6 Lieder from the Spanisches Liederbuch (1889-1890)

Klinge, klinge, mein Pandero

Alle gingen, Herz, zur Ruh

In dem Schatten meiner Locken

Sagt, seid Ihr es feiner Herr?

Bedeckt mich mit Blumen

Geh’, Geliebter, geh’ jetzt

Composing forty-four songs in six months could scarcely be described as a relaxation. Wolf’s work on Emanuel Geibel and Paul Heyse’s translations from the Spanish between October 1889 and April 1890 was certainly less intense, however, than his unremitting application to the poems of Goethe and Mörike (well over fifty in each case) a year or so earlier. The songs of the Spanisches Liederbuch are no less inspired for that. While it is their relaxed, sunny atmosphere that make many of them so appealing, they nearly always have something else to offer. Klinge, klinge mein Pandero, the piano part of which sustains its dancing rhythms and its jingling tambourine sounds in defiance of the true feelings of the musician who plays them, is a particularly poignant example. Alle gingen, mein Herz, zur Ruh also sustains an ostinato rhythm but in this case it is the syncopated rhythm of a a tortured heartbeat and, sleepless and alone at night, the poet makes no effort to hide his feelings.

In dem Schatten meiner Locken, on the other hand, is sheer joy. One of Wolf’s own favourites - he incorporated an orchestral version in his comic opera Der Corregidor in 1895 - it introduces a bolero rhythm in the opening bars not so much for its own sake as, on the contrary, to tease it with the hesitations and reflective pauses of a girl fondly contemplating her sleeping lover. The morning after, Sagt, seid Ihr es feiner Herr? seems to tell us, is a different matter. The recriminations directed with unremitting vigour at the “feiner Herr” in question - and reflected in the primitive ostinato of quavers in the piano part - would be enough to put anyone off. On the other hand, the coquettish tune in the right hand running counter to the scolding vocal line and the still lively memory of tambourine and castanet sounds might just have the opposite effect…

Though not as stark as Alle gingen, mein Herz, zur Ruh, the wiltingly fragrant Bedeckt mich mit Blumen is so serious that it is presented as a kind of Liebestod, clearly echoing Wagner and at the same time achieving, in the interweaving of vocal and piano melody, its own heavily scented kind of beauty. There is a parting too in Geh, Geliebter, geh jetzt, the last song in the Spanisches Liederbuch. Even so, while it is operatic in its proportions and in the dramatic intensity of its expression, purgatory is only for a day.