Following the Prophecies of Song: Schubert Lieder in Thomas Adès's "Arcadiana"

Following the Prophecies of Song: Schubert Lieder in Thomas Adès's Arc am an a Samuel Adams The subject matter of Franz Schubert's lied Auf dem Wasser zu singen, or To be Sung on the Water, is a sentimental poem by Leopold Graf zu Stollberg. The strophic poem reads simply, providing the song with a steady textural and harmonic framework from which it can build: Amid the shimmering of the mirror-like waters, The rocking boat ¿¡lides, swanlike; Ay, and on the soft-shimmering waters ofjoy The soul too,glides away like the boat. Descending from heaven upon the waters The evening glow dances around the boat. Following the Prophecies of Song 201 Over the tree-tops of the forest in the west The rosy ¿¡low smilingly beams on us. Under the boughs of the forest in the east The reeds rustle in the rosy ¿[low. Joy ofheaven and peace of theforest, The soul breathes in the reddening glow. Ay, and on dewy pinions vanishes From me the time spent on the gently rocking waters. Tomorrow again on shimmering wings Time will vanish, as it did yesterday and today; Till I, on highergleaming pinions, Myself shall vanish from the changing time. The poem, simple in form and meter, nonetheless contains a particularly clever characteristic: the subject of the text is presented not as a united entity, but rather as two ambiguous forms. More succinctly, there are two points of view in this poem. The first is the distant voice that describes the interaction between the soul and the tranquility— this voice is the first to be introduced, and exists until the third stanza. The second is the subjective I, introduced later, which presents itself either as the voice of an imagined figure, Leopold Graf zu Stollberg himself, or perhaps a more abstract concept. It could also be argued that the poem is referring to itself and how the meaning of the text may also vanish from the changing time. Regardless of Stollberg's intentions, there lies an anxious tone of uncertainty about the future of things behind the beauty and composure of the text. British Composer Thomas Adès, in his String Quartet Arcadiana, responds to this crisis in one of the movements also entitled "Auf dem Wasser zu singen." A clear and obvious response to the musical grammar of Schubert's lied and to the poetic message of Stollberg's text, Adès answers the question of: what happens when I vanish from changing time ? This essay is divided into three brief parts. The first discusses local level transformations of Schubert's material and corresponding implications. The second discusses larger structural transformations. The third and final part is a conclusion. Perspectives of New Music Local Level Transformations The most salient way Adès responds to the question of vanishing time is by altering the rhythmic, pitch, and intervallic material of the Schubert song. Of course, in order to express extroverted musical allu sions between Schubert's work and his own, Adès is forced to retain recognizable elements and must not obfuscate the material. His solu tions are clever: he chooses to retain the contour and shape of Schubert's material, but in doing so, extends and distends, serializes and sequences, so as to imbue the work with a quality of lost time. Take the primary textural substance of the Schubert song, for example. The material, which clearly depicts the movement of a boat on water, is a pattern of descending sixteenth notes, repeated for the entirety of the song. This pattern is established in the first two measures of the work, shown in Example 1. There are two noteworthy things about this material. The first is that the rhythmic structure is consistent. That is to say, time exists in a very clear form; though the contour and dynamics of the material seem to suggest the rocking of a boat, the chronometric density is nonetheless made up of constant sixteenth notes. The second noteworthy aspect of this material is that the music always falls to a constant low point, in this case an Ei>. Adès acknowledges these two aspects and manipulates them while still keeping the...