Václav Jan Tomášek (1774–1850): A Versatile Lieder Composer? A Comparative Analysis of Selected Goethe Settings by Carl Friedrich Zelter, Václav Jan Tomášek and Johanna Kinkel
Václav Jan Tomášek (1774–1850): A Versatile Lieder Composer? A Comparative Analysis of Selected Goethe Settings by Carl Friedrich Zelter, Václav Jan Tomášek and Johanna Kinkel

Summary/Abstract: Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832), Václav Jan Tomášek (1774-1850) and Johanna Kinkel (1810-1858) share at least two commonalities: firstly, they produced a great deal of vocal music, particularly Lieder, so that their compositions influenced the development of the nineteenth-century Lied in one way or the other. Secondly, all three composers set to music Goethe's poems although their (personal) relationships to Goethe differed from each other. Zelter, a very close friend of Goethe's, paid extraordinary attention to the poet's work and its musical potential which is recognisable by means of both the great number of Goethe-Lieder produced by Zelter and the rich musical discussions included in Goethe and Zelter's correspondence. Unlike Zelter, Tomášek met Goethe only a few times and his bequeathed correspondence with Goethe is fairly small. Although Goethe praised Tomášek's settings of his poems on several occasions, Tomášek's Goethe-Lieder are rather unknown. Johanna Kinkel never met Goethe in person; yet Goethe's poetry takes a significant place within her Lieder Œuvre. Especially her early Lieder compositions, which were published in 1838 and 1839 and which include four Goethe settings, were received with great enthusiasm by the contemporary musical print media. By means of comparative analysis, this article aims to shed light on a selection of Zelter's, Tomášek's and Kinkel's Goethe settings. As a transitional musical character between the Classical and the Romantic periods, Václav Jan Tomášek applied compositional features originating from both eras and his compositions thereby serve as a link between the rather Classically-oriented composer Zelter and Kinkel whose compositional style reflects typical Romantic features. Using as an analytical basis the two Goethe-Lieder An den Mond and Nachgefühl, this article depicts differences and similarities between all three composers' compositional styles as well as between the two Lieder of each individual composer. The aim of this article is to place Tomášek's compositional versatility within its own context and, as a result, to suggest possible directions for future examinations of Tomášek's (and other composers') (Goethe)-Lieder.

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