In 1849, the turbulent period after the Dresden uprising, Schumann returned to the novel Wilhelm Meister. He completed settings for the songs of all the characters. Both Mignon and the harper were compelling figures to Romantic-era composers. Their songs alternate, with one song from the frivolous Philene provided as momentary relief and contrast.

In the first song, Kennst du das Land, which was also the last of Op. 79, the scattered notes from the piano that open the song suggest Mignon's searching of her memories. Her ecstasy is indicated by soaring vocal lines, her agitation by the quick, frenzied piano chords underneath. In her second song, "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt," the opening is ominously intense, and the voice enters on the second chord, as if she is unable to restrain her feelings any longer. It rises to that climax as she describes the burning inside herself in a forte passage, and then retreats again, shyly and mysteriously. This passion is fully shown in her next song, with its sudden discords and emotional turmoil. Her descents into the lower vocal register also show her conflicts. Towards the end, however, after one last outburst with alarming, thunderous discords from the piano, her voice is hushed and subdued. By the last song, Mignon is already transfigured, and it is overall the calmest one. The occasional murmurs from the bass in the piano now are used to depict the earth that she is leaving. Schumann tells the entire story of Mignon concisely, with such strong characterization.

Philene's charm is felt in her lovely song, the seventh in the cycle, proclaiming the delights of the night. There could be no more effective contrast for the harper's and Mignon's depths of emotion. The accompaniment is like a dance, but with irregular rhythms that suggest dancing for the joy of it, rather than a formal dance.

The harper's first song, Ballade des Harfners, appears to be musically disjointed, with themes that are never fully played out, music that reflects the text then changes to seemingly meaningless patterns, and more conventional moments, such as imitations of the harp, regal chords denoting the king's speech, and gorgeous sweeps of lyricism. Schumann drew as much from the context as from the text itself, and writes as though the harper's mental condition shows through. While the harper's other two songs are more musically unified, they, too, combine a tragic dignity and mental disjointedness, as in the fourth song, "Wer nie sein Brot mit Tranen," where the imitation of the harp seems to be randomly tossed into the accompaniment, and where, despite the sense of deep gloom and guilt, the lines move upward, rather than in falling tones. Like the first, there is grandeur, emotional power, and pride, as well as anguish, expressed here. The harper's next song provides more of a clue to the source of his insanity, with the juxtaposition love and pain in the text and the music. It is also far warmer, tender, and introverted. The last follows on this growing simplicity. It also, for the first time, shows the physical actions of the harper removed from his harp; there are none of the flourishes and arpeggios, but rather, a hesitant but steady walking motif. The emotional turmoil is still hinted at in the moments of hesitancy and the quiet major chord that provides an unexpected and still ambiguous ending. Again, the entire story of this enigmatic figure is told with an almost devastating directness and power.

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1.Kennst du das Land

After reading Goethe's Wilhelm Meister for a third time, Robert Schumann was so greatly inspired by its doomed young character, Mignon, that he created an entire cycle based on the poems of the novel. The volume is divided into two parts; Op. 98a contains nine solo songs and Op. 98b is a requiem for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. To open the intense and emotional set he repeated "Mignon," Op. 79/28, from Lieder-Album für die Jugend, Op. 79, but for its second use he gave it the title "Kennst du das Land?" Op. 98a/1 (Do You Know the Land?). During the time it was originally composed Schumann was engrossed in the welfare of others and his sentiments were embodied in paternal and religious music. In addition to having been attracted to the poem's sorrowful expressions, his interests illuminate other possible reasons that he was drawn to the character's calls to return to her homeland with her father. To maintain Mignon's veil of mystery Schumann placed her words in the language of romantic music and as a result, sacrificed clarity of musical form. Like all of his Wilhelm Meister settings, this work is characterized by imbalance and unrest, its motifs both forceful and submissive, and its tonality partially uncertain. After intervals of a fourth repetitively emerge, the key of G minor is finally established. Schumann's treatment of this poem is quite different from those by other composers and it shares considerable popularity with several other songs from Lieder und Gesänge aus "Wilhelm Meister," Op. 98a.

© Meredith Gailey, All Music Guide

3.Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt

With its scorching anguish, "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt," Op. 98a/3 (Only He Who Knows Longing), embraces some of the most powerful emotions of Robert Schumann's Lieder und Gesänge aus "Wilhelm Meister," Op. 98a, and, rather obviously, Goethe's inspirational book. In this song, Mignon, the protagonist, is consumed by a secret she shares with the Harper and laments that only he, having suffered similarly, relates. However, the tune's intensity reveals that the composer was also sensitive to her agony.

On the song's second beat, the vocalist softly begins this heartwrenching grievance; thereafter, she erupts with sound at the peak of each drop in the melody. The tempo increases halfway through the first verse and within a few measures an early climax shatters any prior inhibitions; the second verse echoes the words and music of the first with less drama. The work is in 3/4 time, in the key of G sharp, and is indicated "Langsam, sehr gehalten" (slow, very sustained). Its turbulence is steadied by the piano's low tessitura and quickened by triplets.

Goethe's text was also tastefully set by Tchaikovsky and Wolf, among numerous others.

© Meredith Gailey, All Music Guide

7.Singet nicht in Trauertönen

In "Singet nicht in Trauertönen" (Sing Not in Mournful Tones), Op. 98a/7, Philine brings bouncing radiance to Robert Schumann's Lieder und Gesänge aus "Wilhelm Meister," Op. 98a, with her uplifting reminder of affectionate nighttime joys. Each irresistibly spirited measure contrasts the mournful mood of the cycle's preceding and following tunes. Its brisk sixteenth and thirty-second notes, abundant staccatos, rhyming phrases, and various dynamic markings help to establish the character's playful disposition. The main melody of the first verse repeats thrice; other melodies recur with less frequency. The suggestive closing words, "und die Nacht hat ihre Lust" (and the night has its pleasures) are also heard three times, for emphasis. The tune's mood is condensed for a final appearance in the short postlude.

Schumann's other amusing settings of Goethe's poems can be found in an earlier cycle, Myrthen, Op. 25.

© Meredith Gailey, All Music Guide