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| Schumann composed the entirety of Dichterliebe in one week in May of 1840 as part of an explosion in song composition. In what has aptly been called his “Song-Year,” Schumann wrote more than 100 of his 125 songs. Clara remarked, after their first year of marriage, “It is often claimed that marriage kills the spirit. My Robert has produced the clearest evidence to the contrary: three symphonies and over one hundred lieder!” Because he subsequently turned to other genres, he did not return to song composition until 1849, the year in which he composed the Spanische Liebeslieder heard later in the program. Schumann selected 20 poems from the massive collection Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine, published in 1827, for the original song cycle. But Schumann withdrew four pieces before publication in 1844 and added the title Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love). The general subject of Heine’s poetic collection is unrequited love. Schumann’s cycle follows the first seven of Heine’s poems and ends with the last (65th) poem, progressing from the awakening of love with the renewal of life in spring to the burying of love and dreams of love in the Rhine river. As there is no narrative for the cycle, the songs express varying attitudes toward love. Schumann came to song composition from the perspective of a seasoned pianist; his published works from Opus 1 to Opus 23 (1840) are all for piano. So it is no surprise that the piano takes a prominent role in these songs, at least equal to that of the voice. The piano often “sets” the mood or texture of individual songs. Consider the breathless evocation of rose, lily, dove and sun in Song 2; the fluttering of flowers and nightingales in Song 8; or the mock-heroic gallop in 6/8 time into the inviting world of old fairy tales in Song 15. In other cases, the piano inscribes the “time-world” of a song by establishing a continuous pulse that sets it apart from the more opaque flow of ordinary time. Such is the effect of the continuous 16th notes of Song 1, which seem to trap the singer-poet in the growth of spring. Dotted rhythms and falling melodic figures in Song 6 draw singer and listener alike into the depths of the Rhine River and the image of Our Lady. And throughout Song 7 full-textured, relentless chords grind out the repeated lyric “Ich grolle nicht” as inexorably as a piece of heavy road equipment. Schumann also gives the piano extended postludes in nine songs (Songs 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 and 16) that are at least as long as the verses that precede them. These piano “commentaries” may amplify or qualify, sometimes subtly, sometimes quite dramatically, the sentiments expressed by the voice and text. The opening song (Im wunderschönen monat Mai) sets the tone for the entire cycle. Its ambiguity of key - an implied F-sharp minor for the piano’s prelude, interlude, and postlude versus the voice’s A major in the two verses - and incomplete ending on an unresolved dissonant chord underscore the song’s indeterminate quality. Moreover, the tonal distinctions set the piano against the voice since it fails to affirm the latter’s resolve. The cycle as a whole may be heard as (1) an opening “scena” comprised of Songs 1-5 (three of which are quite short), centering around the note B which appears first as a brief passing tone between C-sharp and A but which gradually becomes a key in its own right; (2) two longer “core” songs (Songs 6 and 7) at the heart of the cycle; (3) a second “scena” (Songs 8-12) that lightens the mood and withdraws quickly from the assertive C major of “Ich grolle nicht.” Schumann moves deftly to B-flat as the singer-persona, in its final appearance, is in the garden receiving a whispered rebuke from the flowers; finally, (4) a “postscript” (Songs 13-16) that views matters retrospectively from the standpoint of three dreams and a funeral. Songs 6 and 7 fairly jump out of their context. In Song 6, the Rhine and the Cologne Cathedral (mirrored in the river) are somberly invoked. Here the singer-persona is drawn to a painting in the cathedral of Our Lady around which flutter flowers and angels, reminding him of the eyes, lips and cheeks of his beloved. This image seems frozen as the piano continues its somber downward figures into the depths of the river, prefiguring the “burying” of love in Song 16. Songs 15 and 16 are substantial and seem slightly out of balance with the rest of the cycle; they offer alternative endings. Song 15 invokes and reviews the richly-hued tapestry of fairy tales, which vanishes with the morning sun. Song 16 bundles all the “evil songs” and bad dreams into a large coffin and buries them in the Rhine. The piece begins emphatically and seems to close in C-sharp minor, but Schumann offers one last vocal gesture (the “Liebe und Schmerz,” Love and Pain, buried with the coffin) by way of transition to the dreamy piano epitaph, which reprises the closing passage from Song 12 in the remote key of D-flat major.
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