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Art Songs and Schubert

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What is Art songs? The human voice is a natural instrument with unique capabilities. Speech and music have been combined since the earliest times, so that Song is probably one of the oldest musical forms. Simple definitions for song might be "a piece of music performed by voice, with or without instrumental accompaniment," or "a poem set to music." The German word for such classical song is Lied (singular) and Lieder (plural), so that you will hear the terms "art song," "lied" and "lieder" used interchangeably. In France the term is Melodie, and in Italy, Romanza. Music enhances words with emotional energy that speech alone cannot convey. But obviously, there is more to it than this! There are vocal compositions, for example, with no …show more content…

 Songs with instruments besides piano and/or other singers are referred to as "vocal chamber music", and are usually not considered art songs  Songs originally written for voice and orchestra are called "orchestral songs" and are not usually considered art songs, unless their original version was for solo voice and piano.  Folksongs are generally not considered art songs unless they are concert arrangements with piano accompaniment written by a specific  There is no agreement regarding sacred songs. Many song settings of biblical or sacred texts were composed for the concert stage and not for religious services; these are widely known as art songs (for example, the Vier ernste Gesänge by Johannes Brahms). Others sacred songs may or many not be considered art songs. The leader of Lieder – Franz Schubert More often than not, “classical” composers write art songs. Almost all of the great composers wrote some form of art songs in their careers. Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, Brahms, Berlioz, Richard Strauss, Dvorak, Rachmaninoff, Britten and Copland have all written art songs that are still part of the repertoire today. Arguably the most famous composer of art songs was the Viennese composer Franz Schubert

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