Contemplative, Feldeinsamkeit, Brahms.
Songs of sentiment. This includes all songs involving the affections and the homely virtues.
To these might be added songs of exaltation, such as Beethoven’s “Nature’s Adoration.” Character songs, in which the singer assumes a character and expresses its sentiments. A good example of this is “The Poet’s Love” cycle by Schumann. Classifying the song in this way is the first step toward discovering its atmosphere. There is always one tempo at which a song sounds best and this tempo must grow out of a thorough understanding of its character. Metronome marks should be unnecessary. Intelligent study of a song will unerringly suggest the proper tempo.
Next, study the poem until it creates the mood. Read it, not once, but many times. Imbibe not only its intellectual but its emotional content. It is the office of poetry to stimulate the imagination. It is under the influence of this stimulus that songs are written, and under its influence they must be sung. Hugo Wolf said that he always studied the poem until it composed the music. This means that he studied the poem until he was so filled with its mood that the proper music came of itself. Fix in mind the principal points in the poem and the order in which they occur. There usually is development of some kind in a poem. Learn what it is. Notice which part of the poem contains the great or central idea. Read it aloud. Determine its natural accent. The singing phrase grows out of the spoken phrase. Singing is elongated, or sustained, speech, but it should be none the less intelligent by reason of this.
Now adapt the words to the music. If the music has grown out of the words as it should, it will follow the development of the poem and give it additional strength.
By this time one should be in the mood of the song, and he should not emerge from it until the song is finished. If one is filled with the spirit of the song, is sincere and earnest, and is filled with a desire to express what is beautiful and good he will not sing badly even if his voice be ordinary.
The composer may do much toward creating the mood for both singer and listener by means of his introduction. The introduction to a song is not merely to give the singer the pitch. It is for the purpose of creating the mood. It may be reminiscent of the principal theme of the song, it may consist of some fragment of the accompaniment, or any other materials which will tend to create the desired mood.
In the introduction to Rhein-gold where Wagner wishes to portray a certain elemental condition he uses 136 measures of the chord of E flat major.
In Feldeinsamkeit (The Quiet of the Fields) where the mood is such as would come to one lying in the deep grass in the field watching “the fair white clouds ride slowly overhead,” in a state of complete inaction, Brahms establishes the mood by this treatment of the major chord.
