Lieder der Goethezeit für Gesang und Harfe

Einzelne Vertonungen für Harfe – Selected German songs for harp and voice

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Chant sur deux vers d'un Sonnet de Petrarca

 “Chant sur deux vers d’un Sonnet de Petrarca”. In: Les consolations des miseres de ma vie, ou Recueil d’airs romances et duos. Paris, 1781. PP. 43-44.

Signature of the Bavarian State Library: 4 Mus.pr. 41353

Some readers might be surprised at the fact that two pieces composed by the French philosopher and writer and Jean-Jacques Rousseau have been included here as if they had been considered as lieder. Although this classification would be unthinkable for purist musicologists, the present project has been conceived as an open one which sometimes surpasses the time and space limits of the Goethezeit lieder.

We do not wish to be too strict in the case of Rousseau's lieder for harp and voice. There is no doubt that the French chanson influenced some lieder composers of the Goethezeit. An example of this would be Johann Friedrich Reichardt’s songs in French Douze élégies et romances. France was considered the most fashionable country in Europe during the 18th century, so it is not strange that some musicians composed music “à la mode”, that is, in French.

Rousseau’s songs possibly influenced to a certain extent some lieder composers. It is quite probable that his work Les Consolations… reached the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and that Rousseau’s songs were performed by bourgeois young girls and aristocrats at home or in some fashionable salon. The copy which can be found at the Bavarian State Library belonged to the Bavarian Court and was surely used by the young princesses.

It is our wish that these reflections can justify the inclusion of two works by Rousseau in this non-purist project.

Front page of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Les Consolations des miséres de ma vie (Paris 1781). Engraving by Peter-Paul Benazech.

With special permission of the Bavarian State Library.