Schubert Songs
| Author: | Albert B Bach | Title: | The Art Ballad. Loewe and Schubert |
| Desc: | William Blackwood,
Edinburgh. 1890. 215pp, many musical examples, frontispiece. Kahl # 525 |
||
| Notes: | Short Biographies of Schubert and Loewe and analyses of Loewe's art ballads. There is much more about Loewe than Schubert ! The book obviously did well, as second and third editions followed the first quite quickly. The first edition is very hard to find (I've never seen one - my copy is a second edition, and I've seen several third editions), all editions are quite expensive. | ||
| Author: | A Craig Bell | Title: | The Songs of Schubert |
| Desc: | Alston, Lowestoft 1964.
133pp plus 30pp of appendices, indexes. Frontispiece, many musical
examples. Hilmar # 157 |
||
| Notes: | Another ramble through the songs somewhat Capell like. Nothing particularly distinguishes it. | ||
| Author: | Michael Besack | Title: | Winterreise Reflections on a Winter Journey |
| Desc: | Regent Press, Oakland.
1998. ISBN 1-889059-10-2. 355pp, illustrated with notes,
bibliography, index. Hilmar # 213a |
||
| Notes: | Esoteric analysis of the Schubert song cycle Winterreise. Positively weird. There is a longer review in the articles section. | ||
| Author: | Dr. Herbert Biehle | Title: | Schuberts Lieder als Gesangsproblem |
| Desc: | Beyer & Sons,
Langensalza, 1929 (Kahl says late 1928). 44pp, musical examples.
(in German) Kahl # 2001 |
||
| Notes: | Monograph on Schubert songs, with sections on the songs, interpreters, recordings and education. | ||
| Author: | Fritz Böhler | Title: | Die Winterreise von Franz Schubert |
| Desc: | Eulen, Freiburg. 1996.
ISBN 3-89102-247-6. Approx 60 unnumbered pages, 24 watercolours,
facsimilie, appendices on Schubert, Müller, Böhler. Hilmar # 301a |
||
| Notes: | Watercolours of the songs from Winterreise | ||
| Author: | Maurice JE Brown | Title: | Schubert Songs |
| Desc: | BBC Publications, London;
1967. 62pp, many musical examples. Hilmar # 421 |
||
| Notes: | A short (64 pages) critical analysis of the Schubert songs. A sort of readers digest version of the Capell book, which does not cover all the songs (but then it would need to do 10 a page to squeeze them in) but picks out the highlights. | ||
| Author: | Lorraine Byrne | Title: | Schubert's Goethe Settings |
| Desc: | Ashgate, Aldershot; 2003.
ISBN 0-7546-0695-3. 512pp, musical examples, appendices,
bibliography, discography, over 1300 endnotes, index. Not in Hilmar |
||
| Notes: | Analysis of each of Schubert's Goethe settings, with analysis of the poetry. This book evolved from her doctoral thesis, and she spends much time to debunk the popular view that Goethe was unmusical. | ||
| Author: | Richard Capell | Title: | Schubert's Songs |
| Desc: | Benn, London; 1928. 258pp
plus appendices, index. Frontispiece. Kahl # 2057 |
||
| Notes: | The first comprehensive (but not complete) review of Schubert Lieder, published at the centenary of his death and long out of print, though it was reprinted in a paperback revision by Martin Cooper in 1973. The copy in Leeds university library contains a handwritten note from Capell. Not really a reference work like Reed's, but a fascinating rambling discourse about the songs, pretty much in chronological order, with brief biographical details. Has a few appendices, including a short one on gramophone records showing just how lucky we are today since many of those he is able to quote are not pure recordings at all: orchestral accompaniments abound, as do violin obbligatos by Kreisler. | ||
| Author: | Martin Chusid (editor) | Title: | A companion to Schubert's Schwanengesang History, Poets, Analysis, Performance |
| Desc: | Yale University Press,
New Haven & London; 2000. ISBN 0-300-07289-9. 230pp, musical
examples, discography, bibliography, index Articles listed separately in Hilmar |
||
| Notes: | Eight chapters on the History, Analysis, and Performance of Schwanangesang, from Walburger Litschauer, Edward T Cone, Walther Dürr, Steven Lubin, Richard Lesueur and Martin Chusid. It is a companion to a book with facsimiles of the autograph score. | ||
| Author: | André Coeuroy | Title: | Les Lieder de Schubert |
| Desc: | Larousse, Paris, 1948.
