Hugo Wolf songs, part 1

In my rising lines table (link), songs by Hugo Wolf take an unexpectedly prominent place:

“Fussreise.”     (Mörike Lieder)
“Lieber alles.”   (Eichendorff Lieder);
           -- see Everett, Journal of Music Theory 48/1 (2004): 51-4
“Frech und Froh I.”   (Goethe Lieder);
           -- see Everett, Journal of Music Theory 48/1 (2004): 51-4
"Cophtisches Lied II.”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Dank des Paria.”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Erschaffen und Beleben.”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Frech und Froh II.”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Komm, Liebchen, komm!”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Nimmer will ich dich verlieren!”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Der Schäfer.”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Die Spröde.”   (Goethe Lieder)
"St. Nepomuks Vorabend.”  (Goethe Lieder)
"Trunken müssen wir alle sein!”  (Goethe Lieder) 

From these I have chosen four as the material for a series of posts beginning today. Those are

"Cophtisches Lied II.”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Erschaffen und Beleben.”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Komm, Liebchen, komm!”   (Goethe Lieder)
"Trunken müssen wir alle sein!”  (Goethe Lieder)

I have already written about "Der Schäfer" (Goethe Lieder no. 22) on the blog: see this post. In this song, the relation of a rising line to text is quite simple: a lazy shepherd suddenly perks up and becomes industrious when a romantic relationship blooms (or possibly when a nagging spouse gets him moving). The rising line -- and closing cadence -- mimics the new energy. Overall, one can hear a rising line from ^5:   -- see the earlier post for details of the reading --

"Trunken müssen wir alle sein!”  (Goethe Lieder no. 35; published in 1889). The poem is in two verses, each of which is six lines long, consisting of three rhymed couplets. An English translation of the first verse is here: link.

Not your average drinking song, this one is more forceful than exuberant and it is predominantly in a minor key, including in the ending. The initial F#5 (as written) is maintained throughout as a focal tone ^8. Its chromatic descent is marked with circles below. The box shows the first instance of a vigorous ascending figure that becomes more and more prominent as time goes on.

The second couplet goes the opposite direction, with a diatonic line upward from C#5 through D5 to close on E5. The piano interrupts with its ascending figure (boxed), here set in a wedge.

The third couplet offers a rare example of a ^5-^6-(^8)-^#7-^8 minor key ascending Urlinie, against which the left hand of the piano part offers another version of its rising octaves (boxed). The coda has still another one of those to end, this time as a simple minor key rising line through an octave.

The first and second couplets of the second verse are set to even more vigorous music, eventually reaching an interval frame E#5-C#5 with a third line at the PAC—end of the example below.

The third and final couplet of the second verse offers an expanded version of the minor-key ascending Urlinie. Note, incidentally, that the two unfolded thirds, D5-F#5, E#5-C#5, expose the minor key problem in an even more obvious way than did the end of the first verse: D5 moves to C#5 and has to be reconceived in order to be heard as moving upward (against the grain of the voice leading) to E#5. A familiar Schenkerian dodge has to be called into play to make this happen: the device Allen Forte called overlapping (and which is one species of upward register transfer or Übergreifen). In a sequence, a note may be obliged to resolve downward, but another voice may overlap it, and still a third overlap that--and the resulting "line" going up may nevertheless be regarded as a unitary figure. In this case, ^6 resolves down to ^5 and is overlapped by ^8, which also moves down. There is no ^9 to overlap again: ^8-^7 just repeats itself.

Here is the entire texture. The piano hammers away at the rising figure -- see the box in bar 2 -- and finally bursts out in an extended chromatic run (boxed in the second and third systems). Both voice and piano, then, provide an ascending line to ^8 in this structural cadence. (The final bars look like they might be a reprise (see at "Wie zu Anfang"), but they are in fact a fairly brief recall acting as a coda.)

Adam, Le Châlet, resumed

An incomplete series of posts on Adolphe Adam's Le Châlet concerned the successful one-act opera/opera-comique/operetta that I argue is particularly influential in the history of rising cadence gestures. The most recent post on the topic was on 31 May: link.

I will discuss three remaining numbers (two duos and the finale) in posts beginning tomorrow. Here I will cite a few points from Karin Pendle's article comparing Le Châlet with its source, Goethe's Singspiel Jery und Bätely (1779).

Pendle begins by noting that "Goethe was continually occupied during the first 20 years of his creative life in writing or rewriting libretti. . . . The importance [he] attached to the writing of libretti is demonstrated not only by his extensive activity in the field but by his statements of concern for German opera and his desire to improve the level of libretto-writing in his native land. He had respect for the craft of the librettist and was aware of the many practical problems involved in writing operas" (77). Jery und Bätely "was Goethe’s most popular libretto during his lifetime" and was produced (with music by several composers) into the early decades of the nineteenth century in several other German cities as well as in Vienna (78).

Nevertheless, when Eugene Scribe and Mélesville decided to adapt Jery und Bätely as Le Châlet, they made a considerable number of improvements: they were able "not only [to] tighten the dramatic structure, but [also to] strengthen the characters, clarify their motivation, and make the music a vital part of the whole. [Through these means,] Goethe’s by now old-fashioned libretto [was] made to fit the new conventions of nineteenth-century French opéra-comique" (81). Pendle notes that "nearly every character or event in Le Châlet stems in some way from Goethe [but that] Scribe . . . pared the work down to its essentials and made those elements retained as dramatically vital as possible" (82).

Given the significant differences in the style of dramatic writing, the role of music, and the intended audience, one might ask whether comparison of Jery und Bätely with Le Châlet can tell us anything much in addition, but it is certainly worth knowing that Scribe and Mélesville were working up to their standard. A well-fashioned libretto combined with the youthful composer's spirited and tuneful music helps explain the long-term success of Le Châlet.

Source
Pendle, Karin. "The Transformation of a Libretto: Goethe's 'Jery und Bätely'." Music & Letters 55n1 (1974): 77-88.  Pendle, btw, is the editor of the essay-anthology/textbook Women and Music: A History (Indiana University Press, second edition 2001) and co-author of Women in Music: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge, 2013). Her early research was on 18th and 19th century opera.