Schumann: Dichterliebe, Op. 48

Introduction

Dichterliebe, 'A Poet's Love' (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle of Robert Schumann (Op. 48). The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich Heine, composed 1822–1823, published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert (Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise), those of Schumann constitute part of the central core of the genre in musical literature.

The source: Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo

Author of the sarcastic Die Romantische Schule, Heine was a vocal critic of German romanticism, though he himself is often described as a quintessentially Romantic writer. In some of his poetry, and notably in Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen of 1844, the romantic lyrical conventions are used as vessels to deploy content of biting, satirical nature. Schumann's Dichterliebe was composed before Heine's Deutschland and does not appear to portray this ironic dimension: scholarship is divided as to what extent Schumann intended to express it.

Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo consists of a verse Prologue and 65 poems. The Prologue (Es war 'mal ein Ritter trübselig und stumm – There once was a Knight, woeful and silent..) tells of the sorrowful knight that sits gloomily in his house all day, but by night is visited by his fairy (nixie) bride, and dances with her until daylight returns him to his little poet's room (Poeten-stübchen). The 65 poems follow, of which the 16 of the Dichterliebe are a selection. The conclusion of it all is that he is going to put the old bad songs and dreams, all his sorrowful love and suffering into a huge coffin, which twelve giants will throw into the sea. This catastrophe is slightly reminiscent of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, in which the hero ends by drowning himself in the brook which he has followed through the cycle.

The song-cycle

Das Buch der Lieder was given its second edition, with preface from Paris, in 1837, the songs were composed in 1840, and the first edition of Dichterliebe was published in two volumes by Peters, in Leipzig, 1844. Though Schumann originally set 20 songs to Heine's poems, only 16 of the 20 compositions were included in the first edition. (Dein Angesicht (Heine no 5) is one of the omitted items. Auf Flügeln des Gesanges, On Wings of Song (Heine no 9), is best known from a setting of Felix Mendelssohn's).

The very natural, almost hyper-sensitive poetical affections of the poems are mirrored in Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy-tales. Schumann adapts the words of the poems to his needs for the songs, sometimes repeating phrases and often rewording a line to supply the desired cadence. Dichterliebe is therefore an integral artistic work apart from the Lyrisches Intermezzo, though derived from it and inspired by it. Schubert's selection of lyrics for his own Heine songs had sought different themes.

Although frequently associated with the male voice, the work was dedicated to the great soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, so that the precedent for performance by a female voice is primary. The first complete public recital of the work in London was given by Harry Plunket Greene, accompanied from memory by Leonard Borwick, on 11 January 1895 at St James's Hall.

The songs

(The synopses here are made from the Heine texts)

