ABSTRACT
Song cycles present one of the most fascinating modes in which words and music collaborate in the creation of an artwork. A song setting suggests that its lyric (which has usually been conceived by its author as self-sufficient) is in need of the supplement of musical accompaniment in order to signify. Song cycles are not the only nineteenth-century genre where self-sufficient individual pieces are grouped together into a larger cohesive form. The songs of Frauenliebe und Leben are linked by several different sorts of musical device. The tonal integration of Frauenliebe und Leben, with B flat major functioning as a tonic key for the whole cycle, contrasts with the approach taken in the sixteen songs of Dichterliebe. As in Frauenliebe und Leben, the tonal architecture of Dichterliebe produces an ideological narrative within the cycle. Dichterliebe, then, turns out to be a narrative concerned with the mastery of experience through its varied recollection in memory.
