jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (05/07/84)
I don't know, but I have noticed a peculiar thing with Wolf's songs,
especially "Italienisches liederbuch": These are mostly love songs of
one kind or another. The more light-hearted ones tend to be in F or Bflat.
Eflat and Aflat are for more serious and tender ones. As the texts get
progressively desperate/horny, we go to Dflat or Gflat. When we come
out on the other side to E, for instance, we find the religious feelings
beginning to come up. Counterexamples are easy to find, but a general
trend of this kind seems to be there.
just another classical creep,
Jeff Winslowgreg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley) (05/09/84)
The subject of keys in Wolf songs brings up two questions to which
I don't have answers, but with regard to which I'd be interested
in seeing further discussion:
(1) Accepted pitch today vs. at the time the music is
written. I have heard frequently that our standard
440 A (although many orchestras tune higher) is
nearly a half step higher than in the 19th Century.
Is this true? If so, at what time did the shift take
place? If it is true, it means that we are never
hearing the intended "tonal color" implied by the
original keys.
(2) Transposition of songs. Although frowned on in opera
(but nonetheless done on occasion) this is standard
practice in the song literature. Most "original key"
editions of Wolf, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, etc.
are for "high voice" - tenor or soprano. Those
written either in the bass clef (Wolf's "Harfenspieler"
and Michelangelo Lieder, Brahms "Four Serious Songs)
or in keys which would be comfortably negotiable by
bass/baritone/mezzo-soprano/contralto are the
exception rather than the rule. On the other hand,
many of the century's great song interpreters
(Fischer-Dieskau, Janet Baker, Christa Ludwig, Hans
Hotter, just for a few examples) are lower voices.
At a guess, 75 % of the rep of these singers is
done in keys other than the "original" published
ones. Schwarzkopf herself, though she continued to
bill herself as a soprano, performed many of her
songs in transposed keys later in her career.
These are points I've frequently thought about in performing
songs myself, and have found difficulty coming to clear-cut
decisions.
- Greg Paley