Lieder and Genre

One thing we saw in Leipzig that I was not expecting to enjoy as much as I did was the lieder concert we saw in the Mendelssohn house. I was initially intrigued because l had basically no knowledge of classical lieder (and really only became aware of their existence in the past year or so), and I ended up having a really good time! I thought the way the songs were presented was very interesting, as the environment was much more intimate than what I am used to with concerts like this. I felt like this allowed a greater connection between the audience and performers (even aside from the fact that the singer directly talked to us before and after), and this connection meant that the audience could better feel the emotions portrayed in each song, many of which were about love.  Another aspect of this was that the singer’s dynamic shifts were especially striking, since he could be basically as quiet as he wanted and still be heard, and then project much more for louder sections. I though this dynamic variation was especially interesting, as I looked for recordings of some of the lieder after the concert and every recording I have found had much more subdued dynamics. Granted, this may simply be that it cannot be captured as well in a recording, but I felt that the singer’s use of loud dynamics in certain sections made the emotions of the songs come through much more, and many of the recordings I have found seem to be a bit more flat.

In my search for recordings, I also came across something else which I thought was very interesting. I was looking for a good recording of Schubert’s “Auf dem Flusse,” which was my favorite of the songs that were performed, but my search was completely derailed when the first one I clicked on turned out to be a metal cover of the song. I explored a little more and found that the artist has a few more such metal covers of classical art songs, but I think their version of “Auf dem Flusse” is still my favorite.  I feel that it does a good job of keeping the spirit and emotions of the song while converting it to a heavier and more modern format. One thing I did notice upon listening with the words in front of me is that they left out the third verse of the song, which I think is a bit of a strange decision but does not overly affect the character of the song and the lyrics. My favorite part of the song is the final verse, though, where I feel the changes in character between the first two lines (My heart, in this brook/Do you recognize your own image?) and the second two lines (Is there, under your surface, too,/A surging torrent?) are especially stark. The instrumental drops out quite a bit for these first two lines, giving the song a bit of a reflective quality as the speaker looks inward. Then, for the second two lines, the instrumental ramps up again with driving distorted guitars for the climax of the song, which I feel are perfect for invoking the image of a surging torrent. I think the intersection of metal and classical music is quite an interesting topic that I could probably write a lot more about, but for the sake of brevity I will just mention a few key points. First, there are many metal musicians who have drawn from classical (especially Baroque) music in their work, mainly on a technical and harmonic level. There is even a name for artists who make this the main focus of their music (“neoclassical metal”). Finally, I do think that there is a good argument to be made for classical and metal music having a certain level of compatibility in terms of style. Metal contains a certain amount of dramatic dynamic and character shifts which I feel are well-suited for capturing the sentiments of classical music in a way which other genres are not quite able to. This point especially is one I would like to look more into in the future, and I am so glad I discovered this cover of “Auf dem Flusse” which kicked the whole thing off!

Translations for “Auf dem Flusse” are taken from the program we were given at the Mendelssohn house, and I have linked the cover here in case anyone would like to hear it!