Wiersz Goethego "Über allen Gipfeln" i jego pięć interpretacji pieśniowych

Abstract

A famous poem by J. W. Goethe, perhaps better known by its incipit ("Über allen Gipfeln") than by its title (Wanderers Nachtlied, II), can be equally well described as lyrical, a phoristic, liberal, open, symbolical, reflective, classical and didactic. Each of the mentioned characteristics can be heard and read into the poem's text, though not always directly, and not always with out difficulty. The five songs selected and analyzed, which were composed to this poem by C. F. Zelter (1814), C. Loewe (1817), F. Schubert (1823-24), F. Liszt (1640-59) and R. Schumann (1850), were written within a comparatively short period of time, that is within some 35 years , but each one of them is different. They came into being during the same epoch, but at the beginning and end of the era; moreover, they all represet different tendencies and different aesthetic traditions: "Nachtlied" by Zelter (notturno) had been composed using the aesthetics of imitation, characteristic of XVIIIth century songs; "Klagelied" by Loewe (lamento) – is imitation of the pre -romantic epoch of the XVIIIth century; " Betrachtungslied" by Schubert (contemplatio) – was composed using an early romantic aesthetics; "Mahnungs – and Tröstungslied" by Liszt (memento and consolatio) – here we have an early romantic aesthetics; and finally "Selbstgesprächslied" by Schumann (soliloquio) – was composed at the beginning of the late-romantic aesthetic phase.