90pp. (in French) Hilmar # 599 |
||
| Notes: | The first part is a short introduction to Schubert and the Lied, with chapters on the Lied before Schubrt, the texts, accompaniments, etc. The second part is a chronology of Schubert songs. | ||
| Author: | Franz Valentin Damian | Title: | Franz Schuberts Liederkreis Die schöne Müllerin |
| Desc: | Brietkopf & Härtel,
Leipzig. 1928. 212pp, fontispiece, illustrated. (in German) Kahl # 2084 |
||
| Notes: | Analysis of the song cycle. | ||
| Author: | Arnold Feil | Title: | Franz Schubert Die schöne Müllerin Winterreise |
| Desc: | Amadeus Press, Portland.
1988. 179pp. Many musical examples. Hilmar # 1046 |
||
| Notes: | Analysis of the 2 great Schubert song cycles with texts and an essay by Rolf Vollmann. Translated from the German version of 1975. | ||
| Author: | Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (trans. Kenneth Whitton) | Title: | Schubert's Songs; A Biographical Study |
| Desc: | Knopf, New York, 1977.
317pp, plus bibliography, indexes. Hilmar # 1123 |
||
| Notes: | A book by the man who did most to popularise Schubert Lieder this century. It is a biography, but with particular reference to the Lieder. Translated from a 1971 German language original Auf den Spuren der Schubert-Lieder, with several reprints. Translations also into French, Hungarian, Japanese and Spanish. | ||
| Author: | A H Fox Strangways and Steuart Wilson | Title: | Schubert's Songs Translated |
| Desc: | Oxford University Press,
n.d. [ca1924]. 257pp. Not in Kahl. Hilmar # 3386a |
||
| Notes: | About 120 Schubert songs translated into English with voice part but no accompaniment. The translators apoogised for the poor translations of some key songs (Erlkönig, Gretchen am Spinnrade and Der Doppelgänger) and admitted that others such as Heidenröslein 'entirely defeated them'. 4 songs are also translated into 'Scots' (!) : I glower'd upon her picture / Auld dreams cam back ance mair / I thocht life cam rekindlin / Her face as I stüde there... which is at least slightly more understandable that the Welsh translations in the sleeve notes to Terfel's Schwanengesang. | ||
| Author: | A H Fox Strangways and Steuart Wilson | Title: | Schubert's Songs Translated, School edition |
| Desc: | Oxford University Press,
n.d. [ca1924]. 90pp. Not in Kahl. Hilmar # 3386b |
||
| Notes: | 41 Schubert songs translated into English and taken from Schubert's Songs Translated plus one new one: 'Rosebud' (Heidenröslein) which originally (and some would say, still) defeated them. The songs have just a voice part with no accompaniment. | ||
| Author: | Mme Maurice Gallet | Title: | Schubert et le Lied |
| Desc: | Perrin, Paris, n.d. [ca
1906]. 300pp. (in French) Kahl # 1014 |
||
| Notes: | This is really three books in one - though the title is quite accurate. It starts with a short (58 pages) biography. Then there is an introduction to the Lied, and other Lieder composers, and finally an analysis of Schubert's songs. | ||
| Author: | Thrasybulos Georgiades | Title: | Schubert. Musik und Lyrik |
| Desc: | Gättingen, 1967.
