Richard Dehmel was a poet whose works attracted both Webern and Arnold Schoenberg: Schoenberg based his famous sextet Transfigured Night on one of Dehmel¹s poems, and Webern had already set three of Dehmel¹s poems before composing the Five Songs (Webern biographer Kathyrn Bailey suggests that Webern¹s interest in Dehmel is yet another manifestation of Webern¹s slavish devotion to Schoenberg, his teacher and mentor). The texts of the Dehmel poems are concerned with night, and possess an intensity echoed by Webern settings for voice and piano. They were written over a period of two years, and were intended as a cycle. The five songs mark the end of Webern¹s tonal works, and though still employing tonality they are at the threshold, prefacing the opp. 2-4 George songs. The Five Dehmel Songs, as with many of Webern¹s early works, feature incipient aspects of the composers mature style, including sparse, contrapuntal textures (including the use of double and triple counter point), and concise expression.



© All Music Guide