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Work

Franz Peter Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert Composer

2 Szenen aus dem Schauspiel Lacrimas, D.857, Op.posth.124   

Performances: 6
Tracks: 7
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Musicology:
  • 2 Szenen aus dem Schauspiel Lacrimas, D.857, Op.posth.124
    Year: 1825
    Genre: Solo Song / Lied / Chanson
    Pr. Instrument: Voice
    • 1.Lied der Delphine
    • 2.Lied des Florio
Both the Lied des Florio (The Song of Florio) (D. 857/1) and the Lied des Delphine (The Song of Delphine) (D. 857/2) were written on texts drawn from Christian von Schutz's play Lacrimas. Schubert apparently set these two numbers as part of the incidental music for the play. However, in the event that the remainder of the incidental music was either lost or never composed, these songs are all that remain of the music from Lacrimas.

"Lied der Delphine" (The Song of Delphine) exists in two versions: the incidental music version, and a true art song.

Delphine's song is drawn from her monologue at the start of the second scene of Act IV in which she sings of her as yet unfulfilled love. Although the text of the monologue is intensely passionate, "Now that I am in love, I desire to burn brightly," she is still a virgin and her language, full of longing and anticipation, is still somewhat naïve and idealistic. The differences between the art song and the song from the incidental music are slight, a few changed notes and a few changed phrases. But the difference in interpretive possibilities is enormous. The high-lying soprano tessitura with its climactic high Cs is frankly erotic in the song but shyly hopeful in the incidental music. And the piano accompaniment that strokes and caresses the voice in the song flutters and trembles around the voice in the incidental music. Both interpretations and both versions are valid, but the one is the voice of experience while the other is the voice of innocence.

The Lied des Florio is a serenade sung to the accompaniment of a lute (in Schubert's case, of course, a piano) by one would-be lover to another. Set in Turkey, Schubert's setting is vaguely oriental as the word was understood by Austrians in the early nineteenth century: languorous, sensual, and with plagal cadences. The four verses of the poem are set in modified strophic form—that is, the central verses are different from the opening verse—and the closing verse is a modified version of the opening verse. A better word, however, might be "enhanced" strophic form. The opening verse is filled with longing for the distant beloved in a vocal melody that hopefully rises up and gently falls back; the music of the second and third verses sinks down through dark modulations describing the singer's dreadful fate if his love is not returned. The music of the fourth and final verse returns to the longing of the opening verse, but with a warmer and more consoling piano accompaniment and a sweeter and more serene vocal melody.

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