(in German) Hilmar # 1124 |
||
| Notes: | I've seen good write ups of this, but never seen it. There is a translation of a chapter in the Frisch studies. | ||
| Author: | Felix Günther | Title: | Schuberts Lied eine ästhetische Monographie |
| Desc: | Anstalt, Stuttgart, 1928.
203pp, frontisepiece, 8 plates, many musical examples. (in
German) Kahl # 2274 |
||
| Notes: | Analysis of songs. | ||
| Author: | Michael Hall | Title: | Schubert's Song Sets |
| Desc: | Ashgate, Aldershot; 2003.
ISBN 0-7546-0798-4. 290pp, musical examples, bibliography, indices. Not in Hilmar |
||
| Notes: | Discussion and analysis of the sets of songs Schubert issued, and why the songs are grouped in the way they are. With an introductory essay, a more detailed analysis of the Heine Schwanengesang songs, and an analysis of every Schubert 'set'. There is a longer review here. | ||
| Author: | Marjorie Hirsch | Title: | Schubert's Dramatic Lieder |
| Desc: | Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge; 1993. ISBN 0-521-41820-8. 178pp, music examples
notes, bibliography and index. Hilmar # 1679 |
||
| Notes: | A rather strange book, an extension of a doctoral thesis. 137 pages with appendices, it discusses the different genres of Schubert's dramatic Lieder. Plenty of research on background info, lots of words, but it really doesn't seem to say anything, so I obviously missed the point. For a year or two this was the only book on Schubert in English that I kept seeing but not buying, but I eventually found one going so cheaply that my completist tendencies took over. | ||
| Author: | Lawrence Kramer | Title: | Franz Schubert Sexuality Subjectivity Song |
| Desc: | Cambridge University
Press, 1998. ISBN 0-521-58210-5. 172pp plus bibliography, index.
Many musical examples. Hilmar # 2048 |
||
| Notes: | A very complex book, showing intellectual virtuosity, whilst discussing the subject within self defined parameters. As has often been the case in recent American scholarship, and as evident from the title, there is a bit of an obsession with sex, as Kramer re-examines songs in the light of psychoanalytical theory. | ||
| Author: | Richard Kramer | Title: | Distant Cycles - Schubert and the conceiving of Song |
| Desc: | University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, 1994. ISBN 0-226-45235-2. 234pp including
bibliography, index. Many musical examples. Hilmar # 2051 |
||
| Notes: | A very heavy technical book on the conception of songs, particularly when conceived in small cycles. Many references back to the original keys of the conception, not as eventually tidied up for publication. Full of analytic sketches, harmonic abstracts, Schenker graphings and linear abstracts. I'm totally out of my depth, but I'm told its a very good book. | ||
| Author: | Carl Lafite | Title: | Das Schubertlied und seine Sänger |
| Desc: | Strache, Vienna, 1928.
119pp, illustrated, index. Kahl # 2514 |
||
| Notes: | Discussion of Schubert songs, and singers. It includes pictures of Vogl, Schönstein, Stockhausen, Walter and Messchaert. The writer is the same Carl Lafite who adapted Schubert melodies for Hannerl, the sequel to Das Dreimäderlhaus. | ||
| Author: | C. E Le Massena and Hans Merx | Title: | The Songs of Schubert: A guide for Singers, Teachers, Students and Accompanists |
| Desc: | Schirmer, New York, 1928.
184pp including 4 appendices. Frontispiece, many incipits. Kahl # 2550 |
||
| Notes: | Short descriptions of around 200 Schubert songs, a sort of early version of John Reed's Schubert Song companion. Most of the descriptions and analyses are rather superficial. Includes appendices of English Titles, Poets and programme suggestions. | ||
| Author: | Leslie Minchin | Title: | Schubert in English |
| Desc: | Roberton, Andover 1982.
