Robert Schumann came from a literary background and his interest in literature is evident in his choice of texts, particularly in that productive 'Year of Song', 1840, which saw the composition of a hundred or more songs, starting with a group of settings of Heine, a poet to whom he never later returned after this early period of composition, and settings of Kerner, Rückert, Eichendorff, Chamisso and others. 26 songs are included in Myrthen, Op. 25, written in February 1840, the month of the Heine Liederkreis, Op. 24. The album, not a song cycle, includes five settings of Goethe, five of Rückert, a poet he later found increasingly congenial, three of Heine and eight settings of German versions of poems by Robert Burns, two of Thomas Moore, one of Byron and a setting of Catherine Maria Fanshawe's Riddle, once widely attributed to Byron.

The first song, Widmung (Dedication), is a setting of a poem by Friedrich Rückert, and remains probably the best known of the whole set. The son of a lawyer, Rückert was born in Schweinfurt in 1788 and led a varied career, changing his largely academic employment until his retirement from Berlin University in 1848 allowed him to spend the years until his death in 1866 on his own interests, which included a study of oriental languages. As a poet he had a certain facility, a technical command of verse forms and a directness and simplicity that seemed to appeal to Schumann. The poem is taken from Rückert's Liebesfrühling (Spring-Time of Love), verses written during the poet's courtship, before his marriage in 1821, and therefore particularly appropriate to Schumann's situation, a song of love for his beloved Clara. The other Rückert settings include two more poems from Liebesfrühling, the Lieder der Braut (The Bride's Songs), in which Rückert adopts a female persona. In the first song the bride reassures her mother, telling her she will still love her. The second, with a simple chordal accompaniment, declares her love for her husband, a love that will never end. The collection ends with Rückert's Ich sende einen Gruss wie Duft der Rosen (I send a greeting like the fragrance of roses), taken from the poet's 1822 collection östliche Rosen (Eastern Roses) and Zum Schluss (The End), a simple chordal setting of a song to his Sister Bride.

The five Goethe settings start with Freisinn (Freethinking), a poem from the Westöstlichen Divan in which Goethe drew inspiration from the Persian poet Hafiz. Here poet and composer gallop off in freedom under the stars. From the same collection of poems, assembled by Goethe into twelve books, come Sitz'ich allein (I sit alone) and Setze mir nicht, du Grobian (You oaf, don't put the jug down so roughly), from Das Schenkenbuch (The Tavern Book). The other two Goethe poems included are Talismane (Talismans) from the Westöstlichen Divan, with its proclamation Gottes ist der Orient! Gottes ist der Occident! (God's is the east! God's is the west!) and the Lied der Suleika (Suleika's Song), from the Buch Suleika, attributed to Marianne von Willemer, the third wife of the Frankfurt banker J.J. Willemer. Goethe enjoyed a close friendship with her, collaborating on the Buch Suleika, in which some of her poems were incorporated, and playing Hatem to her Suleika.

Schumann includes settings of three poems by Heine, Die Lotosblume (The Lotus Flower), Was will die einsame Träne? (What is the pont of this single tear?) and Du bist wie eine Blume (You are like a flower). The first of these, taken from Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo of 1822-23, has a simple chordal accompaniment, while the second, included first in Heine's Die Heimkehr of 1823-24, introduces unusual discords, as tears and love are dismissed. The third poem, from the same collection, is matched by the apparent simplicity of the throbbing accompaniment.

Eight of the songs are settings of translations by Wilhelm Gerhard of poems by Robert Burns, a reminder of the importance of remote and colourful Scotland in the romantic imagination. Gerhard published his translations in 1840. Schumann read widely in foreign literature, approached generally in translation, and, as might be expected, had read works by Sir Walter Scott. The settings of Burns included in Myrthen are 'My heart is sair' (Jemand / Somebody), 'I am come to the low countrie' (Die Hochländer-Witwe / The Highland Widow's Lament), 'My heart's in the highlands' (Hochländers Abschied / Highlander's Departure), 'Slumber sweetly, little Donald' (the gently lilting Hochländisches Wieglied / Highland Cradle Song), 'O mount and go!' (the energetic Hauptmann's Weib / The Captain's Lady), 'O how can I be blythe and glad' (Weit, weit / Far, far), 'I hae a wife o' my ain' (Niemand / Nobody), and finally 'Out over the Forth I look to the north' (Im Westen / In the West). As so often the piano in these songs often doubles the melody, in one way or another, with barely a Scottish musical cliché among all the songs.

There are two settings of Thomas Moore in translations by the politically involved banker Ferdinand Freiligrath, also a translator of Burns and Scott. The two poems are taken from Moore's National Airs and evoke the world of Venice in two Venetian Airs. The first, Leis' rudern hier (Row gently here, my gondolier) reflects the rhythm of the gondola, interrupted at the words 'O könnte wie erschauen kann' ('Had heav'n but tongues to speak'), a contrast to the second, Wenn durch die Piazzetta (When through the Piazzetta), a love song. The light-hearted Rätsel (Riddle) sets a translation by Karl Friedrich Ludwig Kannegiesser, distinguished as a translator of Dante as well as of Byron, of a riddle on the letter H by Catherine Maria Fanshawe, verse often attributed to Byron. It is preceded by Byron's Mein Herz ist schwer (My soul is dark), the sadness of the gentle sounds of the harp relieved at a ray of hope in 'Kann noch mein Herz ein Hoffen nähren' ('If in this heart a hope be dear'). The translation of the poem is by Karl Julius Körner. From the 1836 Gedichte of the playwright and poet Julius Mosen comes Der Nussbaum (The Walnut Tree), one of the best known songs in the collection.

Writer: Keith Anderson