https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqF61SSHK_8
Schmerzen, the fourth song in Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, was composed in 1857 to a set of five poems written by the wife of one of Wagner’s patrons, Mathilde Wesendonck. Originally written for solo voice and piano, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder proved to outshine the various other vocal songs he composed. This particular song cycle was also written at the same time Wagner was working on one of his most famous operas, Tristan und Isolde. In fact, Wagner composed two of the songs from this song cycle as ‘studies for Tristan und Isolde.’ Therefore, these particular songs exhibit similar characteristics and musical ideas to that of the actual opera.
We have learned in class that Romantic art possesses certain central themes that are used to evoke an emotional experience. Schmerzen is a perfect example of Romantic art that is completely shaped by the central theme of “nature.” After my own careful analysis of the song, I believe that Wagner’s goal was to construct a musical metaphor that made sense of the idea that there is a protagonist fighting to discover hope whilst in the midst of great struggle and turmoil. The musical metaphor he uses is nature. Schmerzen is divided into two large formal sections. In this first section, the text talks about the Sun and how even though it “weeps” or sets every evening as it falls to it’s “early death,” the Sun will still always “rise with accustomed splendor…as a proud, victorious hero” each and every day. The focus on nature is fairly obvious here.
Wagner then takes this a step further in the second section of the song by switching the focus from nature, to the emotions of the song’s protagonist. She wonders, “why, my heart, are you so heavy?” She begins to question the justification for complaining about her emotional struggles and inner turmoil because of what we learned in that first formal section about nature. It was the comparison of her own unhappiness to the death/setting of the Sun that gave her hope. By the time we get to the final stanza, the singer expresses that “pains always bring forth joys” just as the Sun will inevitably rise.
Now that I have explained the metaphor of nature from a primarily text based analysis, it is important to also acknowledge the musical techniques Wagner uses to emphasize this central theme of nature. In Schmerzen it is safe to assume that tonality and mode equal affect and meaning. Wagner uses a lot of unexpected modulations that I will try to make sense out of.
The piece begins in c minor which helps evoke a sad affect to reflect the sad text talking about the weeping and setting of the Sun. This first section about the Sun and nature, however, cadences in B-flat major after modulating to this key to reflect the change in mood that also occurs in the text. It is here that the Sun is “newly awakened” as a “proud and victorious hero!” Then the second section begins like the first, in c minor, with the text also portraying a sad and dejected mood (the protagonist wondering, “why, my heart, are you so heavy?”). After more modulation, Wagner eventually ends the final stanza with a cadence in A-flat major that reflects finally being “thankful” for “such pains” that were apparent in the earlier minor mode sections. However, even though the final stanza cadences in A-flat major, the song itself then goes on to modulate again and finally cadence in C major (the parallel major of Schermzen’s original key). The fact that the solo vocal line cuts out before this final modulation to C major suggests that the singer’s deliverance from pain hasn’t quite happened yet. This creates the idea that even though the protagonist is struggling, they are still able to find hope even while the sense of salvation is not quite tangible yet.
WORKS CITED
Barry Millington, et al. “Wagner.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed March 5, 2015.
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/29769pg1.
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