Book contents
- Schubert’s Piano
- Schubert’s Piano
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Conventions
- Introduction
- Part I The Piano in Schubert’s World
- Part II Instruments and Performance
- Part III Sound and Musical Imagery
- 8 Schubert as Balladeer
- 9 The Piano and Musical Imagery in Schubert’s Lieder
- 10 Franz Schubert, Death and the Gothic
- 11 Una Corda: Beethoven’s and Schubert’s Exploration of the Piano’s Sonority as a Structural Resource
- Part IV Understanding Schubert’s Writing for the Piano
- Select Bibliography
- Index
9 - The Piano and Musical Imagery in Schubert’s Lieder
from Part III - Sound and Musical Imagery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2024
- Schubert’s Piano
- Schubert’s Piano
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Conventions
- Introduction
- Part I The Piano in Schubert’s World
- Part II Instruments and Performance
- Part III Sound and Musical Imagery
- 8 Schubert as Balladeer
- 9 The Piano and Musical Imagery in Schubert’s Lieder
- 10 Franz Schubert, Death and the Gothic
- 11 Una Corda: Beethoven’s and Schubert’s Exploration of the Piano’s Sonority as a Structural Resource
- Part IV Understanding Schubert’s Writing for the Piano
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the early 1820s, music critics called attention to an innovative feature of certain Schubert Lieder: musical imagery in the piano accompaniment that both unifies the song and creates dramatic immediacy. Writers hailed this aspect of ‘Erlkönig’ (Op. 1) and ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’ (Op. 2) in particular. The two songs’ main musical motifs – racing triplet rhythms evoking a galloping horse and a whirling sixteenth-note pattern evoking a spinning wheel – do more than provide unity and vivify the represented scene, however; they also powerfully contribute to the expression of changing emotions. The outer and inner worlds of the song persona(e) converge in, and are projected through, the piano accompaniment. This chapter examines the nature of musical imagery in Schubert Lieder, different ways that the musical motifs evolve, and the interpretive significance of those changes. The motif might be placed in new contexts, altered from within, fragmented, interrupted, or sounded with greater or lesser frequency, to the point of disappearing. Paradoxically, it might even evolve in meaning by resisting change. Songs analysed include ‘Erlkönig’, ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’, ‘Meeres Stille’, ‘Auf dem Wasser zu singen’, ‘Jägers Abendlied’, ‘Halt!’, ‘Gefrorne Tränen’, ‘Letzte Hoffnung’, ‘Im Dorfe’, ‘Der Wegweiser’ and ‘Die Stadt’.
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- Information
- Schubert's Piano , pp. 180 - 200Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024