Reading tip: ‘Vertonte Lyrik’

Who was Mignon, where did Mahler find the text of his Kindertotenlieder, how can you put the lyrics in the song An Chloe interpret? What musical aspects are present in the poem alone? To what extent did speech melody, tempo and dynamics influence the composers? In what social and cultural-historical environment did the text and setting originate?

The authors - Cas Jönsthövel and Cora Schmeiser - are (former) teachers of German at the conservatories of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague. With this book, they aim to provide answers to questions that many singers and pianists ask themselves when rehearsing a song. It is a bilingual handbook (D-E) for practice (with IPA transcriptions) and provides information on important poets and possible interpretations of their texts.

Using examples, the cultural history is described in chronological order, starting with the soundtracked poetry from 1600 to the present. Each period is explored in depth on the basis of exemplary poems. The focus is on the interpretation of song lyrics on the basis of questions and backgrounds. For clarification, the book provides information about the poets and their time through period descriptions, contains full IPA transcriptions of the songs, and offers questions for deepening and as an aid to interpretation. In doing so, the authors started from the following questions, among others: What musical aspects are present in the poem alone? To what extent did speech melody, tempo and dynamics influence the composers? In what social and cultural-historical environment did the text and setting originate?

The users of Vertonte Lyrik also have access to in-depth PDF files via a QR code in the book such as Lieder in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, Heine-Schumann - sämtliche Lieder, Die schöne Müllerin, Mörike-Lieder, Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, etc.

Vertonte Lyrik While primarily intended for performers, it will certainly also appeal to those interested in German song.