Classical Music | Contralto

Recorded on 12/31/1969, uploaded on 04/05/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

... The excitement of wedding-day preparations overcomes the fifth song of the cycle. The woman entreats her sisters to adorn her (“freundlich mich schmücken…windet geschäftig mir um die Stirne noch der blühenden Myrte Zier”), and to quell her growing anxiety (“Helft mir verscheuchen / eine törichte Bangigkeit”). An ostinato accompaniment, traversing up and down the tones of the tonic triad in B-flat major, provides the musical background for the vocal melody during the initial stanza. Like the previous song, this music serves as a refrain and reappears in the third and fifth stanzas. The second stanza, which still maintains the tonic key, is given a fuller accompaniment with eighth notes cradled between the melodic vocal line and a pedal bass on the dominant. At its conclusion, the excitement of the day can be heard as the bass suddenly rises, and climbs chromatically through a tritone back to the dominant. The fourth stanza, on the other hand, is accompanied by repeated chords and a firm bass centered once again about the dominant that forms an exciting lead up to the final stanza. The music of the final refrain is altered as the woman greets her sisters with melancholy, bidding them farewell (“Grüß ich mit Wehmut / freudig scheidend aus eurer Schar”). At the song’s conclusion, the fanfares of a wedding march are heard, and seem to fade away as the merry procession carries on.    Joseph DuBose

recorded in 1950

courtesy of YouTube