German Set - Goethe Texts
Gretchen am Spinnrade
Schubert isolatesa moment from Goethe’s Faust, where the tormented mind of Gretchen, who under a love-spell, is attempting to work through her new obsession with the main character, Faust. In this scene, she sits at a spinning wheel, easily identified in the winding ostinato of the piano.The modulation between minor and major harmonies is in tandem with Gretchen's struggle between her torment over loss and her obsession with Faust. Schubert was a teenager when he wrote Gretchen am Spinnrade, yet it is one of his most famous works. It is considered to be the first modern Lied. Listen for the climax of the song: when she is so overcome with images of Faust’s passionate kiss that her spinning wheel gets stuck, and then she struggles to get it going again.
Mignon
Text for this piece comes from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. The character Mignon implores Wilhelm to help her understand their complicated relationship. In each verse she explores the different roles this man has played in her life: First as her beloved, then as a protector, and finally as a father figure. Schumann’s setting of Mignon comes at the end of his Lieder-Album für die Jugend (Album of Songs for the Young). The cycle was intended to help train singers in skill and interpretation, with each song increasing in difficulty and complication of text.
Serenate
Serenate explores the complication and tragedy of human behavior in a simple, almost childlike manner. The big idea in this song is asking why we torment ourselves and feel we can only find pleasure elsewhere. In regards to song, Brahms was often criticized for choosing mediocre texts by lesser-known poets. Serenate however is a setting of some of Goethe’s most insightful sentiments.
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