Complete Songs For Voice And Piano

Rich collection of 71 compositions, including some of the most hauntingly beautiful passages in vocal literature. Exciting treasury of glorious songs — Opp. 4, 14, 21, 26, 34, and 38 — have been reproduced from authoritative sources in a convenient, one-volume edition; most lyrics in Russian (Cyrillic) with English translations.

This handsome, convenient compilation contains 89 songs, among them such masterpieces as Wartend, Frühlingsglaube, Neue Liebe, Auf Flügeln des Gesanges and many more, including 6 songs by Mendelssohn's sister, Fanny, plus one duet (Op. 8, No. 12). Includes song settings of lyrics by Byron, Goethe, Schiller, Heine, and other poets.

Britain, long revered for its choral music and partsongs, had largely neglected art songs since the Elizabethan era. The middle of the nineteenth century witnessed efforts to revive the genre, particularly in the works of Sir C. Hubert Parry and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. The following generation, including the Scottish composer Hamish MacCunn (1868–1916), built on the foundations laid by Parry and Stanford and served as the bridge to the vocal music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Edward Elgar, Ivor Gurney, John Ireland, and ultimately Benjamin Britten. Though best known for his Scottish-influenced compositions, MacCunn composed over 100 songs that, free from national constraints, are some of the most refined and sophisticated examples of his music. Almost no modern editions of MacCunn’s song exist, though many were published during the composer’s lifetime. The current two-part edition presents the composer’s 102 extant songs. Part 1 contains 53 individual songs; Part 2 presents the songs that were first published as small collections.

How does a Romantic composer approach the poetry he sets: as raw material to be remade, a pretext for self-expression, a sanctified artefact, or a message to be illustrated with music? In my book, I examine Franz Liszt’s songs for voice and piano, which remain little known to scholars, artists, and music lovers alike. The objective is to present Liszt’s songs in all their complexity and diversity as well as identifying the key elements of the composer’s broadly understood song-writing technique – both those that make him unique and those that relate him to the European tradition. This approach also makes it possible to shed light on a major though previously neglected aspect of the composer’s workshop, namely, his work with the poetic text, which to Liszt was just as important as the musical setting.