Schwanengesang

Schwanengesang

Schwanengesang ("Swan song") is the title of a posthumous collection of songs by Franz Schubert.Unlike the earlier Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, it uses poems by two poets, Ludwig Rellstab (1799 - 1860) and Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856).

"Schwanengesang" has the number D 957 in the Deutsch catalogue.

The collection was named by its first publisher, presumably wishing to present it as Schubert's final musical testament to the world. The original idea was to compose two cycles, one for Rellstab's poems and the other for Heine's poems. After the composer's death his brother took the songs and tried to turn them into one cycle. However, unlike the previous two cycles, this posthumously combined cycle has no continuity between songs.

Franz Liszt later transcribed these songs for solo piano.

Content

The songs of "Schwanengesang", in the composer's original order, are:
* By Ludwig Rellstab:
** Liebesbotschaft ("Message of love"; the singer invites a stream to convey a message to his beloved)
** Kriegers Ahnung ("Warrior's foreboding"; a soldier encamped with his comrades sings of how he misses his beloved)
** Frühlingssehnsucht ("Longing in spring": the singer is surrounded by natural beauty but feels melancholy and unsatisfied until his beloved can "free the spring in my breast")
** Ständchen (Serenade)
** Aufenthalt ("Dwelling place": the singer is consumed by anguish for reasons we aren't told, and likens his feelings to the river, forest and mountain around him)
** In der Ferne ("In the distance": the singer has fled his home, broken-hearted, and complains of having no friends and no home; he asks the breezes and sunbeams to convey his greetings to the one who broke his heart)
** Abschied ("Farewell": the singer bids a cheery but determined farewell to a town where he has been happy but which he must now leave)
* By Heinrich Heine:
** Der Atlas ("Atlas": the singer, having wished for eternal happiness or eternal wretchedness, has the latter, and blames himself for the weight of sorrow, as heavy as the world, that he now bears)
** Ihr Bild ("Her image": the singer tells his beloved of how he dreamed (daydreamed?) that a portrait of her favoured him with a smile and a tear; but alas, he has lost her)
** Das Fischermädchen ("The fisher-maiden": the singer tries to sweet-talk a fishing girl into a romantic encounter, drawing parallels between his heart and the sea)
** Die Stadt ("The city": the singer is in a boat rowing towards the city where he lost the one he loved; it comes foggily into view)
** Am Meer ("By the sea": the singer tells of how he and his beloved met in silence beside the sea, and she wept; since then he has been consumed with longing — she has poisoned him with her tears)
** Der Doppelgänger ("The double": the singer looks at the house where his beloved once lived, and is horrified to see someone standing outside it in torment — it is, or appears to be, none other than himself, aping his misery of long ago)

*The last song based on a poem written by Johann Gabriel Seidl (1804 - 1875).
** Taubenpost ("Pigeon post"; the song that is often considered as a last lied that Schubert ever wrote. The song is included into a cycle by the first editor and is almost always included in modern performances too even though the song has no any relationship to others)

ee also

*List of compositions by Schubert

External links

* [http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/assemble_texts.html?SongCycleId=13 "Schwanengesang" songtexts and translations]
*IMSLP2|id=Schwanengesang_%28Schubert%2C_Franz%29|cname=Schwanengesang


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Schwanengesang — Schwanengesang, s.u. Schwan 1) a) …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Schwanengesang — Schwanengesang, s. Schwan …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Schwanengesang — Sm letzte Dichtung eines Dichters erw. bildg. (16. Jh.) Stammwort. Der Ausdruck beruht auf dem seit der Antike (Aischylos, Agam. 1444) bezeugten Glauben, der Schwan singe bei seinem Tod. ✎ Röhrich 3 (1992), 1430f. deutsch s. Schwan, s. singen …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • Schwanengesang — Reinier van Persijn, Singender Schwan, Allegorie Als Schwanengesang bezeichnet man das letzte Werk eines Musikers oder eines Dichters. Auch die letzte Rede eines Politikers wird oft in einem weiteren Sinne des Wortes als Schwanengesang bezeichnet …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Schwanengesang — Schwa|nen|ge|sang 〈m. 1u; fig.; geh.〉 letztes Werk eines Dichters od. letzter Auftritt eines Schauspielers od. Sängers vor seinem Tod * * * Schwa|nen|ge|sang, der [nach antikem Mythos singt der Schwan vor dem Sterben] (geh.): a) letztes Werk (bes …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Schwanengesang — Es ist sein Schwanengesang ( lied): sein letzter Auftritt als Schauspieler oder Sänger, seine letzte Rede kurz vor seinem Tode, das letzte Werk eines Schriftstellers oder Gelehrten. Die Redensart läßt sich bis ins klassische Altertum… …   Das Wörterbuch der Idiome

  • Schwanengesang — Le Chant du cygne Schwanengesang (en français Le Chant du cygne) de Franz Schubert, D 957, est un recueil posthume de quatorze lieder sur des poèmes de Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine et Johann Gabriel Seidl (1804 1875). Le recueil fut ainsi… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Schwanengesang — * Es ist sein Schwanengesang. – Oec. rur., 485; Eiselein, 561; Braun, I, 4028. Von der letzten Rede jemandes, besonders dem letzten Werk eines Schriftstellers, Redners, Dichters. Von der Meinung der Alten, dass die Schwäne, kurz vor ihrem Tode,… …   Deutsches Sprichwörter-Lexikon

  • Schwanengesang — Schwan: Der altgerm. Vogelname mhd., ahd. swan, niederl. zwaan, engl. swan, schwed. svan ist verwandt mit aengl. swinn »Musik, Gesang«, aengl. swinsian »tönen, singen« und geht auf die lautnachahmende idg. Wurzel *su̯en »tönen, schallen« zurück,… …   Das Herkunftswörterbuch

  • Schwanengesang (Begriffsklärung) — Schwanengesang bezeichnet: Schwanengesang, das letzte Werk eines Künstlers Schwanengesang ist der Titel verschiedener musikalischer Werke: Schwanengesang (Schütz) (1671), musikalischer Werkzyklus von Heinrich Schütz Schwanengesang (Schubert)… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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