1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (Heine, Lyrical Intermezzo no 1). (In beautiful May, when the buds sprang, love sprang up in my heart: in beautiful May, when the birds all sang, I told you my desire and longing.)
2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (Heine no 2). (Many flowers spring up from my tears, and a nightingale choir from my sighs: If you love me, I'll pick them all for you, and the nightingale will sing at your window.)
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (Heine no 3). (I used to love the rose, lily, dove and sun, joyfully: now I love only the little, the fine, the pure, the One: you yourself are the source of them all.)
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (Heine no 4). (When I look in your eyes all my pain and woe fades: when I kiss your mouth I become whole: when I recline on your breast I am filled with heavenly joy: and when you say, 'I love you', I weep bitterly.)
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (Heine no 7). (I want to bathe my soul in the chalice of the lily, and the lily, ringing, will breathe a song of my beloved. The song will tremble and quiver, like the kiss of her mouth which in a wondrous moment she gave me.)
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (Heine no 11). (In the Rhine, in the sacred stream, great holy Cologne with its great cathedral is reflected. In it there is a face painted on golden leather, which has shone into the confusion of my life. Flowers and cherubs float about Our Lady: the eyes, lips and cheeks are just like those of my beloved.)
7. Ich grolle nicht (Heine no 18). (I do not chide you, though my heart breaks, love ever lost to me! Though you shine in a field of diamonds, no ray falls into your heart's darkness. I have long known it: I saw the night in your heart, I saw the serpent that devours it: I saw, my love, how empty you are.)
8. Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen (Heine no 22). (If the little flowers only knew how deeply my heart is wounded, they would weep with me to heal my suffering, and the nightingales would sing to cheer me, and even the starlets would drop from the sky to speak consolation to me: but they can't know, for only One knows, and it is she that has torn my heart asunder.)
9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (Heine no 20). (There is a playing of flutes and violins and trumpets, for they are dancing the wedding-dance of my best-beloved. There is a thunder and booming of kettle-drums and shawms. In between, you can hear the good cupids sobbing and moaning.)
10. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen (Heine no 40). (When I hear that song which my love once sang, my breast bursts with wild affliction. Dark longing drives me to the forest hills, where my too-great woe pours out in tears.)
11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (Heine no 39). (A youth loved a maiden who chose another: the other loved another girl, and married her. The maiden married, from spite, the first and best man that she met with: the youth was sickened at it. It's the old story, and it's always new: and the one whom she turns aside, she breaks his heart in two.)
12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (Heine no 45). (On a sunny summer morning I went out into the garden: the flowers were talking and whispering, but I was silent. They looked at me with pity, and said, 'Don't be cruel to our sister, you sad, death-pale man.')
13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet (Heine no 55). (I wept in my dream, for I dreamt you were in your grave: I woke, and tears ran down my cheeks. I wept in my dreams, thinking you had abandoned me: I woke, and cried long and bitterly. I wept in my dream, dreaming you were still good to me: I woke, and even then my floods of tears poured forth.)
14. Allnächtlich im Traume (Heine no 56). (I see you every night in dreams, and see you greet me friendly, and crying out loudly I throw myself at your sweet feet. You look at me sorrowfully and shake your fair head: from your eyes trickle the pearly tear-drops. You say a gentle word to me and give me a sprig of cypress: I awake, and there is no sprig, and I have forgotten what the word was.)
15. Aus alten Märchen winkt es (Heine no 43). (The old fairy tales tell of a magic land where great flowers shine in the golden evening light, where trees speak and sing like a choir, and springs make music to dance to, and songs of love are sung such as you have never heard, till wondrous sweet longing infatuates you! Oh, could I only go there, and free my heart, and let go of all pain, and be blessed! Ah! I often see that land of joys in dreams: then comes the morning sun, and it vanishes like smoke.)
16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (Heine no 65). (The old bad songs, and the angry, bitter dreams, let us now bury them, bring a large coffin. I shall put very much therein, I shall not yet say what: the coffin must be bigger than the 'Tun' at Heidelberg. And bring a bier of stout, thick planks, they must be longer than the Bridge at Mainz. And bring me too twelve giants, who must be mightier than the Saint Christopher in the cathedral at Cologne. They must carry the coffin and throw it in the sea, because a coffin that large needs a large grave to put it in. Do you know why the coffin must be so big and heavy? I will also put my love and my suffering into it.)

Texts of some in the Schumann form are displayed in Wikibooks

Recordings

These are some landmarks among the many recordings of Dichterliebe:

