Schumann, “Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen” from Dichterliebe

This short song may inspire you to listen to the entire song cycle Dichterliebe (poet’s love) by Robert Schumann. If it doesn’t, go listen to the entire cycle anyway and give it a little more time.

A song cycle is a group of songs, usually by the same composer and poet, that is intended to be performed as a unit. This cycle has 16 songs with texts by Heinrich Heine. It runs about a half hour or a little less. Since each song tells a part of the story, you really need to hear them all and listen with the words in hand. Dichterliebe is among the best and most popular. You can access the full text here.

The story, filled with images along the Rhine River, tells of a knight who has lost at love. In the end he will sink his old, angry songs in a coffin bigger than the Heidelberg Tun carried to the sea by twelve giants mightier than the St. Christopher statue at the Cologne Cathedral.

I mentioned the text painting in the piano accompaniment of the Schubert song last week. Schubert elevated the importance of the accompaniment in his songs to new level. Schumann took that concept even further, essentially making the piano an equal partner with the voice. You will hear that clearly in this song, and it is one of the most striking features of the cycle.

When looking for a recording of any Schubert or Schumann songs or any of the Lieder (German for “songs”), the singer matters greatly. There are many good ones, but Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is pretty much the gold standard. Thomas Quasthoff, performing in the video below, is another, and you may wish to look at his especially interesting biography.

The text of this song is short, so I will reproduce it here:

I hear the little song sounding
that my beloved once sang,
and my heart wants to shatter
from savage pain’s pressure.

I am driven by a dark longing
up to the wooded heights,
there is dissolved in tears
my supremely great pain.