Erster Verlust (Original Vocal Composition)

Hello everyone! I am back! I took part in the school musical over the last few weeks, and as a result, had very little time to write articles (especially considering that the Steem websites are blocked at school). However, during this period, I did continue to write music, and I am excited to share one of the pieces which I finished with you.

Text

Here is Goethe's text as well as a translation:

The Piece

Singing Version

Before I describe what's going on in the piece, here it is. I had to sing it in f minor rather than g minor (because I can't hit the high g as well as I'd like to):

Piano Version

I made a recording of myself playing it in g minor so that you would know what it should sound like in its intended key:

Why?

There are several points which I would like to make known. First of all, I utilized a text by Goethe which I discovered several years back when I played a piece inspired by it in Schumann's Album für die Jugend. This text spoke to me several weeks ago because I began to feel a longing for "the good ole days (when Steem was 8 dollars :)" due to some events which occurred in my life. First of all, I thought (at the time) that my cat was going to pass away quite soon because her condition worsened. I actually began work in setting the Pie Jesu text as well, so maybe one of these days I will finish and post that. Thankfully, we eventually realized that my cat didn't need to be put down, though she is terminal. We have been able to keep her alive by treating her. Here's a picture I got with her recently. However, at the time, the idea that she was dying made me very bitter by itself, and on top of that, I had a lot to do for musical, and, as a result, my grades dropped drastically. Don't get me wrong, musical was an immense amount of fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it. But, outside of musical, things could have been better.

During this period, I attempted to write music, but nothing I wrote was good enough to satisfy my desire to write (writing music to fit an emotional extreme is not always easy and usually just makes you feel worse). One night, after improvising ideas out and hating them, I took a walk. I remembered the time that my piano teacher read me this poem (in both German and English). I then had several ideas as to how I would set it. I immediately went home and began to work on this piece.

Imagery

I placed several musical concepts in this piece which you may find interesting. I oriented the A section of the piece around a bass line which consists of a descending chromatic scale from the tonic to the dominant (down a perfect 4th). In baroque times, this bass line was a symbol of lament. I discovered this bass line in two works by Bach which I became familiar with this year. The first of which was his g minor invention (no 11), and the second of which was Crucifixus from his mass in b minor (about the Crucifixion of Christ). Both of these pieces are oriented around this lamenting bass line, and I figured that the picture it creates is quite similar to that which Goethe creates in this poem. However, the main harmonic line which I utilized actually consists of a majority of major chords (4 major chords [if you count the German sixth as major which I do] and 1 minor chord [which is the tonic and occurs twice in the phrase]). Within this whole piece, I am trying to paint a picture very much like I feel the poem paints. It is not a happy or sad picture, but rather a picture of longing. I feel like the bass line which gives the image of lament, combined with this use of major chords provides this feeling.

In the b section, I used the opposite of this bass line. Instead of descending chromatically by a perfect 4th, I ascended chromatically by a perfect fourth. I don't think this represents anything when it comes to imagery, I just thought it would be cool to attempt.

Lastly, in the final section, I utilized an accelerated version of the lamenting bass line and sequenced it to get back to g minor and finally cadence. I suppose this faster version helps to achieve a more dramatic build up to the climax (after the half cadence on glück).

Another piece of imagery I utilized in this piece was the exclusion of a third in the final chord. I decided to leave the chord neither major nor minor, but rather incomplete. I felt this represented the idea behind this poem. The narrator is not extremely happy or sad. He exists in an incomplete state, longing for the days when he felt completion.
The other reason why I did this is that I joked with my theory teacher about ending on V (leaving it unresolved to the point that anyone listening would completely hate their life) and he told me I should think about doing things like ending on V more often in my music. Obviously, I don't want to be sloppy and not resolve a leading tone, so I decided to just exclude the third.

Harmonics

Overall, the harmonics of this piece are pretty simple, though I did have to be creative at times. There is one instance of parallel fifths, being at measure 18. I am okay with this because (1) it is between the voice and bass, so it is not super noticeable, and (2) this is going from a German 6th to and V. Even composers such as Haydn did this, so it is not horribly out of character.

Liebe

When I was playing Debussy's Girl with Flaxen Hair, Mr. Barone and I had an interesting conversation about how composers depict love in music. Mr. Barone talked about a master class he went to in which the speaker (the wife of a famous French composer, who happened to be an accomplished pianist herself), discussed love in music. She made the point that composers will often tonicize IV when they wish to depict feelings of love. In Girl with Flaxen Hair, Debussy tonicized IV which is why Mr. Barone and I were discussing it. We also discussed how Brahms would often tonicize IV for the word liebe (love in German). It just so happens that the word liebe in this piece falls on a IV after its secondary dominant. I will not say that this was intentional, though I tried to phrase it so this would happen, because I wrote the harmony before I read the words.I thought that was just a cool little concept to discuss though.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this! I enjoyed writing this piece, and I hope you enjoyed listening to it! I apologize for not posting here as much as I should. Please remember that feedback is always appreciated! Have a nice night!

Also remember to check for: My weekly 7 post, As well as my composer birthday posts (Note) In order to encourage meaningful feedback on the platform, I will check comment trails of users who leave superficial comments (ie "Awesome post," or "Upvoted.") and will mute any users who exhibit a pattern of leaving "spammy" comments.