Asong cycle (German:Liederkreis orLiederzyklus) is a group, orcycle, of individually completesongs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.[1]
The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combination of solo songs mingled with choral pieces.[2] The number of songs in a song cycle may be as brief as two songs[3] or as long as 30 or more songs.[1] The term "song cycle" did not enter lexicography until 1865, in Arrey von Dommer's edition ofKoch’s Musikalisches Lexikon, but works definable in retrospect as song cycles existed long before then.[1] One of the earliest examples may be the set of sevenCantigas de amigo by the 13th-centuryGalicianjongleurMartin Codax.[4]Jeffrey Mark identified the group of dialect songs 'Hodge und Malkyn' fromThomas Ravenscroft'sThe Briefe Discourse (1614) as the first of a number of early 17th-century examples in England.[5]
A song cycle is similar to a song collection, and the two can be difficult to distinguish. Some type ofcoherence, however, is regarded as a necessary attribute of song cycles. It may derive from the text (a single poet; a story line; a central theme or topic such as love or nature; a unifying mood; poetic form or genre, as in a sonnet or ballad cycle) or from musical procedures (tonal schemes; recurring motifs, passages or entire songs; formal structures). These unifying features may appear singly or in combination.[1] Because of these many variations, the song cycle "resists definition".[6] The nature and quality of the coherence within a song cycle must therefore be examined "in individual cases".[6]
Although most European countries began developing theart song genre by the beginning of the 19th century, the rise ofLieder in "Austria and Germany have outweighed all others in terms of influence."[7] German-language song composition at the end of 18th century shifted from accessible,Strophic form, more traditional folk songs to 19th century settings of more sophisticated poetry for a moreeducated middle class, "who were gradually supplanting the aristocracy as the main patrons of the arts".[8] Since these songs were relatively small-scale works, like the lyric poetry used for their musical settings, they were often published in collections, and consequently borrowed various poetic terms to mark their groupings:Reihe (series),Kranz (ring),Zyklus (cycle) orKreis (circle).[9] In the first few decades of the 1800s, the collections of poetry and the subsequent song settings took on more underlying coherence and dramatic plot, giving rise to the song cycle.[10] This coherence allowed the song genre to be elevated to a "higher form", serious enough to be compared with symphonies and cycles of lyric piano pieces.[11]
Two of the earliest examples of the German song cycle were composed in 1816:Beethoven'sAn die ferne Geliebte (Op. 98), andDie Temperamente beim Verluste der Geliebten (J. 200-3, \Op. 46) byCarl Maria von Weber.
The genre was firmly established by the cycles ofSchubert; hisDie schöne Müllerin (1823) andWinterreise (1827), settings of poems byWilhelm Müller, are among his most greatly admired works. Schubert'sSchwanengesang (1828), though collected posthumously, is also frequently performed as a cycle.
Schumann's great cycles were all composed in 1840. They compriseDichterliebe,Frauenliebe und -leben, two collections entitledLiederkreis (Opp. 24 &39 on texts byHeinrich Heine andEichendorf respectively)—a German word meaning a song cycle—and theKerner Lieder (Op. 35), aLiederreihe (literally "song row") on poems by Justinus Kerner.Brahms composed settings (Op. 33) of verses fromLudwig Tieck's novel "Magelone", and modern performances usually include some sort of connecting narration. He also wroteVier ernste Gesänge ("Four Serious Songs"), Op. 121 (1896).Mahler'sLieder eines fahrenden Gesellen,Kindertotenlieder, andDas Lied von der Erde expand the accompaniment from piano to orchestra.
Wolf made the composition of song collections by a single poet something of a specialty, although only the shorterItalian Songbook andSpanish Songbook are performed at a single sitting, andEisler'sHollywood Liederbuch also falls into the category of anthology.
Das Buch der hängenden Gärten bySchoenberg andKrenek'sReisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen are important 20th-century examples. Wilhelm Killmayer composedseveral song cycles, on lyrics bySappho, French Renaissance poets, German Romantic poets, and contemporary poets. The tradition was carried on byWolfgang Rihm, with cycles such asReminiszenz (2017).[12] Graham Waterhouse composedsong cycles includingSechs späteste Lieder afterHölderlin's late poems in 2003.[13]
The six songs ofBerlioz'sLes nuits d'été (1841), first published with piano accompaniment but later orchestrated, is a notable early example of the French song cycle.[14] French cycles reached a pinnacle inFauré'sLa bonne chanson (Verlaine) of the early 1890s,La chanson d'Ève, premiered complete in 1910, andL'horizon chimérique (1921).Chabrier's four 'Barnyard songs' (1889) "introduced a new note into contemporary French music" and prefigured Ravel'sHistoires naturelles.[15]Poulenc produced a long line of song cycles, fromLe Bestiaire (1919), thePoèmes deRonsard of 1925,Chansons Gaillardes (anonymous 17th-century texts) of the following year,Quatre poèmes deGuillaume Apollinaire (1931),Tel jour telle nuit (poems byPaul Éluard), 1937,Banalités (poems by Apollinaire, 1940), to his last,La Courte Paille (1960) - seven songs in eight minutes.
