Ruijun Liu

Friday 12:30PM Emma

Her Voice
I will talk about the poem Her Voice by Oscar Wilde and I will compose a lieder of this
poem. There are lots of musical elements that I need to chose from, such as medium, form and so
on. I also need to decide which ones need to be kept unchanged and which ones need to be
changed. Then I will compare Her Voice with another lieder In the Lovely Month of May
by
Schumann.
The musical elements that keep unchanged are medium, form and meter. I will use one
male voice throughout the song because the poem use his rather than her in the poem to
describe the man loses the relationship with his lover and recalls the pieces of their lives in the
past. I will choose through-composed form for the song because the poem describes different
periods of his lives in different stanzas. For the first part, the wild bee rels from bough to
bough shows his cynicism and pursuit of his love. The second part, those times are over and
done, loves web is spun. describes he wants to have a stable relationship with his lover. The
third and fourth pasts, Ah! can it be, we have lived our lives in a land of dreams! How sad it
seems. shows that he recalls her beautiful promises and now he finds that he is just in the
dream. What he has imaged was just the beautiful mirage. The fifth part, he think there is a hope.
Ships tempest-tossed, will find a harbour in some bay, and so we may. He thinks their
relationship may be repaired. At the end, he feels despair and is ready to leave. And there is
nothing left to do, but to kiss once again, and part, one world was not enough for two like me and
you. He will give a kiss to her and leave with desperation. So I will use thhrough-composed

form to descibe how the man has changed in his relartionship with his lover. The meter I use will
quadruple meter. The poem is a lyric poetry so that slow quadruple meter is more situable in this
song.
The musical elements that need to be changed are tempo, dynamic, tonality and
instrumentation. The tempo in the beginning should be a little bit fast and major tonality to show
him cynicism and seeking his love. The dynamic is the forte instumental music. In the middle
part when he recalls his serious relationship with his lover, he feels the amazing moment with her
and he thinks he is in the dream. The tempo should be slow to show the process of his beautiful
memory with her. The dynamic should be soft and major tonality to show his happiness. The
instrument should change to strings like violin with melodious music. At the end, the temp
should be slower to show his despration of losing her. The dynamic is softer and tonality change
to minor to highlight his sorrow. The instrument is still the strings with melodious music.
There are several parts of words which can use word painting to perform the meaning of
the lyrics. First, loves web is spun can use melismatic text stting to show the formation of
love. Second, Look upward can use higher pitch of melody. Third, One world was not enough
for two can be song twice.
There are some similarities with the lieder In the Lovely Month of May by
Schumann.
Both of the songs shows the love to their lovers. They both have solo male voice with
instrument. However, the two lieders also have some differences. In the Lovely Month of
May is
strophic form that with same music but different text. Her Voice is through-composed form
that

has no set pattern of repetition and it have changing moods. In the Lovely Month of May
has only
piano instrument but Her Voice has both piano and strings.
The lieder Her Voice shows the man different moods in different stanzas so that there
are
some changing musical elements through the song. There are also some unchanged musical
elements like medium, form and meter. When I compared Her Voice to the lieder In the
Lovely
Month of May, although they have some differences, they both show writers mood for their
lovers.