UIUC Spring 2019 MUS 408 - Final Essay

Prof. Carlos Carrillo

Name: Renata Soares Caceres

Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch

No. VII Der Mond Hat Eine Schwere Klag' Erhoben

The Italienisches Liederbuch is a collection of songs by Hugo Wolf written between 1890 and

1896. The two-volume book is composed of forty six songs with lyrics taken from a collection of old

anonymous Italian poems translated to German by Paul Heyse in 1860. This paper presents an analyses

of song number VII, Der Mond Hat Eine Schwere Klag 'Erhogen, with a brief discussion about the text,

and it's relation to the music.

The Text

Considering the original Italian poem, it becomes clear that Heyse slight altered the text when

translating it into German, which might have affected Wolf's view and interpretation of it, giving it a

much serious treatment.1 However, as it will be shown along this paper, the author believes that Wolf

knew the Italian text, and intentionally used its original meaning to set the mood for the song.

The original Italian text and a free translation2 to English are as follows:

La luna s'e venuta a lamentare The moon has come to lament

Inde la faccia del divino amore In face of divine love
Dice che in cielo non ci vuol pii stare, That in the sky it doesn't want to stay
Che- tolto gliel'avete lo splendore. As you have taken away its splendor.

E si lamenta, e si lamenta forte, And lament, lament out loud

L'ha conto le sue stelle, non son tutte. That when counting its stars, she can't find them all
E gliene manca due, e voi l'avete: There are two missing, and it's your fault
Son que' du' occhi che in fronte tenet Those are the two eyes you have

1 Robert T. Kelley, “Reconciling Tonal Conflicts: Mod-7 Transformations in Chromatic Music”, in

http://mod7.shorturl.com/mod7.htm.
2 Free translation by the author with no regards to form or rhyme.
 The German version of the poem published by Heyse with an English translation by Donna

Breitzer3 are as follows:

Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag' erhoben The moon has raised a grave complaint
Und vor dem Herrn die Sache kund gemacht; And made the matter known unto the Lord:
Er wolle nicht mehr stehn am Himmel droben, He no longer wants to stay in the heavens,
Du habest ihn um seinen Glanz gebracht. For you have robbed him of his radiance.

Als er zuletzt das Sternenheer gezählt, When he last counted the multitude of stars,
Da hab es an der vollen Zahl gefehlt; Their full number was not complete;
Zwei von den schönsten habest du entwendet: Two of the fairest you have stolen:
Die beiden Augen dort, die mich verblendet. Those two eyes, which have dazzled me.

With no knowledge to the German language, we have to trust the English translator in her

accuracy to capture the real meaning of the text. The main idea of the original poem is to picture the

moon lamenting that in the sky she doesn't want to stay because when counting the stars two were

missing taking all the splendor out of it. The two missing stars are someone's eyes that have gone away.

In the German version, Heyse adds a much more religious reading, as it can be seen in the second and

third lines, and a different ending to the text, in first person, saying that those two eyes that left have

left someone dazzled. The German text is composed by a setting of rhymes that can be split in AA-BB-

CC-DD structure.

It is clear that when comparing the original Italian text with Heyse's version, the second has a

more personal character than the first. This discrepancy can be seen specially in the last phrase, that

gives the poem a deeper love relationship meaning than the Italian version would allow.

The Music

In through-composed form, the song is made of balanced two-bar phrases, with each two bars

corresponding to one line of the text. With slow tempo and harmonic changes, the song is composed

entirely by one gesture of descending chords that repeats without interruption, and a melodic vocal

3 For more information regarding the translation of the text, see The Lieder Net Archive at
http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=18720
material with speech-like texture in eight notes. It begins like it has already started, in the middle of

something, following a smooth progression that represents movement, although cyclical and not really

going anywhere.

