"Prometheus", D. 674, is an intensely dramatic art song composed by Franz Schubert in October 1819 to a poem of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Music
The lied was written for bass voice in the key of B♭ major, but the key moves repeatedly through various major to minor tonalities, ending in C major. Goethe's dramatic declamation by Prometheus would be set again, with very different effect, by Hugo Wolf, "with his alternations of ariosos and recitatives, Schubert created a miniature oratorio", observes Edward F. Kravitt.
Among many other lieder by Schubert, Max Reger also created an orchestration for "Prometheus".
Recordings
- Voice and piano
- Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Charles Spencer (piano), RCA Records, 1995
- Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Jörg Demus (piano), Deutsche Grammophon, 1999
- Schubert: Goethe-Lieder, Vol. 1, Ulf Bästlein (bass-baritone), Stefan Laux (piano), Naxos Records, 2000
- Voice and orchestra (Max Reger)
- Schubert arranged by Reger: Songs, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies (conductor), Dietrich Henschel (baritone), MD&G Records, 1998
- Schubert arr. Reger: Orchestral Songs, Klaus Mertens (baritone), Camilla Nylund (soprano), NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Werner Andreas Albert (conductor), cpo Records, 1998
- Schubert: Lieder With Orchestra, Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Claudio Abbado (conductor), Deutsche Grammophon, 2003
References
- Leonard, James. Prometheus ("Bedecke deinen Himmel"), song for voice & piano, D. 674 at AllMusic (Analysis)
- Wolf considered Schubert's "Ganymed" and "Prometheus" unsatisfactory, in part because "a truly Goethean spirit" could only be fulfilled in the "post-Wagnerian era", according to a Wolf letter to Emil Kaufmann, noted in Scott Messing, Schubert in the European Imagination: Fin-de-siècle Vienna, 2007, p. 192, note 57.
- Kravitt, Edward F., The Lied: Mirror of Late Romanticism, p. 65. Yale University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0-300-06365-3
- Schubert arr. Reger: Orchestral Songs at AllMusic
External links
- "Prometheus", D. 674 (Schubert, Franz): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- "Prometheus" on YouTube, Matthias Goerne (baritone), Andreas Haefliger (piano)
- "Prometheus" – Max Reger orchestration on YouTube, Thomas Quasthoff, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Claudio Abbado
- "Rhetoric, form, and sovereignty in Schubert’s 'Prometheus' D. 674" thesis by Erica Brady Angert to Louisiana State University (57 pages, 515 KB)
- "Prometheus" – Art song by Schubert, Franz D. 674, orchestration by Carl Nielsen
| Songs by Franz Schubert | |
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| Lieder |
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| Multiple | |