# Enjoying Lieder ?



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I found this series of contemporary "Music from Six Continents" albums on my Rhapsody account and tried sampling this one.










I was enjoying the music when suddenly the third piece I discover is a series of lieder -- not only lieder but contemporary lieder at that. I'm a little shaky with solo soprano (except wordless soprano heard in some atmospheric orchestral pieces) and I'm not too confident with contemporary works in general either -- or in this case nearly contemporary. So this was a bit like trying to enjoy mustard flavored cod liver oil as an ice cream topping. It did not help that the composer's name is Handel. Darrell Handel.

What is one supposed to be hearing and enjoying in these works? Maybe I should go back and learn to appreciate earlier lieder cycles such as those of Schubert or Mahler before tackling this sort of musical disorientation.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Weston said:


> I found this series of contemporary "Music from Six Continents" albums on my Rhapsody account and tried sampling this one.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Darrell Handel is an American composer born in California.
So what you were listening to were certainly not lieder, lieder are German art songs.
"Acquainted With the Night" is a poem by Robert frost.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

You should listen to art songs (the general term for lieder, melodies, etc.) from composers whose style you are familiar and comfortable with first. You don't have to go for a whole cycle, as most composers of art songs wrote stand-alone songs as well. Take it a little bit at at a time. You can listen to it with or without a translation of the words, depending on your taste (some feel that focusing on the words takes them out of the music, and some feel it brings them closer).

For public domain texts, the following site is invaluable:
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Sometimes I approach them for the composers I like, sometimes for the poets I like. Although I have never been much of a poetry fan, nor an art song fan, the two together add a bit of interest that helps open them up. Luckily, I am fluent in German and nearly so in French, so this helps a lot. Singing in languages other than my three is not very interesting to me, unless the voice and melody are particularly appealing.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Weston said:


> I was enjoying the music when suddenly the third piece I discover is a series of lieder -- not only lieder but contemporary lieder at that. I'm a little shaky with solo soprano (except wordless soprano heard in some atmospheric orchestral pieces) and I'm not too confident with contemporary works in general either -- or in this case nearly contemporary. So this was a bit like trying to enjoy mustard flavored cod liver oil as an ice cream topping. It did not help that the composer's name is Handel. Darrell Handel.


not this version, then?


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

deggial said:


> not this version, then?


Let us just say I enjoy both versions equally and think neither version has much to do with the atmosphere of the poem. Giving Handel's version a second listen I found it more to my liking than before. I will not shy away from his other music. It could just be I don't like lieder* as much a genre.



Wikipedia said:


> * Among English speakers, "Lied" is often used interchangeably with "art song" to encompass works that the tradition has inspired in other languages.


 

I have enjoyed the sopranos I've heard in Mahler's symphonies -- very much so. Maybe I should start with him before tackling 20th century works.


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

moody said:


> Darrell Handel is an American composer born in California.
> So what you were listening to were certainly not lieder, lieder are German art songs.
> "Acquainted With the Night" is a poem by Robert frost.


In the German language, do they differentiate between "songs" and "art songs" (a la Schubert, et al.). Or are they all just Lieder?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

apricissimus said:


> In the German language, do they differentiate between "songs" and "art songs" (a la Schubert, et al.). Or are they all just Lieder?


Gesange is I think the term used for folk songs, or was at one point.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

apricissimus said:


> In the German language, do they differentiate between "songs" and "art songs" (a la Schubert, et al.). Or are they all just Lieder?


They don't differentiate, I think. German wikipedia tells me the same thing (if I can trust my German that much).

Apparently I was correct, they use it for pop songs too:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing’s_Gonna_Stop_Me_Now#Coverversion
Just looked for German pop singers and clicked on a single.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

apricissimus said:


> In the German language, do they differentiate between "songs" and "art songs" (a la Schubert, et al.). Or are they all just Lieder?


"Lied" means "song". The excerpt from Wikipedia is nonsense.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Mahlerian said:


> Gesange is I think the term used for folk songs, or was at one point.


This is the heading on an LP of mine. Richard Tauber Singt Volkslieder ie Richard Tauber sings folksongs.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

moody said:


> This is the heading on an LP of mine. Richard Tauber Singt Volkslieder ie Richard Tauber sings folksongs.


The old decca mono with abstract motifs in white, yellow and green, or another one?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

joen_cph said:


> The old decca mono with abstract motifs in white, yellow and green, or another one?


Tauber never recorded for Decca but for Odeon (EMI).
Anyway this is an Electrola re-issue--phptograph of Tauber and in the background a mill wheel.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Ok, I was thinking of this decca issue DL 9537 http://www.ebay.com/itm/RICHARD-TAU...537-ERIK-NITSCHE-Cover-Art-1951-/310510313824 with a cover design by Erik Nitsche, a designer whose LP designs are getting increasingly higher prices (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trk...he+LP&_nkw=erik+nitsche+LP&_sacat=0&_from=R40)


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

joen_cph said:


> Ok, I was thinking of this decca issue DL 9537 http://www.ebay.com/itm/RICHARD-TAU...537-ERIK-NITSCHE-Cover-Art-1951-/310510313824 with a cover design by Erik Nitsche, a designer whose LP designs are getting increasingly higher prices (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trk...he+LP&_nkw=erik+nitsche+LP&_sacat=0&_from=R40)


That is American Decca ,I presume they issued it on license. I didn't know that,nothing to do with British Decca.
American Decca were issued in the UK as Brunswick,but not the above as it was EMI.
American Decca later became MCA.
There is a monstrous article re: the above on Wikipedia if you want to bore yourself for a while.


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