Classical Music | Baritone

Recorded on 12/31/1969, uploaded on 01/22/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Der Doppelgänger

Schwanengesang reaches its darkest depths in the penultimate song, Der Doppelgänger. Set in the same mysterious and ethereal key as the “Unfinished” Symphony, Schubert achieves, by stunningly austere means, one of the most heartbreaking poetic expressions in the entire Lied tradition. Pale two-part harmony in the piano opens the song, reflecting the bleak moonlit scene of Heine’s verse. The vocal melody is likewise hushed and hovers like a ghost around the dominant of the key. The second stanza becomes more intense as the narrator beholds his own likeness in the ghastly moonlight. The vocal melody expands beyond the limited range of the previous verse as it becomes more animated by the intense emotions of the text. As the third and final stanza begins, Schubert begins to build toward the song’s powerful and heartwrenching climax. Fixed once again on the dominant, the vocal melody is underpinned by slowly ascending chromatic chords in the piano that momentarily settle in key of D-sharp minor. A deft modulation brings the music back to B minor as the vocal melody reaches its climax, but quickly subsides as if the narrator’s broken heart is unable to bear the burden of its own painful expression. The ghostly chords of the opening follow this last agonizing cry and the song comes to an unsettling conclusion in B major.      Joseph DuBose

This recording of Schwanengesang was made in the 1950s.

Courtesy of YouTube