ABSTRACT
In this chapter we will examine vocal works-an aria and three songs-by four different composers: Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. While our primary concern here is understanding musical structure from a Schenkerian perspective, we must also deal with the text, since the music is really an interpretation of the text. So, with each work we examine, we will first consider the text, then the music, and in our analysis of the music we will discuss not only the tonal structure, but also how it enhances and musically interprets the text. In some instances, we are talking about details, word painting, for example, but in other instances the representation of more abstract concepts, such as musically representing hesitation or a question. In this regard, we must pay particular attention to the accompaniment and its relationship to the vocal line. The piano introduction not only sets the mood, often portraying features central to the text-for example, the horn call in Schumann’s “Waldesgespräch”—but it also frequently anticipates elements of the structure, such as the primary tone, as well as establishing the tonality. And the accompaniment occasionally plays a crucial role in the structure by completing a motion left incomplete in the vocal line.1
