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Art Song
Folk Song
Bel Canto
Song Cycles
Accompanist/Collaborative Pianist
Art song’s brief description: a poem set to classical music, usually for trained voice and piano with a duration of about three minutes. Other names include: solo song, concert song, classical song, piano song and Lied. What does the word Lied mean? It is simply German for art song or classical song. Lied (singular) and Lieder (plural). It is the German practice to capitalize their nouns. Some of the greatest German poets, including Heine and Goethe have been set by composers such as Schubert, Schumann and Wolf.
But this concise definition really doesn’t touch the soul of art song. The elements comprise a quartet if you like: poet, composer, singer and pianist. These work together, each complimenting the other resulting in something much greater than the individual elements.
French art song is called mélodie, which looks a lot like the English word melody. Mélodie conforms to the description of classical song given above. Just as Heine has been more often set to song than other poets, one of the greatest French poets, Verlaine, has been frequently set to song by composers such as Fauré and Debussy.
Each European country, as well as those of the Americas, Japan, Korea, Australia, Russia, etc. has a highly developed tradition of classical song. Their poets inspire their masters of composition to write songs for voice and piano.
Many scholars have suggested that really great poetry shouldn’t be set in song; it should stand on its own merits. And it is certainly true that epic poetry is seldom set to music. But lyric poetry, of whatever language, has inspired composers right down to our own times to set and even enhance a poem. The composer often makes the words more accessible, highlighting elements that only music can. Lyric poetry tends to be short, concise, often deals with love, nature and other elements favored by the Romantic artists of the 18th and 19th Centuries.
But though art song may have reached a climax in expression, appreciation and perfection during the 19th Century, it is indeed still being written, performed and recorded in our own day. In fact, this may be seen as another golden age of art song performance because it has become too expensive to record operas, thus many gifted singers record art song recitals instead.
Art song as we know it started around 1800. Inheriting a Lied tradition that included famous names such as Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, Schubert expanded on their models, writing songs which didn't follow any rigid structure (such as "strophic" where the same music is used for each verse as in a folk-song), and were sometimes "through composed" (durchkomponiert). This means that the music followed the composer's interpretation of what the poems meant without repeating music.
This idea was radical for the time. Goethe, for instance, could not relate to it at all. For him, the poetry had to be set as he wrote it, and the idea that a mere musician might comment on, add to or otherwise embellish/illustrate the meaning of a poem was anathema to him. Goethe thought poetry was the master and music the servant. After two centuries of art song we are now conditioned to the idea that poetry and music interact in partnership.
Most composers weren't bothered by terminology so they named their work Lieder, Gesänge, Gedichte (art song, song, poem) and so on.
By Mahler's time, "art song" meant Lieder in the Schubert/Schumann mold, so his use of the term Gesänge reflected an awareness of the more rustic inspirations behind the Wunderhorn songs etc. But on the other hand, "Volkslieder" clearly referred not only to authentic folk song but also to "composed" music inspired by folk song, such as the Brahms Volkslieder.
Folk Song: Brahms thought it was the greatest compliment when people mistook his composed songs for genuine Volkslieder. True folk songs are not composed but are rather an oral tradition : when "preserved" by Cecil Sharp, Butterworth, Vaughan Williams in England; Bartok or Kodaly in Eastern Europe and others, they become formalized and frozen, when in their natural habitat they change according to region, family tradition, individual singers. Art song implies a process of conscious composing. Benjamin Britten's folk songs are composed art song because they are set down in notation and with unusual and unexpected harmonies in the accompaniment.
Composers may take the folk structure and do something new with it : compare the completely different settings of Down by the Salley Gardens by Butterworth and Britten. Neither are folk song because they are composed with a certain degree of precision, whereas in folk song the whole point is expression, not by classically trained singers but with native, naïve enthusiasm. It is clear which is a folk singer and which singer is an "art" singer as the traditions are so radically different. It would be hard to imagine the English tenor Peter Pears letting it all hang out in some smoky folk song pub. You may know about the story where Butterworth met a traditional folk singer who steadily drank throughout the evening and insisted on ferrying them across a river when they needed to leave. The poor fellow was blind drunk by this stage and got lost, so the Butterworth party had to steer the boat to shore and walk to the nearest settlement in dead of night, leaving the singer blissfully oblivious.....I don't think he would have been able to follow a score. Folk song has a different cultural setting; it is part and parcel of events like weddings, parties, wakes, etc. where audience and performers are focused on the event. Can we say that pop songs, now sung in similar situations at football games, bars (including karaoke) are the modern folk song?
There seems to be a dichotomy between the “bel canto” (beautiful singing) demands of opera, especially those of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, and the intimate, word-centered requirements of Lieder singing. For example, the Danish soprano Povla Frijsh (1881-1960) wasn’t blessed with the most beautiful of voices, but had a successful career as a recitalist because of the subtle way she could handle the demands of songs. This does not mean that song performers don't need fine voices, but the beautiful voice is just not the focus of attention.
A few terms: Song “Cycle” is a group of songs, usually by the same poet, that a composer conceives as being sung together. The so-called “Schwanengesang” (Swan-song cycle) of Schubert really wasn’t meant by him to be sung together. These are just the final songs of Schubert’s life that were collected together and published after his death under that title. Good examples of Song Cycles are: Beethoven’s “An die ferne Geliebte” (To the Distant Loved One); Schubert’s “Die schöne Müllerin” (The Beautiful Miller Maid) and his “Winterreise” (Winter Journey); Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” (Poet’s Love) and “Frauenliebe und -leben” (Woman’s Love and Life); in the 20th Century: Britten's "Les Illuminacions" his Michelangelo Sonnets; Barber's "Hermit Songs"; Welcher's "Vox Femina". There are many more.
Another term that one encounters in the field of art song or Lieder is: Accompanist. Usually that is a pianist, thus the term "collaborative pianist." There is sometimes the perception that the pianist is just a sound in the background to support the singer. In good art song this isn’t the case: the composer expects a duet of sorts between the piano and voice. The pianist does provide the chordal significance (harmony) of the sung melody, but there is an interplay between the singer and pianist on many levels.
The pianist may set the scene (as in an introductory section) or compliment what the singer does with the voice. By the careful use of dynamics (loud and soft) the pianist can focus attention on dramatic moments or the intimate ones. The collaborative pianist must know the words of the poetry as well as the singer’s notes. (We’ll assume the pianist has learned his/her notes!).
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