Faculty Recital
Die Schöne Magelone
Johannes Brahms
This set of fifteen songs is Brahms' only effort that is specifically designated as a song cycle. Unlike Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved), Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin (The Fair Maid of the Mill), or Schumann's Dichterliebe (Poet's Love), Brahms' cycle is neither as cohesive in its narrative nor as musically self contained. The actual common thread of the poems relies upon the story from which they are drawn, Wundersame Liebesgeschicte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter aus der Provence (The Wondrous Love Story of the Beautiful Magelone and Count Peter of Provence) by Ludwig Tieck. Brahms chose fifteen of the eighteen poems interspersed throughout the novella. These poems draw upon a common thread in Brahms' choice of literature, being romantic in tone yet medieval in their evocation of chivalric love.