A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Lied

by Franz Gehring

LIED, a German poem intended for singing; by no means identical with the French chanson, or the Italian canzone. All three terms are in fact untranslateable, from the essentially national character of the ideas embodied in each form; the German Lied being perhaps the most faithful reflection of the national sentiment. A German looking at nature in her infinite variety of moods is almost irresistibly impelled to utter his thoughts in song. Certain aspects of nature appeal with peculiar force to the German mind—such, for instance, as the forest, the waste, the fall of rain, the murmur of the brook, the raging of the tempest; and connected with these certain other objective ideas, such as the hunter in the forest, the lonely bird, or the clouds stretching over the landscape, the house sheltering from wind and rain, the mill-wheels turned by the brook, etc. Such are the topics of the secular Lied, which have been embodied by Goethe, Schiller, Heine, and a hundred smaller poets, in imperishable lyrics, perfectly suited for music. Those of the sacred Lied are, trust in God, the hope of future blessedness and union, and other religious sentiments, etc. There are Volkslieder,^[1] that is to say, Lieder whose origin is lost in obscurity, of both kinds. The development of instrumental music during the earlier half of the last century having provided other means of expression for such feelings besides song, the Volkslied has gradually disappeared, giving place to the Kunstlied, of which the accompaniment is an important feature. This new form, naturalised by Haydn, Mozart, Reichardt, Schultz, Himmel, Beethoven, Conradin Kreutzer, and C. M. von Weber, attained in the hands of Franz Schubert to that extension and perfection of expression which makes it so dear to the German nation. Since his time the accompaniment has constantly assumed greater prominence, so that the original form has nearly disappeared, the musical treatment being everything, and the poetry comparatively of less moment. Schumann may be considered the pioneer in this direction, and after him follow Brahms and Robert Franz. With the two last composers the accompaniment, as rich in melody as it is in harmony and modulation, more than divides attention with the words.

The best works on the subject are Dr. Schneider's 'Geschichte des Liedes,' 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1853–65,), full of detail; Lindner's 'Geschichte des Deutschen Liedes im XVIII Jahrhundert' (Leipzig. 1871); and Schuré's 'Histoire du Lied.' [See Song.]

[ F. G. ]

1. The English have unfortunately no equivalent word for Volkslied. We have the thing, though of a very different kind from that of Germany, but bare no term to express the whole kind. Mr. Chappell's great work on English Volkslieder is entitled 'The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time.' 'Popular,' however, has now acquired a distinct meaning of its own.