Der Lindenbaum
'Der Lindenbaum' or 'The Liden Tree’ is part of the winterreise (winter journey) and is a song cycle composed for voice and piano by famous Franz Schubert. Being part of the winterreise, the poem was derived by Wilhelm Muller who also composed 24 other poems part of the winterreise. With all 24 songs of the wintereise, 'Der Lindenbaum' has its own little synopsis. All songs a part of the winter journey are all emotional and all have a deep meaning behind it. The synopsis of, 'The Linden Tree': The tree, a reminder of happier days seems to call him, promising rest. But he turns away into the cold wind and now, miles away he still years it calling him, "Here you would find peace". Der Lindenbaum is classified to be the strongest display of grief in the gloomy winter journey by no means. The song is a pessimistic allegory for suicide and life. In this poem life is conveyed as the wind and snow that the man is fighting against and the tree is a symbol for suicide. The man during his journey is suffering in the wind ( life ) and he can find shelter by sitting underneath the tree (suicide). However rather than sitting underneath the tree, he chooses to continue and suffer through the storm. The key of this piece starts in E major but tends to modulate within the piece when the mood changes suiting the text. The piece starts of with an eight bar piano intro that plays semi quavers and triplets but here, conveying a happy life with the major key. Verse one of the poem conveys a nostalgic childhood and with the key being in E major it conveys this very well, causing the listener of the music to feel the emotions being intended. In bar ten of the piece it introduces a hexatonic melody that has no leading note which has an effect on the listener as it further conveys the melody. The music in this section is very calm as it is detecting good memories and this is accompanied with simple chords played by the piano. At bar twenty four when the section of E major ends conveying the end of the memories it ends on a perfect cadence before modulating into E minor. However the next section of this piece is very interesting because as its in E minor, the four bar piano interlude plays a D sharp making it half major and minor. In bar 27 of this piece, the piano plays triplets rising and falling this implies the breeze as well. The structure of this piece is in modified strophic form as all verses of the text are sung to the same music. There are four verses and 6 short stanzas in the poem with the structure of the piece being AABA. The right hand of the piano part mainly plays the semi quaver triplets throughout the piece that changes occasionally based on the mood of the text. The purpose of these triplets in this piece is usually to convey emotional climax of the story. The dynamics of the piece is mainly pianissimo with a few forte pianos that create suspense. In verse 3 of the piece the key modulates to C Major with the introduction of chromatic harmony, still keeping the gloomy mood of the piece with a different melodic line also having a pedal point of the sub mediant. Verse four goes back to E major but has a different accompaniment being in a higher pitch. Verse four is very similar to verse one with a few changes of repeated bars and added bars. The coda of the piece introduces the postlude of the introduction only being a bit shorter. The texture of this piece is homophonic and thick with all parts playing mostly at the same time. The tone colour is conveyed within the dynamics as mostly everything is played in pianissimo giving that eerie mood. With most of Schubert's compositions, the music conveys the story in 'Der Lindenbaum' with the right concepts. With the music successfully conveying the story with the help of mainly modulation, dynamics and structure, this piece greatly suits the topic of program music. |