Rethinking Schumann: Reworkings of the Vocal Cycles

Hear Gian Paolo Chiti's Piano Version of "Dichterliebe":

Schumann’s immortal song cycles are among his most loved works and among the most frequently performed. Hearing these works in concerts and recordings as well as performing them may be already be considered to be participating in the artistic vision of Schumann, but some creative artists are interested in taking this process one step further and « rethinking » these works according to their own personal reactions to them.

The American Poet Elizabeth Kirschner and the Italian Pianist Gian Paolo Chiti have both created new versions of these works which incorporate their own artistic « response » : Kirschner's Dichterliebe in Four Seasons, to her own English texts and Chiti's versions for Piano Solo of Dichterliebe, Opus 48 and Frauenliebe und Leben, Opus 42.

Elizabeth Kirschner is the author of «Twenty Colors», «Postal Routes», and «Slow Risen Among the Smoke Trees», published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. Her work has also appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies.

Ms. Kirschner’s initial inspiration for this work was through recordings of this song cycle :

« I was also greatly inspired by a recording of the song cycle sung by the soprano, Christine Schafer and by listening to the c.d. of the music sung by the baritone, Dietrch Fischer-Dieskaus, over and over again. I intended, at the start, for the songs to be able to be sung by either a male or female voice and to divide them into seasonal sections, thus lending some structure to the whole while allowing me the artistic freedom I needed... ».

Kirschner also was motivated by a desire to enter into Schumann’s own world of musical creation :

« None of this, however, touches upon what it felt like to crawl inside Schumann‘s gorgeous music. It was exquisite, humbling and challenging. In a sense, the work was akin to writing formal verse, but with an additional constraint, I was obligated to attend to Schumann’s number of stresses per musical phrase. I soon began to carry the music within me during many of my waking hours. It was essential to move fully into it with my intellect, my emotions and my soul, thereby surrendering myself completely to the music. Always, I was comforted by the fact that even if my words did not adhere to the songs for long, Schumann's music would continue to be immortally beautiful. »

Dichterliebe in Four Seasons has been performed in Vienna, Austria and in Brookline, MA and Quincy MA USA. A recording is currently being prepared.

Gian Paolo Chiti’s new versions for Piano solo of Dichterliebe and Frauenliebe und Leben were the result of years of performing these cycles in concert, notably with his wife the Mezzo-Soprano and Musicologist Patricia Adkins Chiti.

His initial contact with this music as a young man was primordial to the creation of these new versions :

« I know this cycle from when I began to study music. I remember having played it many times and inserting the vocal part, automatically, into my piano playing. So from a very early age I was aware that this particular Schumann work could be played with just the piano completing the voice, because in the cycle the vocal part completes and merges with the piano part. In many of the lieder in this cycle the principle melody comes from the piano and is then passed to the voice and then returns to the piano in a continual and ongoing exchange of melody and sound. Often it is the piano that ends the lied bringing everything to a close, and this is current throughout the entire cycle, and so the piano completes the poetic inspiration. »

Chiti’s own approach to composition was also an important factor in the conception of this work :

« When I write I instinctively feel the need to think back to all the forms of music which have lived before my times: polyphonic forms and the re-birth of tonality at the beginning of the nineteenth century and including all the timbric research and experimentation that has taken up much of the last thirty years. As far as I am concerned all the experiences and experimentation of the first decades of the twentieth century belong to the past; in a certain sense they are already part of the tradition of Western Music, belong to history and as such are open for re-invention. I never forget Stravinksy’s words: Real traditions never die but are part of the present. »

In these terms, Gian Paolo Chiti prefers not to see these works as « transcriptions », but as « elaborazioni » or «reworkings» :

« From these considerations I began to think about preparing a work for solo pianoforte with the idea of "bringing about another composition" completely separate and musically independant from the lieder cycle, and with its own poetic ethos. This has been done so that the work can be presented and performed in concert. For those who already know the cycle (and this is rarer today than ever before since it was written) many believe they are listening to another new Schumann work and do not realise that this is a true presentation of the cycle with the voice part included. »

Dichterliebe and Frauenliebe und Leben have been performed by Gian Paolo Chiti and others throughout Europe and in the United States. They have been recorded by Gian Paolo Chiti, who is also available to present these works in concerts, coupled with improvisations in the style of the Great 19th Century virtuosi.

To allow other musicians to be able to have direct contact with this music, Paul Wehage has arranged versions for Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, Alto Saxophone and Bb Trumpet, which are also available on this page.