Die Schöne Magelone

Notes on the Program

by Steven Blier

The fifteen romances which make up Brahms’ Madelone Lieder, Opus 33, are drawn from Ludwig Tieck’s 1796 novella, “The Wondrous Love-Story of the Fair Magelone and Count Peter of Provence, “which was based on a source from the Renaissance. This lyrical story of chivalric love had been told and retold since the Middle Ages, and probably originated in France; Tieck’s version, like many other novels of its period, included poems scattered throughout the narrative, sometimes as texts for love=notes, serenades, and or simply personal reflections, often preceded by the phrase “he picked up his lute and sang”. These poems contain no action, concentrating instead on emotional reflection and character development. Thus Brahms’ settings of them imply a story without telling one explicitly. Without their narrative context, the Magelone Lieder seem both extravagant and slightly enigmatic; but placed in their appropriate literary surroundings, they became the brilliant, ornate illustrations in a medieval romance, bringing the feelings of the story to vivid life, and framing the emotional progress of the work. In this version, the Magelone Lieder combine the elements of song cycles like Winterreise, and Singspiels like The Abduction from the Seraglio, where musical numbers alternated with dialogue.

Brahms’ interest in Tieck’s novella dated back to his early adolescence. In the spring of 1847, he received an invitation to vacation at the country home of a certain Adolf Giesemann. It was a welcome interlude for the fourteen year-old, who came from a poor family in Hamburg. On this sojourn, he struck up a friendship with Herr Giesemann’s daughter Lieschen, with whom he spent time as music teacher and companion. The apparently amused themselves by reading together, and one of their favorite volumes was an earlier version of “Magelone and the Knight Peter of Provence”, by Marbach. After spending summers together in 1847 and 1848, they did not see ach other again till 1861 at which point Lieschen was happily married.

For the complete text of these program notes, please e-mail us at:  info@nyfos.org.