Song cycle

A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in sequence as a single entity. Usually all of the songs are by the same composer and use words from the same poet. A song cycle is unified by reference to a particular theme or by telling a story.

The term originated to describe cycles of songs (often called lieder) in classical music, and has been extended to apply to popular music.

Song cycles in classical music

The first generally accepted example of a song cycle is Ludwig van Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte (1816). The genre was firmly established by the cycles of Franz Schubert: his Die schöne Müllerin (1823) and Winterreise (1827), based on poems by Wilhelm Müller, are among his most greatly admired works. Schubert's Schwanengesang (1828) is also frequently performed as a cycle.

Robert Schumann's best known cycles are Dichterliebe (1840) and Frauenliebe und -leben (1840), and he also composed two collections entitled Liederkreis (both 1840), a German word meaning a song cycle. Hugo Wolf made the composition of song cycles something of a speciality, and the composer and renowned Lieder accompanist Benjamin Britten also composed several examples, including The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, 7 Sonnets of Michelangelo, Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, and Winter Words, all with piano accompaniment, and the orchestral Les Illuminations, Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings]], and Nocturne.

Other examples include Hector Berlioz's Nuits d'été (1856), Gabriel Fauré's "La Bonne Chanson", Modest Mussorgsky's Sunless, The Nursery and Songs and Dances of Death, Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde, and Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs and Despite and Still. Later cycles in more modern idioms include Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Poèmes pour Mi, Chants de terre et de ciel and Harawi by Olivier Messiaen, Songfest by Leonard Bernstein, Paroles tissées and Chantefleurs et Chantefables by Witold Lutosławski.

The song cycle continues to attract composers. Recent examples include Honey and Rue by André Previn (composed for the American soprano Kathleen Battle) and Raising Sparks by James MacMillan (1997). The Munich-born Wilhelm Killmayer (born 1927) has made noteworthy contributions to the song cycle, among them Acht Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl and Ein Liederbuch nach Gedichten von Heinrich Heine''.

Bibliography

Ruth O. Bingham, "The Early Nineteenth-Century Song Cycle," in The Cambridge Companion to the Lied, ed. James Parsons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 101-119.

Song cycles in popular music

Song cycles have also been written by rock musicians. Many pop albums have included a short series of songs that tell a story, thus resembling a rock opera. Two early examples are The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" (from A Quick One, which may have influenced Pete Townshend's rock opera Tommy), and James Pankow's "Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon" (from Chicago's album Chicago II). Other examples from this era include the Beach Boys unfinished Smile (approx. 1967) album, and Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks' debut album Song Cycle (1968).

Popular music song cycles that focus on a particular theme rather than a narrative theme have been produced by many artists, usually as concept albums. A well-known example is Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973), which deals with insanity and life's hardships. Their follow-up albums Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall and The Final Cut, can also all be considered as song cycles, as can solo albums by Pink Floyd member, Roger Waters. Song cycles by other artists not necessarily belonging to the rock genre include Marvin Gaye's 1971 What's Going On, and Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989), both of which address contemporary social and political issues. Outside of the United States and Europe, the song cycle form was used to great success in the seminal "Os Afro-Sambas," composed by Brazilian musicians Vinicius de Moraes and Baden Powell de Aquino. This series of songs was dedicated to various deities in the Afro-Brazilian candomblé religion, and has inspired generations of musicians since its debut in the 1960s.

Song-cycle musical theater works such as The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown are becoming extremely popular among both composers and fans of the genre.