Die Alte (song)
"Die Alte" ("The Old Woman"), K. 517, is a song for voice and piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a poem by Friedrich von Hagedorn.
History
[edit]The work was completed in Vienna on 18 May 1787, at the same time as the demanding string quintets K. 515 and K. 516. The song features a dramatic musical portrait of an old woman reminiscing of the Good old days.[1] The Great Comet of 1744 is mentioned in the lyrics. Mozart found the text in the composer Anton Steffan's Sammlung Deutscher Lieder, nr. 24 in part 2, Vienna 1779; Hagedorn's second verse was not present in this version.[2]
Music
[edit]The song is written in the key of E minor, a key rarely used by Mozart,[3] with a time signature of 2
4. The text is set in strophic form to 24 bars. The vocal range reaches from B3 to E5 with a tessitura from E4 to D5.
A performance lasts between three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half minutes.
Lyrics
[edit]Die Alte | The Old Woman |
---|---|
Zu meiner Zeit, zu meiner Zeit | In my day, in my day |
Recordings
[edit]- 1956: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Walter Gieseking (piano), record notes by William S. Mann 1956. EMI ASD 3858 063-01578. Audio on YouTube
References
[edit]- ^ Die Alte (song) at the Mutopia Project
- ^ NMA score
- ^ NMA Critical Report, p. 122
External links
[edit]- "Die Alte": Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, includes discography and audio
- "Die Alte", K. 517: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- "Die Alte" ("Zu meiner Zeit"), song for voice & piano, K. 517 at AllMusic, discography