Prometheus (art song)

"Prometheus" (D. 674) is an intensely dramatic art song composed by Franz Schubert in October 1819 to a poem of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Music

The lied was written for bass voice in the key of B major, but the key moves repeatedly through various major to minor tonalities, ending in C major.[1] In Goethe's dramatic declamation by Prometheus, which would be set again, with very different effect, by Hugo Wolf,[2] "with his alternations of ariosos and recitatives, Schubert created a miniature oratorio", observes Edward F. Kravitt.[3]

Among many other lieder by Schubert, Max Reger also created an orchestration for "Prometheus".[4]

Poem

For the text, see Prometheus (Goethe)

Recordings

Voice and piano
Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Charles Spencer (piano), RCA Records, 1995
Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Jörg Demus (piano), Deutsche Grammophon, 1999
Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Vol. 1, Ulf Bästlein (bass-baritone), Stefan Laux (piano), Naxos Records, 2000
Voice and orchestra (Max Reger)
Schubert arranged by Reger: Songs, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies (conductor), Dietrich Henschel (baritone), MD&G Records, 1998
Schubert arr. Reger: Orchestral Songs, Klaus Mertens (baritone), Camilla Nylund (soprano), NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Werner Andreas Albert (conductor), cpo Records, 1998
Schubert: Lieder With Orchestra, Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Claudio Abbado (conductor), Deutsche Grammophon, 2003
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gollark: Which is valid, except you could simply be that in a less pointlessly consumerist way.
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gollark: Anyway, the main argument for gifting and thus the Santa thing is probably that it creates emotional bonds and whatever in spite of being economically inefficient

References

  1. Leonard, James. Prometheus ("Bedecke deinen Himmel"), song for voice & piano, D. 674 at AllMusic (Analysis)
  2. Wolf considered Schubert's "Ganymed" and "Prometheus" unsatisfactory, in part because "a truly Goethean spirit" could only be fulfilled in the "post-Wagnerian era", according to a Wolf letter to Emil Kaufmann, noted in Scott Messing, Schubert in the European Imagination: Fin-de-siècle Vienna, 2007, p. 192, note 57.
  3. Kravitt, Edward F., The Lied: Mirror of Late Romanticism, p. 65. Yale University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0-300-06365-3
  4. Schubert arr. Reger: Orchestral Songs at AllMusic
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