Lesson 1- The Art Song

An art song is an independent vocal composition, open lightly accompanied by keyboard. The composers of this style such as Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms composed the lied. In an art song, the composer combined the beautiful melody and its lyrics. The piano and voice are equal partners. This is a vocal forum that becomes famous during the Romantic Period.

It is a composition usually written for a singer accompanied with a piano or an orchestra. It is often lightly accompanied by keyboard. It used to refer the genre of some particular poems. In an art song, the topic and main idea is the setting of a lyrical poetry, not part of a musical or an opera, and intended for recital. The composers combined the melody and its lyrics thus making the piano and the voice equal in tempo. It can be in any languages although English songs, French Chansons, German Lieder, Spanish Canciones and Italian Canzoni are dominant.

♪ FRANZ SCHUBERT♪

Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828) was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical music, operas, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. He is particularly noted for his original melodic and harmonic writing.
While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work including his teacher Antonio Salieri, and the prominent singer Johann Michael Vogl , wider appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited at best. He was never able to secure adequate permanent employment, and for most of his career he relied on the support of friends and family. Interest in Schubert's work increased dramatically in the decades following his death and he is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.

♪ROBERT SCHUMANN♪

Robert Schumann sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann, (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous Romantic composers of the 19th century.
He had hoped to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist, having been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe after only a few years of study with him. However, a hand injury prevented those hopes from being realized, and he decided to focus his musical energies on composition. Schumann's published compositions were, until 1840, all for the piano.
Friedrich Wieck, Schumann married Wieck's daughter, pianist Clara Wieck, a considerable figure of the Romantic period in her own right. Clara Wieck showcased many works by her husband as well. For the last two years of his life, after an attempted suicide, Schumann was confined to a mental institution.