In his emotive lieder In der Frühe, Hugo Wolf utilizes key center discrepancies between piano accompaniment and the vocal line, lack of clear cadential motion, and quick-tempered movements through various tonal centers for the purpose of demonstrating the emotional complexity of a lost man struggling to find purposefulness in his daily life. Throughout his lieder, Wolf declares a key clearly with the left hand of the piano outlining the tonic triad; however, as soon as the vocal line enters, the melodic line heavily centers the dominant of the key. This is displayed as early as the first measure. Here we see the piano introduce the piece in d minor with a D pedal bass that sustains through until the first shift to a new key center. The vocal
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If we consider the journey from beginning to end, the accompaniment travels from d minor to D major, perhaps symbolizing the parallel moments of night and day. The vocal lines moves in a similar fashion, traveling from a clear a minor accentuation down to a single pitch, displaying a descent into impassiveness. In the minor nighttime section the key centers move rather quickly and unpredictably. While only the three keys of d, a, and e minor are utilized, they are moved between in a manner only predictable by the last note of the vocal line preceding, highlighting the man’s busy brain, and fluctuation of emotion. While the night section of the song is notable for its volatility, the daytime section proves to be quite the opposite. Beginning in E major (m. 11), each short section goes through a cut and dry tonic-subdominant-dominant-tonic progression. The keys then proceed to raise by minor thirds each alteration, stressed by the continuing bass pedal, until the piano finally lands in the anticipated D major center. Overall this section exhibits the inevitable break of sunlight, and the natural progression of the sun traveling across the sky. While nighttime is bleak and barren, daylight is more
If we consider the journey from beginning to end, the accompaniment travels from d minor to D major, perhaps symbolizing the parallel moments of night and day. The vocal lines moves in a similar fashion, traveling from a clear a minor accentuation down to a single pitch, displaying a descent into impassiveness. In the minor nighttime section the key centers move rather quickly and unpredictably. While only the three keys of d, a, and e minor are utilized, they are moved between in a manner only predictable by the last note of the vocal line preceding, highlighting the man’s busy brain, and fluctuation of emotion. While the night section of the song is notable for its volatility, the daytime section proves to be quite the opposite. Beginning in E major (m. 11), each short section goes through a cut and dry tonic-subdominant-dominant-tonic progression. The keys then proceed to raise by minor thirds each alteration, stressed by the continuing bass pedal, until the piano finally lands in the anticipated D major center. Overall this section exhibits the inevitable break of sunlight, and the natural progression of the sun traveling across the sky. While nighttime is bleak and barren, daylight is more