Five Songs to Words by Mathilde Wesendonk

Der Engel

Stehe still!

Im Treibhaud

Schmerzen

Traüme

When Wagner was in the middle of his work on Siegfried he fell in love with Mathilde Wesendonk - an event which changed the course of musical history. In spite of, or even because of, complications such as that both parties were married, the affair with Mathilde inspired in the composer a new vien of erotic poetry and a new harmonic language. Breaking off from Siegfried at the end of the second act, he wrote the libretto of Tristan und Isolde within a month and was ready to hand it over to Mathilde in September 1857. At about the same time she gave him the manuscript of her five poems, which he set to music as he was working on the score of the first act of Tristan.

So the songs and the opera are intimately connected. In fact, two of them, Im Treibhaus and Traüme, are specifically designated in the score as “studies for Tristan und Isolde.” The first in order of composition, Der Engel, still inhabits the diatonic world of the earlier part of the Ring cycle. Stehe still! is similarly Ring-orientated except that in the middle, where Mathilde prays for time to contemplate her happiness, the harmonies assume that ecstatic chromaticism which is the essence of the new world of Tristan und Isolde. More specifically, Im Treibhaus clearly relates to the beginning of the third act of the opera. The aching melodic inflections and the rising line in the piano introduction are directly echoed in the later work, where the dramatic situation is not so very different from the poetic situation of Mathilde’s grieving home-sick tree in the alien hothouse. Schmerzen, which looks back by way of the sword motif to the first act of Die Walküre is less adventurous. Traüme, on the other hand, though only the second of the songs to be written, is pure Tristan, anticipating in its dreamy nocturnal harmonies the episode in the middle of the second act where Brangäne keeps watch for the lovers. Apparently Wagner’s favourite, it is the one song in the set he orchestrated himself.

Der Engel

Stehe still!

Im Treibhaud

Schmerzen

Traüme

When Wagner was in the middle of his work on Siegfried he fell in love with Mathilde Wesendonk – -an event which changed the course of musical history. In spite of, or even because of, complications such as that both parties were married and that the Wagners were guests of the Wesendonks in Zurich at the time, the affair with Mathilde inspired in the composer a new vien of erotic poetry and a new harmonic language. Breaking off from Siegfried at the end of the second act, he wrote the libretto of Tristan und Isolde within a month and was ready to hand it over to Mathilde in September 1857. At about the same time she gave him the manuscript of her five poems, which he set to music as he was working on the score of the first act of Tristan.

So the songs and the opera are intimately connected. In fact, two of them, Im Treibhaus and Traüme, are specifically designated in the score as “studies for Tristan und Isolde.” The first in the set, and the first one he wrote, Der Engel, still inhabits the diatonic world of the earlier part of the Ring cycle. Its accompaniment is based on the simple contrast of gently arpeggiated major harmonies in the outer sections and throbbing minor chords in the troubled middle section. The first part of Stehe still! is similarly Ring-orientated and, indeed, the overall harmonic shape of the song – which begins turbulently in the minor as the wheel of time runs on and which ends with its vision of enternity in the tranquillity of the tonic majo – -is quite conventional. But in the middle, where Mathilde prays for time to contemplate her happiness, the harmonies assume that ecstatic chromaticism which is the essence of the new world of Tristan und Isolde.

Im Treibhaus anticipates the beginning of the third act of Tristan, on which Wagner was to make a start as long as a year later. The aching melodic inflections and the rising line in the piano introduction are directly echoed in the later opera, where the dramatic situation – with Tristan wounded and separated from Isolde – is not so very different from the poetic situation of Mathilde’s grieving home-sick tree in the alien hothouse. Schmerzen is less adventurous: in its image of the sun as a heroically resplendent trumpet call which finally confirms the consolatory change to the major, it looks back to the sword motif which is such a prominent feature of the first act of Die Walküre.

Traüme, on the other hand, though only the second of the songs to be written, is pure Tristan: Wagner drew on its dreamy nocturnal harmonies for the episode in the middle of the second act where Brangäne keeps watch for the lovers. Its seems to have been Wagner’s favourite in the set, since it is the only one he orchestrated –    in a version (with a violin solo in place of the vocal line) to be played outside Mathilde’s window on her 29th birthday.

Der Engel (orch Mottl)

Stehe still! (orch Mottl)

Im Treibhaud (orch Mottl)

Schmerzen (orch Mottl)

Traüme (orch Wagner)

The Wesendonk-Lieder were written when Wagner was in the middle of his work on Siegfried. To be distracted from completing the grand design of his Ring cycle, to which he had singlemindedly devoted himself since 1852, something momentous must have happened to him.

He had, in fact, fallen in love with Mathilde Wesendonk and was involved in an affair which - in spite of (or because of?) such complications as that both parties were married and that the Wagners were guests of the Wesendonks in Zurich - inspired in the composer a quite new vein of erotic poetry. Breaking off from Siegfried at the end of the second act, he wrote the libretto of Tristan und Isolde within a month and was ready to hand it over to Mathilde in September 1857. At about the same time she gave him the manuscript of her five poems, which he set to music as he was working on the score of the first act of Tristan.

So the songs and the opera are intimately connectd. In fact, two of them, Im Treibhaus and Traüme, are specifically designated in the score as “studies for Tristan und Isolde.” The first in the set, and the first one he wrote, Der Engel, still inhabits the diatonic world of the earlier part of the Ring cycle. Its accompaniment is based on the simple contrast of gently arpeggiated major harmonies in the outer sections and throbbing minor chords in the troubled middle section.

The first part of Stehe still! is similarly Ring-orientated and, indeed, the overall harmonic shape of the song - which begins turbulently in the minor as the wheel of time runs on and which ends with its vision of enternity in the tranquillity of the tonic major - is quite conventional. But in the middle, where Mathilde prays for time to contemplate her happiness, the harmonies assume that ecstatic chromaticism which is the essence of the new world of Tristan und Isolde.

Im Treibhaus anticipates the beginning of the third act of Tristan, although it was written a year bfore Wagner started work on that part of the opera. The aching inflections of the cellos and the rising violin line are directly echoed in the later work, where the dramatic situation - with Tristan wounded and separated from Isolde - is not so very different from the poetic situation of Mathilde’s grieving home-sick tree in the alien hothouse. Schmerzen is less adventurous: in its image of the sun as a heroically respledent trumpet call which finally confirms the consolatory change to the major, it looks back to the sword motif which is such a porminent feature of the first act of Die Walküre.

Traüme, on the other hand, though only the second of the songs to be written, is pure Tristan: Wagner drew on its dreamy nocturnal harmonies for the episode in the middle of the second act where Brangäne keeps watch for the lovers. Its seems to have been Wagner’s favourite in the set, since it is the only one he orchestrated - in a version (with a violin solo in place of the vocal line) to be played outside Mathilde’s widow on her 29th birthday. The others were orchestrated by Felix Mottl.