• Ian Bostridge with Julius Drake (1998)
• Suzanne Danco with ---- Agosti, c 1950, (Decca 78rpm AK 2310-12).
• Thom Denijs (tenor) with Enni Denijs-Kroyt, 1928 (First complete electric-microphone recording) (HMV 78rpm D2062-64).
• Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Alfred Brendel (Philips CD Dig 416 352-2).
• Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Jörg Demus, EMG review Nov 1957 (DGG LPM 18370)
• Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Christoph Eschenbach (1973–77) (DGG CD 439 417-2).
• Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Vladimir Horowitz (live recording, 1976) (Sony Classical 074644674323).
• Wolfgang Holzmair with Imogen Cooper (Philips Dig 446 086-2).
• Gerhard Hüsch with Hanns Udo Müller (1930s) (HMV 78rpm).
• Lotte Lehmann with Bruno Walter (1940s), (Philips Minigroove LP ABL 3166, Columbia 10" LP 33C1020).
• Walther Ludwig with Michael Raucheisen, EMG review April 1955 (DGG LP 16029)
• Charles Panzéra (baritone) with Alfred Cortot (HMV DB 4987-89).
• Ian Partridge with Jennifer Partridge, 1974 (CfP CD CFP 4651)
• Peter Pears with Benjamin Britten
• Aksel Schiøtz with Gerald Moore (1946), (HMV 78rpm DB 6270-72, HMV BLP 1064).^[9]
• Peter Schreier with Norman Shetler (issued 1972) (DGG LP 2530 353).
• Bernhard Schütz with Reinhold Friedl (issued 2011) (Bôłt CD BR POP01).
• Gérard Souzay with Dalton Baldwin, 1962 (Philips CD 442 741-2).
• Gérard Souzay with Jacqueline Bonneau, 1953 (Decca CD 440 065-2)
• Gérard Souzay with Alfred Cortot (Live, Paris 1956), (Italian Cetra LP LO 501).
• José van Dam with Dalton Baldwin (Kerner lieder and Dichterliebe), (Forlane CD B0000541 FL).
• Fritz Wunderlich with Hubert Giesen, (DGG CD 449 7472).

Lyrics

1.在灿烂的五月

在美妙灿烂的五月，
花骨朵一齐绽放，
在这里，在我心里，
我的爱情绽放。
在美妙灿烂的五月，
鸟儿一齐歌唱，
我也向她表白了
我的爱慕，我的渴望。

2.从我的泪水里

从我的泪水里
绽开无数花朵;
我的叹息融入
夜莺的歌声。
如果你爱我，亲爱的，
我会送你无数花朵;
在你的窗前会响起
夜莺的歌声。

3.玫瑰、百合、鸽子、太阳

玫瑰、百合、鸽子、太阳，
我曾在爱的欣喜中爱过它们。
我已不再爱它们了，我只爱
那个娇小、优美、纯洁的人。
所有爱情都来自她，
她就是玫瑰、百合、鸽子和太阳，
我只爱她一个人，
一个娇小、优美、纯洁的人!

4.当我凝视你的眼睛

当我凝视你的眼睛，
我的痛苦悲伤全部消失;
当我亲吻你的芳唇，
我的身心狂喜若失。
当我依偎你的胸前，
我仿佛置身在天堂;
当你说，“我爱你!”
我忍不住辛酸地哭泣。

5.我要隐藏我的灵魂

我要将我的灵魂
藏进百合花心;
百合会发出共鸣
伴随我爱人的歌声。
那震颤的歌声
如同她芳唇的吻，
她曾经给予过我，
在美妙的时辰。

6.莱茵河，神圣之河

莱茵河，神圣之河，
它的波浪
倒映伟大的教堂，
伟大的圣城科隆。
大教堂里有一尊立像
画在金色的牛皮上;
在我放浪的生活中
它的光辉把我照亮。
在敬爱的圣母周围，
花朵开放，天使飞翔;
她那眉目、双唇和脸颊
和我爱的人一模一样。

7.即使心碎，我不怀恨!

即使心碎，我不怀恨!
爱情永远消失，我不怀恨!
即使你闪烁钻石般的光芒，
却没有一丝射入你黑夜般的心。
即使心碎，我不怀恨!
我真的梦见过你，
见到了你内心的黑夜，
见到了毒蛇咬啮你的心;
我见到，你是多么可悲。
我不怀恨。

8.假如小花知道

假如小花知道
我的心伤得有多重，
它们会陪我哭泣，
减轻我的苦痛。
假如夜莺知道
我有多么悲伤，
它们会帮我振作精神，
欢快地歌唱。
假如金色的星星
知道我的痛苦，
它们会从天降临，
对我说安慰的话语。
可惜它们都不知道。
只有一个人了解我的心酸，
是她把我的心
撕为两半。

