Anderson, Christine L.2024-01-112024-01-112023-12http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/9510Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf reached what many consider to be the height of expression in German Romantic Lieder through their settings of religious texts. Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121, was the final and most profound solo vocal output of Brahms, who was considered to be the great synthesizer of the nineteenth century across several genres of music with his fusion of Romantic, Classical, and even Baroque styles. Wolf’s Geistliche Lieder (spiritual songs), both in his Spanisches Liederbuch as well as those in his Mörike-Lieder collection, are considered by many to be the pinnacle of his text/music synthesis. Both composers set dramatically intense songs with these religious vocal selections where the ranges of expression and reflection surpassed even those of their predecessors, Schubert and Schumann. Not only did their meticulous craftsmanship help breathe new life and possibilities into sacred music, but also to song literature in general. In their hands, and through their setting of religious texts, the German Romantic Lied reached its culmination. Ironically, the songs discussed in this essay are often unknown by the average voice student and are unfortunately often neglected in the performances of Lieder. Both the poet and the composer rely on the knowledge, exploration, and choices of the performer to reach audiences. A greater understanding of their individual styles of expression will make less accessible repertoire even more enthusiastically embraced, performed, and received. Brahms and Wolf were not outwardly spiritual, yet they both achieved the zenith of their vocal literature with sacred settings. Since their output is vast, the scope of this document will be limited to these few religious selections. The vocal music of these two composers differs greatly in style, form, and text setting, and for this reason they have often been regarded as opposites on the German Romantic Lied spectrum. One might say that music is all about contrasts: in rhythm, pitch, registers, dynamics, color, tempi, etc. Though this repertoire is usually considered for more advanced performers, a juxtaposition highlighting the differences between these two specific composers’ spiritual selections is a helpful exercise for students to explore and identify various compositional styles in Lieder. Both Brahms and Wolf have an extraordinary amount of song literature for perusal. It is my hope this analysis of just one subcategory of their output provides a pedagogical reference guide and contribution to better performance practice for the student of Lieder, encouraging more dynamic communication of these masterpieces of the sacred music genre and art song in general.95 pagesengIN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/MusicText155262024-01-09Scarcelle_temple_0225E_15526.pdf