Dass sie hier gewesen d775

4 Lieder

Du liebst mich nicht D756 (1822)

Dass sie hier gewesen D775 (1822–3)

Du bist die Ruh D776 (1823)

Lachen und weinen D777 (1822–3)

The four songs in this group were originally published in 1826 as Vier Gedichte von Rückert und Graf Platen (Four Poems by Rückert and Count Platen), Op.59. Whether Schubert intended them to be issued in that way and in that order – one Platen setting followed by three Rückert settings – or whether it was no more than a matter of convenience for the publisher, they do form a coherent set. They are all motivated by erotic obsession, though each in a very different way.

While it is true that the repetitions of the phrase “Du liebst mich nicht” in Platen’s poem – it occurs six times in ten lines – are attributable to his adoption of the Persian ghazal form, Schubert does not treat them in that way. To him they are an emotional rather than merely technical feature. In fact, he adds four repetitions of his own and introduces another obsession in the piano part, a rhythmic figure that appears more than 40 times in 56 bars. The combination of those verbal and rhythmic repetitions with tortuous modulations and an unusually wide dynamic range transforms Platen’s demonstration of poetic skill in an exotic verse form into an expression of despair.

Dass sie hier gewesen, the first of the Rückert settings, is less obsessive but no less intense in its response to the erotic implications of the text. Capturing the scented air that drifts in on the east wind, Schubert anticipates Wagner or even Debussy in the fragrant dissonances in the opening bars of the piano part. At the same time, by not resolving them, he delays identifying the tonic until Rückert gets to the point of his grammatically inverted opening sentence with the words “Dass du hier gewesen.” The melodic phrase associated with them then becomes the refrain that holds together the otherwise fragile construction of the song.

After those two exotic inspirations, it might seem to be overstating the case to describe the domestic reflections of Du bist die Ruh as obsessive. But love in this case amounts to religious devotion, which is expressed in holy tranquillty in the first four stanzas and transcended in the last as the vocal line twice rises to its highest point and has nowhere else to go but awed silence. While there is more laughing than crying in Lachen und Weinen, it is scarcely less obsessive, in its charmingly innocent way, than its companions. The difference is that the (presumably) young lover has no time for introspection and takes the emotional extremes in his or her stride, with only a hesitation rather than a change of step to match the change of harmony.