Songs in Motion: Rhythm and Meter in the German Lied (review)

Abstract

Songs in Motion: Rhythm and Meter in German Lied. By Yonatan Malin. (Oxford Studies in Music Theory.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. [xx, 236 p. ISBN 9780195340051. $49.95.] Music examples, tables, bibliography, index. In 1817 article in Allgemeine Musika lische Zeitung, composer, critic, and publisher Hans Georg Nageli predicted new era of lied composition that would be characterized by an as of yet unrecognized polyrhythm, so that rhythm of speech, singing, and playing will be subsumed into higher artistic whole (Hans Georg Nageli, Die Liederkunst, Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung 45 [1817]: 765-66). often overlooked relations between these rhythms of poetry and music lie at heart of Yonatan Malin's valuable contribution to study of German art song. In Songs in Motion Malin draws on wealth of past and present approaches to song analysis and metric theory (including his dissertation, Metric Dissonance and Music- Text Relations in German Lied [Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 2003]) to critically examine songs by Fanny Hensel nee Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. Whereas recent studies of rhythm and meter have largely focused on specific songs or collections, Songs in Motion presents broad picture of genre and changing approaches to lied composition in nineteenth century. Malin's stated aim of book is a deepened awareness of temporal flow in song and union of musical and poetic rhythms (p. vii), and his readily comprehensible analytical methods and straightforward prose help realize goal. Perhaps counterintuitively, in order to understand how song is set in motion, it must first be suspended in time; each layer of song-text, vocal line, and accompaniment-is studied independently, then joined together to observe resultant polyrhythm that propels song forward. opening two chapters (Part One: Rhythm and Meter in German Lied) provide number of tools to do so by introducing methodologies and providing background on analysis of poetic and musical rhythms of lieder. In first chapter, The Rhythms of Poetry and Song, Malin offers concise overview of poetic rhythms and meters before turning to discussion of musical rhythm, in which he identifies number of declamatory schemas commonly used by nineteenthcentury composers to translate trimeter, tetrameter, and pentameter poetic lines into given musical meter. These declamatory schemas, which outline declamatory rhythms and indicate patterns of text setting, provide simple yet effective method for comparing different composers' approaches to combining poetic and musical rhythms, and Malin utilizes this particular approach repeatedly throughout Songs in Motion. Chapter 2, Theories of Musical Rhythm and Meter, introduces number of recent developments in metric theory, using distinction between meter and rhythm as point of both departure and conclusion. Meter is defined not as static temporal frame, but as an infinitely variable structuring of periodic motion formed by recurring accents and parallel structures, while rhythm is understood as the changing pattern of durations (pp. 64-65). This more flexible conception of meter underlies many of recent development in metric theory. Malin offers succinct explanations of these theories (including those of periodicity, hypermeter, metric perception and entrainment, phrase rhythm, shadow meter, and metric conflict), taking care to apply these concepts to short examples within lied genre in preparation for more extended analyses of part 2. Chapters 3 through 6 (Part Two: Songs in Motion) turn to closer readings of specific songs that represent in some way aforementioned composers' approaches to rhythm and meter. Although these two musical elements provide entry points into various songs, Malin neglects neither cultural contexts in which songs were written (he provides brief background information pertinent to understanding each song) nor other musical and poetic aspects of songs, including poetic meaning, harmony, form, musical texture, and dynamics. …