Song

Nothing is more fundamental to the world of music than song. We all like to sing our favorite tunes, or at least sing along with our favorite performers. Sometimes we find ourselves just humming a few bars of a long forgotten melody and it brings back fond memories. Melody is constructed of phrases that are the equivalent of lines from a poem. Put two of them together in poetry and you have a couplet; in music you have a period. Put four lines together in poetry and you have a quatrain; in music you have a double period. Four lines are all we need for a song. Putting poetry to music is the very essence of song. If the music conveys the character and mood of the lyrics there is synergy.

Throughout recorded history there have been an untold number of melodies composed, some of which come down to us through the centuries. Others were written recently and are today’s temporary hits. The nature of song ranges from the simplest folk tune that only spans an octave and can be sung by all to the virtuosic aria from a famous opera that can only be properly performed after 10 years of voice lessons.

A really good song can be successfully performed without accompaniment if the singer is musical and sensitive to nuance. A great number of times the vocal part is accompanied. This accompaniment can just be a guitar or a piano, or it can be an entire orchestra. In the classical realm there have been collections of songs we call song cycles that are all based on the same collection of poems. Here are a few examples for your delight and edification.

Beethoven An die ferne Geliebte

Schubert Die Winterreise, Die Schone Mullerin

Schumann Dichterliebe, Frauenliebe und leben

Berlioz Les nuits d’ete

Mahler Kindertotenlieder,

Das Lied von der Erde

Faure La bonne chanson

Grieg Haugtussa

Mussorgsky Songs and Dances of Death

Messaien Poemes pour Mi

Dutilleux Correspondances

Barber Hermit Songs

Granados Tonadillas al estilo antiguo

Britten The Holy Sonnets of John Donne

Copland Twelve Poems by Emily Dickinson