ISBN 0 905210 17 4. 60pp. Hilmar # 2479. Hilmar # 2479 |
||
| Notes: | Leslie was an enthusiast for the Lied, and an active member of SIUK, despite his advanced years. His great Schubertian crusade was to get the Lied sung in English, so they can be understood by the audience. This book has his translations of 92 songs (the cycles and others normally included in Book 1) deliberately designed to be sung, whilst retaining the same emotional contours. Many of his translations have been sung in public, and even recorded. 2nd edition from Able Publishing, Knebworth, 1996 | ||
| Author: | Gerald Moore | Title: | The Schubert Song Cycles |
| Desc: | Hamish Hamilton, London;
1975. ISBN 241 89082 9. 240pp, many musical examples. Hilmar # 2506 |
||
| Notes: | A very straightforward book, from the other half of the famous partnership with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. A short preface, and then performing (and listening) notes on each of the songs in the cycles (as he says, Schwanengesang is only referred to as a cycle for convenience sake). 240 pages, lots of musical examples. | ||
| Author: | Hermann von der Pfordten | Title: | Franz Schubert und das deutsche Lied |
| Desc: | Quelle und Meyer,
Leipzig, 1916. 152pp, including list of poets with works, and
bibliography. Kahl # 1390 |
||
| Notes: | A strangely balanced book, with a small life (15 pages) and works (20 pages) biography, with more detailed analysis of the Deutscher Lied, and Schubert's songs and their poets. | ||
| Author: | E. G. Porter | Title: | The Songs of Schubert |
| Desc: | Williams and Norgate,
London, 1937. 138pp plus appendices, indexes. Hilmar # 2824 |
||
| Notes: | Yet another ramble through the songs. Somewhat disorganised with seemingly random comments about random songs. If you want one book about the songs get Capell. | ||
| Author: | E. G. Porter | Title: | Schubert's Song Technique |
| Desc: | Dennis Dobson, London,
1961. 138pp, musical examples, appendices and indexes. Hilmar # 2827 |
||
| Notes: | An introduction to the character of Schubert's song inspiration. A fairly technical book with chapters on phrasing, keys, harmony, modulation, expression marks and so on. From letters in the SIRC, it is obvious that he was in contact with Maurice Brown about this book. | ||
| Author: | [K] John Reed | Title: | The Schubert Song Companion |
| Desc: | Manchester University
Press, Manchester, 1985. 510pp. Many incipits. Hilmar # 2903 |
||
| Notes: | The definitive reference book on Schubert Lieder, with translations and a short review of every song, and brief biographies of the poets and other appendices. Absolutely indispensable. My well thumbed copy is inscribed to me by the author. In the introduction to his book, Craig Bell comments that a work mentioning Schubert's 600-odd songs would "...only be a monumental act of tedium...". This book proves him very wrong! There was a later paperback later edition from Faber. Any edition had been difficult to get hold of, but it was reprinted by Mandolin in 1997. | ||
| Author: | Lou van Strien and Anton Pieck | Title: | Franz Schubert |
| Desc: | Joost van den Vondel,
Amsterdam; n.d. [1936]. 137pp + 112pp, illustrated, notes,
bibliography, index. Hilmar # 3393 |
||
| Notes: | Book on Schubert in Dutch (which I don't read, so I have no idea what it is about). Also contains the music for 33 Schubert songs with 16 atmospheric watercolour illustrations by Anton Pieck. Pieck is very collectable, so copies of this book are hard to find, and quite expensive. | ||
| Author: | Kenneth S Whitton | Title: | Goethe and Schubert: The Unseen bond |
| Desc: | Amadeus Press, Portland,
1999. ISBN 1-57467-050-6. 296pp, illustrated with music examples.
Hilmar # 3708 |
||
| Notes: | Analysis of Schubert's Goethe settings. Also has background on the Lied before Schubert, and on Goethe and Schubert. | ||
| Author: | Richard Wigmore | Title: | Schubert the complete song texts |
| Desc: | Gollancz, London, 1988.
