{"id":431,"date":"2012-07-23T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T06:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.henle.de\/blog\/en\/?p=431"},"modified":"2015-06-18T15:18:44","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T13:18:44","slug":"%e2%80%9crock%e2%80%9d-or-%e2%80%9cstone%e2%80%9d-schumann%e2%80%99s-text-changes-in-%e2%80%9cliederkreis%e2%80%9d-op-39-on-poems-by-joseph-von-eichendorff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2012\/07\/23\/%e2%80%9crock%e2%80%9d-or-%e2%80%9cstone%e2%80%9d-schumann%e2%80%99s-text-changes-in-%e2%80%9cliederkreis%e2%80%9d-op-39-on-poems-by-joseph-von-eichendorff\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRock\u201d or \u201cstone\u201d? Schumann\u2019s text changes in \u201cLiederkreis\u201d op. 39 on poems by Joseph von Eichendorff"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know the Lorelei? You know that from the high cliff at St. Goar she peered into the depths of the Rhine (disastrously for many) \u2026 But not for Henle in our edition of the Liederkreis<\/em> op. 39 (HN 550<\/a>): following a Schumann text revision in Waldesgespr\u00e4ch<\/em>, Lorelei\u2019s castle is said to be on a \u201cFels\u201d [rock] \u2013 lost, of course, is the Eichendorff \u201cStein\u201d [stone] rhyming with \u201cRhein\u201d, but the conciseness of the expression is enormously enhanced. Whether such deviations from a song text model are permissible, rational or as errors to be corrected where possible in a reliable edition, is a much-discussed question that faces any editor of a lieder edition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mind you, with Robert Schumann we can assume that this artist, devoted in equal measure to poetry and music, was totally aware when he penned his lied texts, and that in the poem he might have imagined some potential interventions. This, to be sure, can be proven only when we know of the specific text model used for composition. With opus 39 we are in this happy position: Schumann drew here on a collection of poem copies (Zwickau, Robert-Schumann-Haus) that in 1839 he began jointly with Clara, in which she apparently copied the Eichendorff texts directly from their 1837 first edition Gedichte von Joseph Freiherrn von Eichendorff<\/a><\/em> (Berlin).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Gedichatbschrift<\/a>
\nBut Robert\u2019s setting, originating in the spring of 1840, differs now from this model in many respects: whether he deleted entire verses (as happened in Die Stille<\/em>), replaced or reordered words or just changed punctuation. Thus, in Wehmut<\/em> the nightingale sings \u201caus ihres Kerkers [instead of: K\u00e4figs] Brust\u201d, and in Zwielicht <\/em>Schumann made out of Eichendorff\u2019s \u201cWas heut m\u00fcde gehet unter\u201d the oddly tireder \u201cWas heut gehet m\u00fcde unter\u201d in order to re-reinforce through the closing phrase\u2019s \u201cH\u00fcte dich, sei [instead of: bleib] wach und munter\u201d not only the urgency of the demand, but at the same time to spare the singer the double consonant \u201cbl\u201d, so difficult to enunciate.<\/p>\n

Such interventions motivated by content, metrical-musical or even linguistic considerations in the text models are to be seen in many of Schumann\u2019s lieder, and in the case of opus 39 this poetic licence was even sanctioned by none other than Eichendorff himself. According to Clara, after a concert he commented to the effect that he was \u201cenchanted by Robert\u2019s compositions of his lieder \u2013 he thinks that he [Schumann] had brought his [Eichendorff\u2019s] poems to life for the first time\u201d. Whilst it may here be self-evident that as editor one leaves Schumann\u2019s text alone, issues are definitely raised by other variants. Thus, in the Fr\u00fchlingsnacht<\/em> the advantage of \u201c\u00dcber\u2019n Garten\u201d over \u201c\u00dcber\u2019m Garten\u201d remains just as obscure as any possible reason for shifting the weather conditions in Auf einer Burg<\/em> where Schumann has the rainstorm \u201cdr\u00fcben [instead of: dr\u00fcber] gehen\u201d. Many a later editor has conjectured here on Schumann\u2019s part a slip of the pen that just inadvertently got into print, and has summarily restored again the Eichendorff original.<\/p>\n

In the case of restoring the \u201cStein\u201d [stone] found in many editions instead of the Schumann \u201cFels\u201d [rock] in the Waldesgespr\u00e4ch<\/em> mentioned at the outset, this must however be somewhat surprising, because any kind of oversight by the composer certainly cannot be supposed here. Rather, Schumann himself crossed-out the \u201cStein\u201d he originally notated in his composing autograph (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek) in order to change it to \u201cFels\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The lied appeared with this text in the first edition of 1842 by Haslinger in Vienna. And even when Schumann revised the Eichendorff cycle in 1849\/50 for a new edition by Whistling in Leipzig, where it was just in Waldesgespr\u00e4ch<\/em> that he made so much change, the \u201cFels\u201d remained untouched, as we can see from the engraver\u2019s model <\/a>(Rochester, Sibley Music Library).<\/p>\n

\"Haslinger-Ausgabe\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The variant with \u201cStein\u201d familiar today, first found in the Breitkopf & H\u00e4rtel Schumann Complete Edition (1879\u201393) edited by Clara after Robert\u2019s death, traces back to the numerous later editions. Whether this was changed back because of the loss in rhyming or for other reasons can today no longer be clarified. But we cannot assume that it accords with Robert Schumann\u2019s will \u2013 which is why our Schumann editor Kazuko Ozawa also gave preference in her edition of the Liederkreis<\/em> to Robert\u2019s \u201cFels\u201d. And now we are wondering when we will be hearing on YouTube the first recording of the lied with this text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know the Lorelei? You know that from the high … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,312,462,3,327,287],"tags":[60,62,59,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}