Then the accompaniment moves into a lower register. Near the end the voice puts its weight on the last words, where he says that now he loves only one, and then the piano postlude starts.

1. 3:05Rapid continuous text-setting
2. 3:25Lower-register accompaniment shift
3. 3:46Final vocal emphasis
4. 3:52Piano Postlude

Four phrases follow each other, each lifting the feeling a little higher. Looking into her eyes eases the poet's pain, yet when she says she loves him he weeps. A turn to C major marks the second phrase and a turn to E minor the fourth, where the climax comes. Then the piano postlude begins. In his own copy of Heine, Schumann dated this poem 8 February 1836, the day he saw Clara again after a long separation.

1. 4:05Phrase 1
2. 4:19Phrase 2 / C-major turn
3. 4:30Phrase 3
4. 4:42Phrase 4 / E-minor turn and climax
5. 4:49Piano Postlude

Two stanzas share one repeating accompaniment pattern: the first opens the song and the second follows with the pattern continuing. The poet imagines dipping his soul into the cup of a lily, which will sing a song of his love. After the voice ends, the piano postlude dwells on the memory of that sweet hour.

1. 5:08Strophe I
2. 5:19Strophe II / repeated pattern
3. 5:32Piano Postlude

Slow, hymn-like chords in the opening stanza suggest a cathedral organ, while the right hand ripples like the river that mirrors Cologne Cathedral. The second stanza follows, and a passage of diminished-seventh harmony, the interlude, leads into the third, where the poet sees in the cathedral a face that resembles that of the woman he loves. The voice closes, and the long postlude brings back the opening material.

1. 5:44Stanza I / hymn-organ texture
2. 6:38Stanza II
3. 6:57Diminished-seventh Interlude
4. 7:03Stanza III
5. 7:26Vocal Close
6. 7:30Extended Postlude / opening-material reprise

The poet insists that he bears no grudge, even though his heart is breaking. The first part makes this case; the second part returns with greater intensity in voice and piano. A final shock chord ends the song abruptly. Livia Frege and Clara Schumann gave it its first public hearing in December 1844, and it soon circulated on its own.

1. 8:00First Part
2. 8:45Second Part / intensified return
3. 9:25Final Shock-chord Close

Four stanzas (Strophes I to IV) tell how flowers, nightingales and stars would share his grief if they knew it, but only she knows what she has done. Very fast fluttering notes in the piano suggest birdsong and starlight. The fourth stanza varies the pattern and settles more firmly on the home key. The agitated postlude conveys speechless rage and despair.

1. 9:30Strophe I
2. 9:41Strophe II
3. 9:49Strophe III
4. 9:57Strophe IV / tonicizing variation
5. 10:05Agitated Piano Postlude

A jealous mind hears the wedding band: flutes and violins play dance music, while repeated bass notes keep returning like an obsession. Verse I opens the song, a modulating interlude leads to the varied second verse, and the poem ends with cupids sobbing among the festivities. The long postlude brings back the introduction, and a chromatic descent sinks to the close.

1. 10:10Verse I
2. 10:44Modulating Interlude
3. 10:47Verse II / varied repeat
4. 11:35Extended Piano Postlude
5. 11:38Introduction Reprise within postlude
6. 11:52Chromatic Closing Descent

A four-bar piano introduction is followed by the voice. The poet hears a little song that she once sang, and it overwhelms him so that he goes up into the forest to weep. After the voice ends, an eleven-bar postlude begins, a sorrowful comment from the piano, and then the music speeds up as it falls away.

1. 11:59Four-measure Piano Introduction
2. 12:06Vocal Section
3. 12:33Eleven-measure Piano Postlude
4. 12:42Accelerated descending passage

After a four-bar introduction the voice tells an old story: a young man loves a girl who has chosen someone else, and the poem remarks that such a story is old yet always new. Later the texture changes, and the harmonic high point arrives with the last vocal phrase. The postlude follows, grows more accented, and a cadential extension draws it out to the end.

1. 12:54Four-measure Piano Introduction
2. 13:00Vocal Narrative
3. 13:22Textural contrast
4. 13:35Final Vocal Phrase / harmonic climax
5. 13:41Piano Postlude
6. 13:55Accented Postlude Expansion
7. 14:04Cadential Extension

The first stanza sets a garden scene on a bright summer morning, in which the flowers speak to the poet and urge him not to be harsh. Then the music slows for the rest of the poem. A ten-bar piano postlude follows and has the last word.

1. 14:10Stanza I / garden scene
2. 15:01slower turn
3. 15:11Ten-measure Piano Postlude

The poet dreams that he has lost the woman he loves and wakes in tears. In the first strophe the voice declaims almost like recitative with the piano answering; Eric Sams hears a funeral procession in E-flat minor, a key Schumann linked with death. The second strophe follows. Then the piano takes over the vocal theme, and in the third strophe voice and piano sing together. After the voice closes, a rest marks the separation, then the piano postlude begins.

1. 15:34Strophe I / recitative dialogue
2. 16:03Strophe II
3. 16:37taking over the vocal theme
4. 16:40Strophe III / voice and piano together
5. 16:59Vocal Close
6. 17:01Rest / separation
7. 17:04Piano Postlude

Each of the three stanzas (Strophes I, II and III) tells of seeing her in dreams every night, and of waking to find that he has forgotten the word she gave him. Short piano interludes separate the stanzas. Much of the piano part was still missing in Schumann's working manuscript, so he filled it in when he prepared the cycle for print.

1. 17:33Strophe I
2. 17:53Piano Interlude
3. 17:55Strophe II
4. 18:15Piano Interlude
5. 18:18Strophe III

An eight-bar piano introduction leads to the voice, which describes a fairy-tale land of joy. Interludes divide the stanzas, and a sequential build-up climbs towards the peak. Then the main theme returns in longer notes for the last two stanzas, the song's climax. A final lament follows, the voice closes, and the postlude dissolves as the vision vanishes like smoke.

1. 18:49Piano Introduction
2. 19:07Vocal Entry
3. 19:49Piano Interlude
4. 20:38Piano Interlude
5. 21:45Sequential Build-up
6. 22:19Augmented-theme Climax / final two-stanza span
7. 23:33Final Lament
8. 24:06Vocal Close
9. 24:12Piano Postlude
10. 24:34Dissolving Close

A three-bar fanfare opens the last song, and then the voice declaims about the old, bad songs. A sequential middle span follows; later the texture turns into a procession as the huge coffin is carried to the sea. Broad chords arrive next, then a syncopated transition, and the final vocal phrase is marked Adagio. After that the meter and tempo change, and a melody returns in the bass. This is the song under which Schumann wrote "Schluss" in June 1840.

1. 24:51Three-measure Fanfare Introduction
2. 24:59Declamatory Vocal Section
3. 25:25Sequential Middle Span
4. 26:07Coffin Procession / texture change
5. 26:17Broad Chordal Span
6. 26:25Syncopated Transition
7. 26:41Adagio Final Vocal Phrase
8. 27:08meter and tempo change
9. 27:56Bass-melody Return
10. 28:14Cadential Extension