MUS M402

MUS-M 402, Spring 2005. Assignment for Paper 2

Write a 750-word analytical paper on Robert Schumann/Joseph von Eichendorff, "Auf einer Burg" from Liederkreis Op. 39. Text and translation are available below.

Make a clear analytical point about the piece in your first paragraph; argue for it with specific examples and evidence in the body of the paper. Make a case for some interesting and compelling point about the piece and how it works. Note that your point and paper should be about the musical setting, not simply about the text.

Stick to this piece; don't write about Schumann, or songs in general, or big issues of music history. You should need only the score, the text, your knowledge of style and analysis, and a sharp pencil.

Refer to measure numbers in the score (m. 6, mm. 12-15) and to lines of the poem; don't bother copying musical examples or long passages of text.

Papers should be typed, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins all around. Put your name and your AI's name at the top. Do not use a report cover, binder, folder, or separate title page.

Your paper is due in person at the beginning of section on Thursday, March 10. Please hand in the two marked-up versions of your first paper along with this one, all in the folder we provided.

Papers handed in late without permission arranged well in advance will be docked a full grade for each week or fraction late.

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The score is available online from the IU Music Library at http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bgp0487/sco10072.html. A pdf file of just this movement (printing requires 600dpi or better) is here. (Note that some editions transpose this song for other voice ranges; please write about it in this key.)

Recordings are available here:

Margaret Price/Graham Johnson Thomas Quasthoff/Roberto Szidon Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

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Questions to consider as you look for a topic and a point:

How is the poem organized (meter, rhyme scheme, stanzas)? How are these elements reflected in the setting?
What are the roles of voice and piano? How dependent are they on each other?
What musical styles and topics does the composer invoke? How does he use them?
There are lots of ways to read this poem, particularly the last lines. What is Schumann's reading, and how can you tell from his setting?

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Auf einer Burg

       Eingeschlafen auf der Lauer
       Oben ist der alte Ritter;
       Drüber gehen Regenschauer,
       Und der Wald rauscht durch das Gitter.

5     Eingewachsen Bart und Haare,
       Und versteinert Brust und Krause,
       Sitzt er viele hundert Jahre
       Oben in der stillen Klause.

       Draußen ist es still und friedlich,
10 Alle sind ins Tal gezogen,
       Waldesvögel einsam singen
       In den leeren Fensterbogen.

       Eine Hochzeit fährt da unten
       Auf dem Rhein im Sonnenscheine,
15 Musikanten spielen munter,
       Und die schöne Braut die weinet.

--Joseph von Eichendorff

In a castle

Fallen asleep on watch,
Up there is the old knight;
Rain showers pass above,
And the forest rustles through the grating.

Beard and hair all grown together,
Breastplate and ruff turned to stone,
He sits for many hundreds of years,
Up there in the silent hermitage.

Outside it is still and peaceful;
Everyone has gone down into the valley;
Solitary forest birds sing
In the empty window arches.

A wedding procession passes below
On the Rhine in the sunshine;
Musicians play merrily,
And the beautiful bride, she weeps.