MUSC 436: Vocal Literature
Definitions
Song: A piece of music for voice or voices, whether
accompanied or unaccompanied, or the act or art of singing. The term is not
generally used for large vocal forms, such as opera or oratorio, but is often
found in various figurative and transferred senses (e.g. for the lyrical second
subject of a sonata, in J. Stainer and W.A. Barrett: Dictionary of Musical
Terms, 1875).
Song cycle: Robert Schumann observed that narrative continuity,
large-scale tonal planning and motivic recurrence might contribute to a cycle's
coherence, though the presence of all three elements was not prescribed as a
condition of cyclic integrity.
Ballad: (from Lat. ballare: Ôto danceÕ). Term used for a short popular song that
may contain a narrative element. Scholars take it to signify a relatively
concise composition known throughout Europe since the late Middle Ages: it
combines narrative, dramatic dialogue and lyrical passages in stanzaic form
sung to a rounded tune, and often includes a recurrent refrain. Originally the
word referred to dance-songs such as the carole, but by the 14th century it had lost that connotation
in English and had become a distinctive song type with a narrative core. The
word has sometimes been used, mistakenly, as a translation for the medieval
French forme fixe ballade, and for
the 18th- and 19th-century German ballade; the latter was partly influenced by
the narrative strophic folksong tradition of Britain and Scandinavia for
instrumental pieces bearing this often confused title, and Epics for a
discussion of longer narrative song forms).
Literary
ballads which imitated the traditional ballad marked a significant phase of
influence during the Romantic period. In the 19th century ÔballadÕ came to
denote a sentimental song cultivated by the middle classes in Britain and North
America, while in 20th-century popular culture it has come to refer to a slow,
personalized love song or one, such as the Ôblues balladÕ in North America, in
which the narrative element is slender and subordinated to a lyrical mood.
Lied: (Ger.: ÔsongÕ). A song in the German vernacular.
The Romantic Lied: In the 19th century the German vernacular song
developed into an art form in which musical ideas suggested by words were
embodied in the setting of those words for voice and piano, both to provide
formal unity and to enhance details; thus in Schubert's Gretchen am
Spinnrade (19 October 1814 Ð a date
usually taken to mark the birth of the German Romantic lied) the image of the
spinning wheel in the title evokes the recurrent circling semiquavers of the
accompaniment, while the text later suggests (by its exclamation and
repetition) the cessation and resumption of the semiquaver figure at the climax
of the song. The genre presupposes a renaissance of German lyric verse, the
popularity of that verse with composers and public, a consensus that music can
derive from words, and a plentiful supply of techniques and devices to express
that interrelation.
Chansons: (Fr.:
ÔsongÕ). Any lyric composition set to French words; more specifically, a French
polyphonic song of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. In a general sense the
word ÔchansonÕ refers to a wide variety of compositions: the monophonic songs
of the Middle Ages; court songs of the late 16th and 17th centuries (Air de
cour); popular songs of the streets,
cafŽs and music halls in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (Chanson pour
boire; Vaudeville; Pastourelle; Bergerette; Brunette); art songs of the 19th and 20th centuries (MŽlodie); as well as to folksongs (Ôchanson populaireÕ or Ôchant folkloriqueÕ).
MŽlodie: The
term usually applied to 19th- and early 20th-century romantic French song,
particularly in its later stages. Its link to an earlier form, the romance, is so close that the two cannot be considered in
isolation. Both terms were sometimes applied to the same song, and the songs of
Schubert, partly responsible for the transformation of the romance into the more sophisticated mŽlodie, were sometimes called German romances by French
critics. At the end of the 19th century the term ÔromanceÕ was still in
currency, in the songs of no less than Chabrier. As this interchange of
terminology implies, there are no firm boundaries; common to both, and deriving
from the simple romance, is the
quality of graceful, tender lyricism.
Just
as the lied owed much of its inspiration to romantic German lyric poetry, so
the 19th-century mŽlodie was
indebted to the rising school of French romantic poetry headed by Lamartine,
Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset and others. The texts set ranged from poetry of
passionate utterance to that of domestic sentimentality, while the French
literary fascination with orientalism and the exotic also found an outlet in
song. Yet if romantic poetry was the inspiration for composers for some
three-quarters of a century, that of the ÔsymbolistsÕ Baudelaire, Verlaine and
MallarmŽ was the inspiration for many later composers, particularly Debussy.
The mŽlodie reached its finest and
most original expression in the songs of FaurŽ, Duparc and Debussy. While the
earlier repertory contains many ephemera destined for the salons, it also includes
a sizable number of fine but now neglected works. They established those
characteristics of French art-song that are still evident in the more familiar
songs of the later repertory and to a certain extent even in some of those of
the 20th century.
Romance (romanza): (Fr. and Sp.; It. romanza; Ger. Romanze). In France and Germany the term came to indicate an extravagant,
sentimental or ÔromanticÕ tale in either prose or strophic verse. Since the
18th century vocal and instrumental settings entitled ÔromanceÕ have continued
to express these ÔromanticÕ and lyrical qualities.
Partsong: A piece of music in two or more voice-parts without
independent accompaniment. Starting in the mid-18th century, there
are several examples of partsongs with piano accompaniment.
Other terms to define:
Folksong/traditional
song:
Popular
song:
Stanza
Strophe
Strophic:
Modified-strophic:
Through-composed
(durch-kompeniert):