Composer

:

Hugo Wolf

Genre

:

Vocal

Style

:

Vocal Music

Compose Date

:

1878

Average_duration

:

6:11

Hugo Wolf's "Gretchen vor dem Andachtsbild der Mater dolorosa" is a song cycle composed in 1899. The premiere of the work took place on January 22, 1900, in Vienna, with the soprano Felicie Hüni-Mihacsek and the composer at the piano. The cycle consists of five movements, each of which is based on a text from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust." The first movement, "Meine Ruh' ist hin," is a lament in which Gretchen expresses her despair at Faust's absence. The second movement, "Du denkst mit einem Fädchen mich zu fangen," is a dialogue between Gretchen and Mephistopheles, in which the devil tries to seduce her. The third movement, "Ach neige, du Schmerzenreiche," is a prayer to the Mater Dolorosa, the Virgin Mary in her role as the mother of sorrows. The fourth movement, "Wiegenlied," is a lullaby that Gretchen sings to her imaginary child. The final movement, "Gebet," is a prayer in which Gretchen asks for forgiveness and salvation. The music of "Gretchen vor dem Andachtsbild der Mater dolorosa" is characterized by its intense emotional expressiveness and its use of chromatic harmony. Wolf's setting of the text is highly sensitive to the nuances of Goethe's poetry, and he uses a variety of musical techniques to convey the meaning of the words. The cycle is a masterpiece of the art song genre, and it remains one of Wolf's most popular and frequently performed works.

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