These verbs, carefully placed to begin lines, link together in a progression that results in a musical crescendo: es war - es rauschten - flog.ĭeeper complexities obtain in the arrangement of substantive and action words and the interplay of opposing noun genders. Even more striking is the dynamic succession of key verbs covering all three quatrains. The modulation from noun to verb and then to subjunctive verb form achieves an amazing effect of object becoming action becoming abstraction. Even more powerful is the transformation in lines ten through twelve of the word root associated with flight: Flügel - flog - flöge. The succession rauschten - sternklar - spannte starting in the seventh line offers a clear example. Similar alliterative progressions also occur. 4 "Symphonic" refers to the parallel between a blend of diverse vowel colors and diverse timbres in orchestral music. Egon Schwartz points to the captivating progression of what he calls vowel rows in the first four lines, a ä i, e i ü, i ü i, i äu ü, as a difficult-to-specify device of rhythmic and symphonic intensity. These features create the musical undercurrent for the poem, over which more determined and pronounced effects are introduced and developed. The alternation of these opposing units builds a current of subtle tension into the poem, a feeling of gentle movement that corresponds to Schumann's quietly pulsating sixteenth notes. Odd numbered lines finish with an accentuation pattern of, while even lines stop with the pattern. Against the consistent iambic 3 initiations of all the lines, a counterposing accentuation scheme is applied to their endings. Each pair of even numbered lines ends with perfect rhyme, while odd numbered pairs terminate slightly imperfectly. The poem scans in iambic trimeter, its twelve lines dividing into three quatrains each composed of a single sentence. Such unified expression originates in a deeply sensitive and resonant reading of the text, and any investigation into the song must begin with an analysis of the inner motivations of the poem itself, its rhythms, themes, sound structures and dramatic shape. In this song, the composer matches the art of the poet in richness, nuance and form, creating a context in which verbal and musical elements embrace and reinforce one another. "Mondnacht" is described by Oskar Seidlin as Eichendorff's "most beautiful poem, one of the few perfect lyrical marvels in the German language." 1 Schumann's universally beloved setting, "pure magic" in Gerald Moore's words, 2 is equally prized as one of the true gems of the German art song literature (Fig.
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