9.笛子和提琴

笛子在吹，提琴在奏，
喇叭嘟嘟吹起来;
在婚礼的舞会上她跳着，
她是我心中全部的爱。
铃铛在响，喇叭在吼，
双簧管在吹，鼓在擂;
在这喧闹声中可爱的小天使
悄悄地哭诉流泪。

10.我听见亲切的歌声响起

我听见亲切的歌声响起，
我爱的人曾经唱过。
我的心就要爆裂，
难以承受这痛苦的折磨。
深沉的渴望驱使我
走进树林深处，
在这里我的泪水能融化
我深重的悲苦。

11.小伙子爱上了一个姑娘

小伙子爱上一个姑娘，
她却有另一位意中人;
可她的意中人热恋着别的女孩，
还和她结了婚。
姑娘赌气嫁给小伙子，
这是她遇到的
世上最好的男人;
可这小伙子真够倒运。
这是一个古老的故事，
到如今却依然新颖;
谁摊上这种亲事，
那会撕碎他的心。

12.晴朗的夏日早晨

在一个晴朗的夏日早晨，
我在花园散步。
花儿一股劲嘀咕;
我依然静静地散步。
花儿一股劲嘀咕，
满怀同情看着我。
“不要对我们姊妹生气，
你这苍白忧郁的小伙儿。”

13.我在梦中哭泣

我在梦中哭泣——
我梦见你躺在坟墓里。
我醒来，依然
泪流满面。
我在梦中哭泣——
我梦见你把我抛弃。
我醒来，哭喊，
久久地心酸。
我在梦中哭泣——
我梦见你还和我亲昵。
我醒来，依然
泪水涟涟。

14.每夜我在梦中看见你

每夜我在梦中看见你，
我看见你向我亲切致意，
我跪倒在你脚下，
放声哭泣。
你忧伤地看着我，
摇着满头金发，
珍珠般的泪水
夺眶而下。
你悄悄对我说了一句话，
送给我一枝丝柏;
我醒来，不见了丝柏，
也忘记了你的话。

15. 从古老的童话里

从古老的童话里
一只雪白的手向我召唤，
在那奇幻的土地上
歌声喧闹一片。
那里五彩的花朵，
在金色黎明绽放，
仿佛新娘的脸庞
可爱夺目，散发芳香。
那里绿树哼着
古老的歌谣，
微风发出神秘笑声，
鸟儿宛转啼叫。
影影绰绰的人群
在大地上现出，
在奇异的合唱声中
他们跳起轻快的圆舞。
在枝头叶片上
闪耀蓝色火花，
红色的光旋绕，
叫人头晕眼花。
泉水哗哗涌出
荒野里的大理石，
溪流奇妙地
闪动世界的影子。
啊!我多愿走进那里
敞开我的心胸，
抛弃我的苦痛，
变得自由和神圣!
啊，那是幸福的土地，
经常出现在我梦中，
而当早晨的太阳升起，
它像泡沫一样消融。

16. 古老邪恶的歌

古老邪恶的歌，
邪恶卑鄙的梦——
我们现在去抬口棺材，
把它们统统埋葬。
我要放进许多东西，
但那还不是全部。
棺材一定要更大些，
大得像海得堡的啤酒桶①。
给我取来棺材架，
木头要结实厚重;
它们一定要更长些，
长过美因茨的大桥。
给我找来十二个大力士，
他们一定要更壮些，
壮过莱茵河上科隆教堂里的
圣徒克里斯托弗。
他们得把棺材抬出去，
把它沉到大海深处，
这么巨大的棺材
该有巨大的坟墓。
你们知道为什么
棺材必须又大又重?
和它一起沉没的
有我的爱情和苦痛。

① 海得堡以及下面提到的美因茨和科隆，均为德国城市。