Classical Music | Mezzo-Soprano

Robert Schumann

Seit ich ihn gesehen habe Play Play

Callie Hoffman	Mezzo-soprano
Giorgi Latso	Piano

Recorded on 11/05/2010, uploaded on 11/05/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Frauenliebe und -leben, op. 42 Robert Schumann

Likely inspired by the events of his own courtship of Clara Wieck, Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben (A Women's Love and Life) was composed in 1840, known as his "Year of Song" and the year of his marriage to Clara. Based on the poem cycle by the German poet Adelbert von Chamisso written in 1830, it tells the story of a woman's love for her man from their first meeting to beyond his death. Schumann selected eight poems from Chamisso's cycle to set to music.

As with many of Schumann's Lieder, the piano plays a crucial role in portraying the mood of the poem. As a result, the piano accompaniment possesses a strong independence from the voice, yet simultaneously creates a more unified, artistic whole by subtly enhancing the mood of the lyric and, in some cases, even giving expression to that which is not easily brought about in words alone.

In the first song, "Seit ich ihn gesehen" ("Since I saw him"), the narrator tells of her "blindness" to all others after her first sighting of the one she loves. Cast in a passive triple meter and simple strophic setting, Schumann's setting has a dreamy quality. The following song, "Er, der Herrlichste von allen" ("He, the most glorious of all") expresses a woman's admiration for her man. The piano begins with a repeated-chord accompaniment against the voice's majestic melody. Twice the voice departs from its opening melody, yet, never is the regal, confident tone of the song lost. The melody returns for a final statement, elegantly making its way back to the tonic key. Joseph DuBose