«Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt»: Reflections on Nature and Genre in Wolf's Setting of Goethe's Der Sänger

Abstract

Lawrence Kramer has highlighted some of the myths that surround early writing on Wolf — in particular the myth that he was able to realize a poem's «natural breath» by submitting his identity entirely to the poet's. Kramer prefers to link Wolf with the figure of the harper from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, casting him as a musician who is compelled to reflect his own inadequacy. Yet such a picture still underestimates the complexity of the Lieder composer's role, as suggested by Goethe and confirmed by Wolf. In the ballad Der Sänger Goethe disturbed early Romantic conceptions of the lyric by implying the harper was aware of how his «song» both failed and succeeded in the hoped-for communication with his listeners. Wolf's own layered interpretation of Der Sänger takes the challenge to our understanding of the lyric one stage further; it thus offers a crucial clarification of the potential of the musical Lied as the composer's vehicle for active and effective criticism.