In terms of roman numerals and harmonic analysis, the music could be seen through a number

of different perspectives. However, the piano harmony is basically a seamless I/i – VII – VI – V

progression from beginning to end, and we will use this as the basis for the harmonic analysis

presented.4 This progression is a very common line known as ground bass or lament bass from the

Renaissance and Baroque periods, that was often used in minor configuration like i-vii-vi-V.5 As

Brover-Lubovsky explains it, “the lament bass pattern’s innately harmonic character rests on the

consolidation of a descending bass with changing vertical sonorities over each scale step (…), [and]

combines the unity and stability supplied by the inertia of inexorable downward stepwise motion with

the variety achieved by diverse vertical realizations”.6

With that in mind, we understand the piece starts in Eb minor, which is one of the possibilities

given by the key signature.7 Wolf stays in Eb minor for the first three phrases, until measure 6, then

tonicizes in Gb major (our relative major key), with a PD and D that resolves in the key of F# minor –

enharmonic to Gb, using the Db7 chord as C#7.Then we have two more phrases with the same

progression in F# minor, until measure 12, where Wolf uses again the C#7=Db7 to go straight to Gb

major in measure 13. One more time the lament progression occurs (mm. 14 and15), however in the

very last phrase we have a sequence of dominant and other chromatic passing chords that finishes the

song in Cb major.

4 Refer to the analyzed score at the end of this paper.

5 For more information about the lament bass, see Ellen Rosand, “The Descending Tetrachord: An Emblem of Lament”, in
The Musical Quarterly 65, No. 3 (Jul., 1979), pp. 346-359.
6 Bella Brover-Lubovsky, Lament Bass, in Tonal Space in the Music of Antonio Vivaldi. (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2008). JSTOR stable url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2005rpt.12.
7 One could argue that the piece starts in Gb major, what would explain the cadence at the end of the first page, however
the result of this analyses would not be a satisfying harmonic progression of vi – V – IV – V/vi. Another possibility
would be the Shenkerian analyses that sees the whole piece in Cb major. For more information regarding the later, see
Kelley.
 When adding the vocal melody to the piano part, the result is a slightly changed harmonic

progression that doesn't really change the function of the chords. This is one characteristic allowed by

the use of a recurring progression like the lament bass, it creates opportunity for conflicts with the

voice.8

Text and Music Relation

Wolf uses both harmony and rhythm as tools to build the mood of the scene being described in

the poem. The repeating stead progression of descending chords represents the slow and sad cyclical

movement of the moon. Ending the piece in the unexpected key of Cb major, Wolf holds his true

intentions until the very end of the song. This gesture coincides with the final verse of the poem that

only then presents the real meaning of the text – the reason why the moon is complaining. Another

relation found in this gesture is the idea that “the stars that went missing are someone's eyes that have

gone away”, which corresponds with finishing the song away from where it started.

The vocal line, with its own eight note rhythm, with notes that are not part of the piano chords,

creates the feeling of distance between the singer and the accompaniment, but that completes each

other at the same time.

Conclusion

When choosing to use a harmonic sequence of descending chords like the one used here as the

basis for the poem in question, Wolf intentionally relates it to the lament bass genre. Used as a tool to

settle the emotional state of the piece, the ostinato bass line brings up the sadness and affect expressed

by the poem. It sends a message that Wolf possibly knew the original Italian text and its lamenting

intention, mixing the themes from both Italian and German texts in one song. At first sight, Der Mond

seems like a simple sad song with an ostinato bass line that holds it from developing further, however

after a deeper analysis it becomes clear that Hug Wolf intentions were much stronger, and he does a

terrific job expressing it.

8 Rosand, p. 349.
 Bibliography

Brover-Lubovsky, Bella. “Lament Bass”. In Tonal Space in the Music of Antonio Vivaldi. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press, 2008. JSTOR stable url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2005rpt.12.

Kelley, Robert T. “Reconciling Tonal Conflicts: Mod-7 Transformations in Chromatic Music.”

Accessed April 30, 2019. http://mod7.shorturl.com/mod7.htm.

LiederNet Archive. “Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag' erhoben.” Accessed April 20, 2019.

http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=18720.

Rosand, Ellen. “The Descending Tetrachord: An Emblem of Lament”. The Musical Quarterly 65, No. 3

(Jul., 1979), pp. 346-359.