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| Beethoven
also wrote lieder based on some of Goethe's poems: Mailied
and Marmotte while he was still living in Bonn, and between
1808 and 1812, he set to music several more Goethe poems including:
Sehnsucht, Mignon, Neue Liebe, neues Leben, and
the Flohlied from Faust. Later he set two of Goethe's
poems into one choral piece entitled A Calm Sea and a Prosperous
Voyage which he dedicated "to
the author of the poems, the immortal Goethe, with the greatest respect." Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) was the other great German poet whom Beethoven revered. "These two are my favorite poets," he said of both Schiller and Goethe. He found himself quite at ease in setting Goethe's works to music ("No one else lends himself to compositions as well as he,"), but of Schiller's works he had this to say: "Schiller's poems are extremely difficult for the musician. The composer must know how to raise himself far above the poet, but who can do that in the case of Schiller?" As we all know, Beethoven finally did. He had been drawn to Schiller's Ode to Joy since the days of his youth, but he did not attempt to set it to music until 1812 when he did a sketch of an overture inspired by the poem. It was not until 1823 that he completed his Ninth Symphony, its last movement a celebration - in both poetry and music - of the joy that springs triumphant from the brotherhood of man. August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845) was another poet who, with his brother Carl Wilhelm Friedrich (1772-1829), exerted a major influence on the German Romantic movement. His excellent translations of Shakespeare's works were very well received in Germany. Beethoven however did not set any of his works to music. Beethoven found that he could more freely compose musical settings for the works of lesser poets such as: Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (1715-1769), Friedrich von Matthisson (1761 - 1831) who wrote the popular Adelaide, Gottfried Bürger (1747 - 1794), Christian Ludwig Reissig (1783-1847), and Alois Jeitteles whose An die ferne Geliebte, a set of six poems, became in the hands of Beethoven the first song-cycle in the history of lieder composition, thus paving the way for the great song cycles of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. It is also the song cycle most associated with Beethoven's famous letter to his "Immortal Beloved". Design and original content: © FanFaire 1999. All Rights Reserved. |
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