DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (August 18, 2020)
If classical musical composition is a lost art, then it is more the case with classical poetic composition.
There was a time when Egyptian hieroglyphics were considered to be indecipherable. The Rosetta Stone featured a royal proclamation in three languages, hieroglyphics, and both demotic and ancient Greek. Since they all said the same thing, it enabled the linguist Champollion, to decipher Egyptian.
A poem contains an implicit score. Examining how different composers set the same poem to music should help us decipher aspects of both music and poetry.
One of the poems most often set to music is Goethe's “Mignon's Lied”, from his book, “Wilhelm Meister”. Mignon is a child of Italian origin, who is a little bit nuts. She wants to go home, and implores her mentor, Wilhelm Meister to accompany her there. Her poem/song goes as follows:
Mignon's Song
Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn,
Im dunklen Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn,
Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,
Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht,
Kennst du es wohl?
Dahin! Dahin
Möcht’ ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn.
Kennst du das Haus? Auf Säulen ruht sein Dach,
Es glänzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach,
Und Mamorbilder stehn und sehn mich an:
Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan?
Kennst du es wohl?
Dahin! Dahin
Möcht’ ich mit dir, o mein Beschützer, ziehn.
Kennst du den Berg und seinen Wolkensteg?
Das Maultier sucht im Nebel seinen Weg;
In Höhlen wohnt der Drachen alte Brut;
Es stürzt der Fels und über ihn die Flut,
Kennst du ihn wohl?
Dahin! Dahin
Geht unser Weg! o Vater, lass uns ziehn!
Do you know the land where lemon trees blossom;
where golden oranges glow amid dark leaves?
A gentle wind blows from the blue sky,
the myrtle stands silent, the laurel tall:
do you know it?
There, O there
I desire to go with you, my beloved!
Do you know the house? Its roof rests on pillars,
the hall gleams, the chamber shimmers,
and marble statues stand and gaze at me:
what have they done to you, poor child?
Do you know it?
There, O there
I desire to go with you, my protector!
Do you know the mountain and its clouded path?
The mule seeks its way through the mist,
in caves the ancient brood of dragons dwells;
the rock falls steeply, and over it the torrent.
Do you know it?
There, O there
lies our way. O father, let us go!
It seems simple enough. It should not be that hard to set to music, or should it?
The first thing we might do, is to analyze the meter. Lo and behold, it is in iambic pentameter, which we learned as the inspiring:
Da DAH dee DAH da DAH dee DAH,
Da DAH dee DAH da DAH Dee DAAH!
Those of us who were raised in farm country recognized it immediately. Ambrose the donkey was a master of poetic meter.
Later, some of us read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Rationale of Verse", and recognized that the syllables were not stressed and unstressed, but long and short. It was a huge breakthrough to read a simple passage in time: (An audio is provided here to help.)
https://drive.google.com/…/1jhy_NK55abCKsBYZfZjp5LGsh…/view…
Now please listen to Beethoven's setting of this poem. Does it fit our proud and newly discovered pattern for iambic pentameter?
Oops! Not even close! Stay tuned.