Clemens Brentano Influence

The Romantic school leaders made their headquarters in Heidelberg from 1804-08. Here they laid emphasis on native, popular German middle age spirited life. Their poetic notions drove them to extremes at times, but revealed beautiful, deep, and tender thought. Clemens Brentano (1778 –1842) was a notable figure in the German Romantic movement, an associate among others of Wieland, Herder, Goethe and Schlegel. He was the son of Goethe’s friend, Maximiliane La Roche. Restless and unconventional by nature, he spent some years wandering the countryside with his guitar on his back like a medieval minstrel. His close and lifelong friendship with Achim von Arnim, who married his sister Bettina, provided some stability, and created the work for which they are both best known, the collection of German folk poetry known as Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The collection was far larger than any predecessor, offering enormous supplied themes of beauty and value to strengthen German poetic value. Strauss appreciated the works spirit, setting three poems from that collection, including Hat gesagt—bleibt’s nicht dabei but no doubt recognizing that Gustav Mahler had already achieved all that was possible in this field, he turned in 1918 to six of Brentano’s original poems. Inspired by their highly charged imagery, Strauss produced not only some of his most virtuoso vocal writing, but a series of intricately woven piano accompaniments that clearly owe their richness and fluency to his many years of writing for the opera orchestra. A musical characteristic of these songs is their constant forward motion and organic extension of the melodic lines illuminating somewhat obscure themes. The first performance of the Clemens Brentano lieder was 1918, at the ...

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... Peterson and Alan Jefferson categorize Strauss’s songs differently. Petersen divides Strauss Lieder into three categories based upon style: lyric, dramatic and declamatory (Jefferson, 31). Most of Sophie’s music falls into the lyric category, but contains some declamatory and dramatic moments as well. Sophie sings in all three styles; therefore, selections from each category will be necessary to prepare the singer for this role. Strauss scholar, Jefferson, classifies the songs by mood and text using lusty songs, love songs, sentimental songs and songs describing seasons or time of day as categorical headings (Petersen, Ton und Wort: 67). Sophie experiences a variety of emotions ranging from joy to fear and anger to passion. Strauss songs contain examples of these emotions as well, allowing the student to study and explore these feelings in a more intimate genre.