art song

An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs.

Although categorizing a piece of vocal music as art song rather than as another type of song (such as a folk song, or an aria) can sometimes be difficult, most art songs are

• settings of lyric poetry
• not part of a staged work (such as an opera or a musical)
• intended for performance as part of a recital or other relatively formal social occasion

Exceptions can be found to any of these rules. Although piano accompaniment is usual, the singer may be accompanied by instrumental forces of any number, including a full orchestra. A guitar, a harp or a string quartet are some of the more common accompaniments. Songs may be written to be performed in a group to form a narrative or dramatic whole, comprising a song cycle.

A folk song can form the basis of an art song, but a composer must reinvent it with respect to one or more of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or sonority.^{[citation needed]} Aaron Copland and Benjamin Britten are two composers famous for their arrangements of respective American and British folk songs.

An art song can be in any language, although English songs, French chansons or mélodies, German Lieder, Spanish canciones, canciones líricas or canciones de concierto, and Italian canzoni are the most numerous. The Austrian composer Franz Schubert is considered the greatest art song composer of all. Despite a brief life, Schubert created an impressive output of some 600 lieder, including "Der Erlkönig", "Die Forelle", and "Gretchen am Spinnrade" as well as the two cycles, "Winterreise" and "Die schöne Müllerin".

Even though classical vocalists generally embark on successful performing careers as soloists by seeking out opera engagements, a number of today's most prominent singers have built their careers primarily by singing art songs, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Thomas Quasthoff, Ian Bostridge, Matthias Goerne, Susan Graham, and Elly Ameling.

Prominent composers of art songs

Austrian

• Joseph Haydn
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Franz Schubert
• Hugo Wolf
• Gustav Mahler

German

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe
• Fanny Mendelssohn
• Felix Mendelssohn
• Robert Schumann
• Clara Schumann
• Johannes Brahms
• Richard Strauss
• Arnold Schoenberg
• Anton Webern
• Kurt Weill

French

• Hector Berlioz
• Charles Gounod
• Pauline Viardot
• César Franck
• Georges Bizet
• Henri Duparc
• Gabriel Fauré
• Claude Debussy
• Maurice Ravel
• Darius Milhaud
• Reynaldo Hahn
• Francis Poulenc

British

• John Dowland
• Thomas Campion
• Hubert Parry
• Henry Purcell
• Frederick Delius
• Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Roger Quilter
• John Ireland
• Ivor Gurney
• Peter Warlock
• Michael Head
• Gerald Finzi
• Benjamin Britten
• Morfydd Llwyn Owen

Spanish

19th century Composers of Spain include:

• Emilio Arrieta (y) Corera
• Francisco Asenjo Barbieri
• Juan Miguel Asensi
• Salvador Bartolí Soler
• Justo Blasco y Compáns
• Paulina Cabrero y Martínez
• Juan Cantó Francés
• Ramón Carnicer y Batlle
• Ruperto Chapí
• Vicente Costa y Nogueras
• Antonio de la Cruz
• J. Cumellas Ribó
• José Espí Ulrich
• Joaquín Espín y Guillén
• Felipe Espino Iglesias
• José Falcó Torro
• Manuel Fernández Caballero
• Francisco Fuster
• Manuel García
• Manuel Giró
• José Melchor Gomis
• Isidoro Hernández
• Rafael Hernando Palomar
• Pablo Huertos
• Sebastián de Iradier
• Mariano Nicasio Rodríguez de Ledesma
• José León
• Antonio Mercé Fondevila
• Lázaro Núñez Robres
• Mariano Obiols Tramullas
• Florencio Lahoz Otal
• Cristóbal Oudrid
• José Mariano Padilla
• Felipe Pedrell Sabaté
• Rafael Taboada Mantilla
• Antonio Reparaz
• Gabriel Rodríguez
• Manuel Rücker
• Emilio Serrano y Ruiz
• José Sobejano Ayala
• Fernando Sor
• Mariano Soriano Fuertes
• Rafael Taboada y Mantilla
• Ignacio Tabuyo Muro
• Francisco de Borja Tapia
• José Valero
• Joaquín Valverde
• Amadeo Vives

20th Century Composers include:

• Enrique Granados
• Manuel de Falla
• Fernández Obradors
• Joaquín Rodrigo
• Joaquín Turina

among many others

Italian

• Claudio Monteverdi
• Gioachino Rossini
• Gaetano Donizetti
• Paolo Tosti
• Ottorino Respighi
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
• Luciano Berio
• Lorenzo Ferrero

Eastern European

• Franz Liszt - Hungary (born Hungarian, but more accurately a cosmopolitan native of Europe at large)
• Antonín Dvořák - Czechoslovakia
• Leoš Janáček - Czechoslovakia
• Béla Bartók - Hungary
• Zoltán Kodály - Hungary
• Frédéric Chopin - Poland

Nordic

• Edvard Grieg - Norway
• Jean Sibelius - Finland
• Yrjö Kilpinen - Finland
• Wilhelm Stenhammar - Sweden
• Hugo Alfvén - Sweden
• Carl Nielsen - Denmark

Russian

• Mikhail Glinka
• Alexander Borodin
• César Cui
• Modest Mussorgsky
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
• Sergei Rachmaninoff
• Sergei Prokofiev
• Igor Stravinsky
• Dmitri Shostakovich

American

• Amy Beach
• Arthur Farwell
• Charles Ives
• Charles Griffes
• Ernst Bacon
• Ned Rorem
• Samuel Barber
• Aaron Copland
• Lee Hoiby
• William Bolcom
• Daron Hagen
• Richard Hundley

Tagalog

• Nicanor Abelardo

See also

• American art song
• English art song
• Kundiman
• Song
• Song cycle

External links

• The Lied and Art Song Texts Page
• Art Song Central

• Art Song Composers of Spain [1]

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