In 1840, Schumann turned to the voice after writing much for piano in the previous decade. As editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, a journal launched in 1834, Schumann was aware of the rise of male choirs in Germany. Male song at the time was a part of his social scene at night in the pubs, so Schumann took it upon himself to tackle the new challenge of writing for male voices. The result was a body of works comprising 26 part-songs. This document is intended for conductors and scholars interested in discovering Schumann’s lesser known works for male chorus in hopes that conductors will choose to include them in their chorus’ repertoire.
This document includes discussions of the 26 part-songs for men’s chorus. It also contains a detailed discussion, including translations, and pronunciation guides of the Fünf Gesänge (Jagdlieder), op. 137, which were included as part of a lecture-recital presented on May 22, 2010, featuring The Ohio State University Men’s Glee Club and players from the OSU Horn Studio. Topics include the history of the male chorus and of the horn in Schumann’s time, the place of these works in Schumann’s compositional output, discussion of the use of English and/or German texts, score analyses, and the development of performance editions.