Prometheus (art song)
"Prometheus" (D. 674) is an intensely dramatic art song composed by Franz Schubert in October 1819 to a poem of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was written for bass voice in the key of B♭ major, but the key moves repeatedly through various major to minor tonalities, ending in C major.[1] In Goethe's dramatic declamation by Prometheus, which would be set again, with very different effect, by Hugo Wolf,[2] "with his alternations of ariosos and recitatives, Schubert created a miniature oratorio", observes Edward F. Kravitt.[3]
Among many other lieder by Schubert, Max Reger also created an orchestration for "Prometheus".[4]
Poem
- For the text, see Prometheus (Goethe)
Recordings
Voice and piano
- Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Charles Spencer (piano), RCA Records, 1995
- Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Jörg Demus (piano), Deutsche Grammophon, 1999
- Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Vol. 1, Ulf Bästlein (bass-baritone), Stefan Laux (piano), Naxos Records, 2000
Voice and orchestra (Max Reger)
- Schubert arranged by Reger: Songs, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies (conductor), Dietrich Henschel (baritone), MD&G Records, 1998
- Schubert arr. Reger: Orchestral Songs, Klaus Mertens (baritone), Camilla Nylund (soprano), Radio-Philharmonie Hannover des NDR , Werner Andreas Albert (conductor), cpo Records, 1998
- Schubert: Lieder With Orchestra, Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Claudio Abbado (conductor), Deutsche Grammophon, 2003
References
- ^ Prometheus ("Bedecke deinen Himmel"), song for voice & piano, D. 674 at Allmusic (Analysis)
- ^ Wolf considered Schubert's "Ganymed" and "Prometheus" unsatisfactory, in part because "a truly Goethean spirit" could only be fulfilled in the "post-Wagnerian era", according to a Wolf letter to Emil Kaufmann, noted in Scott Messing , Schubert in the European Imagination: fin-de-siècle Vienna, 2007, p. 192, note 57.
- ^ Kravitt, Edward F., The Lied: Mirror of Late Romanticism, p. 65. Yale University Press, 1996, ISBN 9780300063653
- ^ Schubert arr. Reger: Orchestral Songs at Allmusic
External links