Poèmes pour Mi,Chants de Terre et de Ciel andHarawi byMessiaen,Paroles tissées andChantefleurs et Chantefables byLutosławski (only an honorary Frenchman) as well asCorrespondances andLe temps l'horloge byDutilleux continued the French cycle tradition in the later 20th century.
Perhaps the first English song cycle wasArthur Sullivan'sThe Window; or, The Song of the Wrens (1871), to a text of eleven poems byTennyson. In the early 20th century,Vaughan Williams composed his famous song cycle, theSongs of Travel. Other song cycles by Vaughan Williams areThe House of Life on sonnets byDante Gabriel Rossetti andOn Wenlock Edge on poems fromA. E. Housman'sA Shropshire Lad, the latter originally for voice with piano and string quartet but later orchestrated. The composer and renownedLieder accompanistBenjamin Britten also wrote song cycles, includingThe Holy Sonnets of John Donne,Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo,Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, andWinter Words, all with piano accompaniment, and the orchestralLes Illuminations,Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, andNocturne.
Raising Sparks (1977) by the Scottish composerJames MacMillan (1997) is a more recent example.Trevor Hold wrote numerous song cycles, including many setting his own words, such asThe Image Stays (1979),River Songs (1982) andBook of Beasts (1984).[16] The English composerRobin Holloway's many song cycles includeFrom High Windows (Philip Larkin) (1977),Wherever We May Be (Robert Graves) (1980) andRetreats and Advances (A.S.J. Tessimond) (2016). His pupilPeter Seabourne's five song cycles includeSonnets to Orpheus (2016) setting eleven poems ofRainer Maria Rilke.Stephen Hough has written three cycles:Herbstlieder (Rilke) (2007),Dappled Things (Wilde and Hopkins) (2013), andOther Love Songs (2010) for four singers and piano duet.Graham Waterhouse composed severalsong cycles, based on texts byShakespeare,James Joyce, and Irish female writers, among others.
American examples includeSamuel Barber'sHermit Songs (1953),Mélodies Passagères, andDespite and Still, andSongfest byLeonard Bernstein,Hammarskjöld Portrait (1974),Les Olympiques (1976),Tribute to a Hero (1981),Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (1989),Next Year in Jerusalem (1985), andA Year of Birds (1995) byMalcolm Williamson,Maury Yeston'sDecember Songs (1991), commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its centennial year celebration,Honey and Rue byAndré Previn (composed for the American sopranoKathleen Battle).David Conte'sAmerican Death Ballads (2015).Alex Weiser's song cycle inYiddish and English,and all the days were purple (2019), was a 2020 finalist for thePulitzer Prize.[17]
Mussorgsky wroteSunless (1874),The Nursery (1868–72) andSongs and Dances of Death (1875–77), andShostakovich wrote cycles on English and Yiddish poets, as well asMichelangelo andAlexander Pushkin.
In 2020, Rodrigo Ruiz became the first Mexican composer known to have written a song cycle. Ruiz'sVenus & Adonis sets Shakespeare's eponymous narrative poem in what became the first song cycle to ever be written entirely to Shakespearean texts.[18][19]
The orchestral song cycleSing, Poetry on the 2011 albumTroika consists of settings ofVladimir Nabokov's Russian and English-language poetry by three Russian and three American composers.[20]
Cycles in other languages have been written byGranados,Mohammed Fairouz, Cristiano Melli,Falla,Moniuszko,Juan María Solare,Grieg,Lorenzo Ferrero,Dvořák,Janáček,Bartók,Kodály,Sibelius,Rautavaara,Peter Schat,Mompou,Montsalvatge, andA. Saygun etc.
Song cycles written by popular musicians (also calledrock operas) are a short series of songs that tell a story or focus on a particular theme. Some musicians also blend tracks together, so that the start of the next song continues from the preceding one. Modern examples of this can be found inJames Pankow'srock operaBallet for a Girl in Buchannon (forChicago on theirself-titled second album)Pink Floyd'srock operaThe Wall,Dream Theater's progressive metal albumsMetropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory andThe Astonishing, as well asMarvin Gaye's classicsoul albumWhat's Going On.[21]
The R&B singerRaphael Saadiq's 2019 album,Jimmy Lee, is composed as a song cycle with personal narratives thematizing issues affecting African Americans, including addiction, stress, domestic conflict, AIDS, perpetual financial hardship, and mass incarceration.[22][23]
One of the earliest song cyclemusical theater works was created in 1991. This wasDecember Songs (1991), created byMaury Yeston, and commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its Centennial celebration in 1991. It has been translated, performed and recorded in French, German. and Polish.[24] Other examples includeGhost Quartet byDave Malloy (2014),Songs for a New World byJason Robert Brown (1995),William Finn'sElegies (2003),Bill Russell'sElegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (1989), andMyths and Hymns byAdam Guettel (1998).[citation needed]
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