ISBN 0-575-03961-2. 380pp inc index of first lines. Hilmar # 3708 |
||
| Notes: | The texts of all Schbert's Lieder and Italian songs with prose (not particularly intended to be singable) translations in English. | ||
| Author: | Pip Woolf, Robert Lloyd and Julius Drake | Title: | Winterreise - Interpretations across two centuries of A Winter's Journey |
| Desc: | Seren, Bridgend, 1999.
ISBN 1-85411-269-4. 60pp plus recording and 80pp of music score.
Illustrated. Not in Hilmar |
||
| Notes: | A curious cross-media interpretation of Winterreise. There is a recording of the cycle from Robert Lloyd and Julius Drake. We also have a reproduction of Robert Lloyd's working score - a nice idea, though the notes are not particularly copious, or profound. Then we have abstract paintings by Pip Woolf, with what she says was a viceral response to the music. | ||
| Author: | Susan Youens | Title: | Schubert - Die Schöne Müllerin |
| Desc: | Cambridge University
Press, 1992. ISBN 0-521-41091-6. 123pp. 2 illustrations, musical
examples. Hilmar # 3803 |
||
| Notes: | An excellent little book on the song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin, one of the 'Cambridge Music Handbooks'. It has sections on the genesis of the poetic cycle, Schubert and the genesis of the music, analysis of the poems, and analysis of the songs. | ||
| Author: | Susan Youens | Title: | Retracing a Winter's Journey - Schubert's Winterreise |
| Desc: | Cornell University Press,
Ithaca, 1991. ISBN 0-8014-2599-9. 331pp, including appendix,
bibliography, index. Hilmar # 3801 |
||
| Notes: | A sort of grown up version of her Die schöne Müllerin book, with detailed analysis of the poetry and music, running to over 300 pages. Very heavy going, both musically and in the poetical analysis. She has a much higher opinion of Müller's poetry than has historically been the norm. | ||
| Author: | Susan Youens | Title: | Schubert's Poets and the making of Lieder |
| Desc: | Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1996. ISBN 0-521-55257-5. 384pp, illustrated,
musical examples. Hilmar # 3805 |
||
| Notes: | Professor Youens does seem to have been rather busy lately! This nicely produced book focusses on 4 of the poets of Schubert's Lieder - Gabriele von Bamburgh, Theodor Körner, Johann Mayrhofer and Ernst Schulze. For each poet there is a reasonably comprehensive biography, interspersed with poems, and then a detailed analysis of some or all of the poems set by Schubert (and sometimes by other composers). Nearly 400 pages, with a few pictures, lots of notes and copious musical examples. Sometimes heavy going, but well worth the effort. | ||
| Author: | Susan Youens | Title: | Schubert Müller and Die schöne Müllerin |
| Desc: | Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1997. ISBN 0-521-56364-X. 245pp, including notes,
bibliography, index. With illustrations and musical examples. Hilmar # 3808 |
||
| Notes: | Further analysis of Die schöne Müllerin, more detailed than her earlier Cambridge Music Handbook (and she tries to address 'why' in her preface). Just as comprehensive as her work on Winterreise. Many more details on the genesis of the poetry, other works about hunters millers and miller girls, and other settings of this cycle. The final chapter is about sex and deathin the cycles: a recurring them on recent American Schubert musicology, it seems. | ||
| Author: | Susan Youens | Title: | Schubert's Late Lieder - Beyond the Song-Cycles |
| Desc: | Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 2002. ISBN 0-521-79314-9. 436pp, illustrated,
musical examples, bibliography, index. Not in Hilmar. |
||
| Notes: | Extended essays on the Schubertian poets Matthäus von Collin, Johann Ladislaus Pyrker and Carl Gottfried Ritter von Leitner, with shorter essays on Johann Anton Friedrich Reil, Franz Xaver von Schlecta and Johann Gabriel Seidl, very much in the style of her earlier works such as Schubert's Poets and the making of Lieder. | ||