M<scp>etric</scp> D<scp>isplacement</scp> D<scp>issonance and</scp> R<scp>omantic</scp> L<scp>onging in the</scp> G<scp>erman</scp> L<scp>ied</scp>

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article seeks to explore the hermeneutics of metric dissonance by examining the association between displacement or syncopation‐type conflicts and Romantic longing ( Sehnsucht ) in the German Lied. It includes close readings of music‐text relations in four specific songs: the ‘Wandrers Nachtlied II’ (Goethe/Schubert); ‘Intermezzo’ (Eichendorff/Schumann); ‘Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer’ (Lingg/Brahms); and ‘Unterm Schutz’ (George/Schoenberg). The primary methodology for the process of metric analysis derives from the work of Harald Krebs. The article as a whole traces changes both in the use of displacement dissonance, and in the nature of Sehnsucht , as well as correlations between the two over the course of the ‘long nineteenth century’. The four analyses as a group outline an historical progression of ‘introduction’ (in Schubert), ‘intensification’ (in Schumann), ‘complication’ (in Brahms) and ‘refraction’ (in Schoenberg). The study thereby combines a history of metric dissonance – one of the recurring elements of nineteenth‐century style – with that of Sehnsucht – one of the most prominent features of Romantic consciousness.